Editing Jack Kerouac (section)

=== Influences ===
Kerouac's early writing, particularly his first novel ''The Town and the City'', was more conventional, and bore the strong influence of [[Thomas Wolfe]]. The technique Kerouac developed that later gained him notoriety was heavily influenced by jazz, especially [[Bebop]], and later, Buddhism, as well as the Joan Anderson letter written by Neal Cassady.<ref>{{cite book | last =Cassady | first =Neal | author-link =Neal Cassady | title =The First Third | publisher =Underground Press | year= 1964 | page =387 | oclc =42789161}}</ref> The ''[[Diamond Sutra]]'' was the most important Buddhist text for Kerouac, and "probably one of the three or four most influential things he ever read".<ref>{{harvnb|Suiter| 2002|p=191}}</ref> In 1955, he began an intensive study of this sutra, in a repeating weekly cycle, devoting one day to each of the six [[Pāramitā]]s, and the seventh to the concluding passage on [[Samādhi]]. This was his sole reading on Desolation Peak, and he hoped by this means to condition his mind to [[Śūnyatā|emptiness]], and possibly to have a vision.<ref>{{harvnb|Suiter| 2002|p=210}}</ref>

[[James Joyce]] was also a literary influence on Kerouac and alludes to Joyce's work more than any other author.<ref name="findarticles.com">Begnal, Michael, [https://web.archive.org/web/20111203004051/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3362/is_2_77/ai_n28721379/ "I Dig Joyce": Jack Kerouac and Finnegans Wake], Philological Quarterly, Spring 1998</ref> Kerouac had high esteem for Joyce and he often used Joyce's stream-of-consciousness technique.<ref name="findarticles.com"/><ref name="Encyclopedia of Beat Literature">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yzVV1Hl1NