Jack Kerouac Vocabulary [Effortless English DVD1 > LV3 > 05]

Jack Kerouac – King of The Beats

Ok, Effortless English members. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for Jack Kerouac – King of The Beats. Let’s get started.

Starting at the top, we have the word “beats” – “King of the beats”. The beats were a group of writers. It’s was a writing movement, a writing style that was popular in late 1950s and in the 1960s. Jack Kerouac was the most famous beat writer.

OK, we see the word “novelist”. A “novelist” is a person who writes novels. And a novel is a long book, usually a story.

All right, we see the word “critical success”. It says Jack Kerouac now enjoys critical success, but not during his lifetime. “Critical success” means success with reviewers, with ahh… kind of professionals. People who write a review about the story, they say, ‘this is a good book”, “this is not”, those are critics, book critics. We also say “movie critics”. So “critical success” means the those people like your book or your movie. So, some movies are very popular, lot of people go to see them and they love them. But the critics, the professional writers, movie writers don’t like it. So, it possible to have popular success, but not critical success.

We see the word “spontaneous”, the common English word. “Spontaneous” means without planning. You don’t think about doing something before you do it. You just do it. So, if you’re hungry, you just grab something to eat very quickly. You don’t think about what you want to eat. If you’re angry, you just…. Yaaa!! You start yelling, you don’t think about… what you’re going to do, you don’t stop yourself from yelling . You do exactly what you feel right now, at this moment.

We also see the word “confessional” in that same sentence that Kerouac *** a confessional style. A “confessional” means very open an honest about your life. Ahh... So, “confessional” means you’re telling your secrets, you’re telling secrets about your life. So, his style, he wrote about his own life and he told all the secrets about how he felt and what he did. That’s a confessional style.

OK, you will see the verb “to roam”. Kerouac roamed around the America. He roamed the America for a long time. “To roam” is to travel, It has the idea of not having a plan. If you roam, you go from one place to another… to another, but you have no real plan, you just wonder around, you just travel around without planning. That’s “roam” or roaming.

Okay, we see the word “catalyst”, “a catalyst for”. Kerouac’s writing was a catalyst for the 1960s counterculture. “Catalyst” means something that starts a reaction or something that begins an action, or something that encourages an action. So, Kerouac’s writing influenced many people. It encouraged people to change their way of life. Kerouac’s writing challenged the normal American lifestyle. So he helped to start the 1960s counterculture.

“Counterculture” means… “Counter” means against, so “counterculture” is a new culture that is going against the old culture.

All right, we see the word “prowess” in here talks about it, “Kerouac’s athletic prowess”. “Athletic” means… related to sports, about sports. He was a good athlete, he can play sports. And “prowess” means skill or ability. So, he had athletic prowess, he had athletic skill, he had sports skill.

All right, we see the word “scholarship”. A lot of you know the word “scholarship”(4:5s)    . A scholarship is free money to go to school. Usually the government gives you money to go to university or college. That money we called “scholarship”. Sometimes a company will give a scholarship.

All right, and at the end of the first page, you will see the phrasal verb, the two word verb “pan out”, “to pan out”. Act it’s a not pan out. His scholarship did not pan out. We usually use “pan out” in a negative sentence. I don’t know why, but we usually say “not pan out”. And to “not pan out” means it doesn’t work, it doesn’t happened, it’s not successful. So you try something but then you fail. In this case, he tried playing football in university, but he failed, he dropped down, he quitted the team. So it did not pan out, his football courage did not pan out, it was not successful, didn’t happen.

All right, and the… in next page, the second page, we see the word “seminal”. Says… “his seminal worked was On The Road”. “Seminal” means very original, (it’s an adjective), very original, very creative, very new, sometimes it even has a feeling of being the… the best at something, something very new and creative, and great. So, On The Road was his seminal book. It was his first really different book. It was the first really popular and original, and creative book. On The Road, it’s a great book, try reading it, it’s a very interesting book.

All right, you see the verb “established” in the next paragraph that, “His first book The Town and The City was… before he established his style. So to establish something is to create it, or to prove it, or to make it permanent. So, in the beginning he did have a unique style, a special style. His first book was kind of normal. But then after that, he established, he created a Beat style. And “Beat” is his... is the name for this kind of writing. “Beat” means very free, very open, very honest kind of writing. A very spontaneous kind of writing, not planed.

All right, and Kerouac was influenced by a man named Thomas Wolfe, a writer named Thomas Wolfe, another American writer. So, Thomas Wolfe affected Kerouac.

All right, and the next paragraph we see the words “drafts” and “tentatively”. He says a building on, adding to his previous drafts tentatively titled “the Beat Generation” and “Go On The Road. A “draft” is a… is a book, something a write.  A book, a report, a paper but it’s not finished yet. So maybe you write it the first time, but it has many mistakes, that’s called a draft. Maybe you might have one or two, or three drafts, you write it again, and again, and again until it’s perfect, until it’s ready. That’s a draft.

“Tentatively” means not sure or temporary, or you know, possibly. So, the “tentatively titled”, “tentatively named” means this famous book “On The Road”, in the beginning he didn’t what the name would be. So he had just a temporary title, the first temporary title was called “The Beat Generation”. The second temporary title was called “Go On The Road”. But the final title, the permanent title is On The Road. All right. Very nice.

Next we have… You see the word “marginalized social groups” in the next paragraph that his book On The Road was rejected, most company did not want to public his book because it was sympathetic, it was kind, it was nice, it was positive about marginalize social groups in the United States.

“Marginalize” means a group that has no power. So, for example, in 1950s, black people in America had no power, they were treated very badly. “They were a marginalized group”, it means the rest of society makes them weak. So, Kerouac was sympathetic, he was kind towards black people, towards people who are poor, people who are homeless, all these people, he was very kind, he wrote very kind things about them. And that was not good in the 1950s in America, because America was conservative them. So, these are marginalized groups, weak groups in society.

All right, and then… So, Viking Press, the company that did published the book, they demanded, they requested, they said, “you must make major revisions”. A “revision” is a change, and it usually a change to a movie or a change to book, we call that a “revision”.

All right, next you see the word “explicit” in the next paragraph that the book was deemed, was thought to be, was considered to explicit for 1957 readers. “Explicit” means very directed and powerful, and sometimes obscene, another word’s kind of rude or talking about, for example, sex, or using drugs, or very poor people, these are… and doing it very directly, we call that “explicit”, it’s an adjective. So his book, “On The Road” is quite explicit for 1957 especially.

All right, in the next paragraph you see the word “autobiographical”. “Autobiographical” is the… is an adjective. The noun is “autobiography”. But “autobiographical” means about your own life. So, his book On The Road was autobiographical. It was about his life.

OK, and then he… he said he made a road-trip. A “road-trip”, that’s kind of American slang. “Road-trip” is a trip, of course, it means traveling, but it means traveling by car, especially by car. It has the idea you jump in your car and you go, and you go somewhere, you just travel around, you roam around.

All right, you see the word… the phrase “defining work”. On The Road is describe at the defining work of post World War II. “Defining work” or “defining book”, or “a defining piece of art”.  A defining something means very important, or the most important. It means it describes this time period. It’s a defining work of post World War II, after World War II, means it’s the most important book reading after that time period.

Okay, we see the phrase “immersion into”. “Kerouac’s immersion into Buddhism”, it means he started to study Buddhism a lot, very powerfully, very intensely. He… “Immersion” means to go under but… So, in this case, it means to go deeply into Buddhism.

All right, finally in the next page, the last page, we see the word “hemorrhage”. A “hemorrhage”, “internal hemorrhage”, those two words go together. “Internal” means inside. “Hemorrhage” means bleeding, means your… your blood is coming out of your body. But not coming out on your skin, not on the outside of your body. A “hemorrhage” is inside your body. It means you’re bleeding inside your body. That’s how he died. He started bleeding inside his body.

And this bleeding, it was called by cirrhosis of the liver. “Cirrhosis of the liver” means… dying of the liver or death of the liver, or a disease of the liver. Your liver is sick, your lever is weak, your liver is bad. And “cirrhosis” is usually cause by drinking alcohol, a lot of drinking. Or sometimes it causes by… other diseases. But drinking is a common cause of cirrhosis. So he died from cirrhosis of the liver.

Okay, as always, please repeat this vocabulary lesson a few times. I go very quickly in this vocabulary discussion. So probably you need to repeat this discussion several times, so that you’ll really remember the new vocabulary.

And then of course listen to the mini-story lesson that will help practice some of the more key words and really learn how to use them.

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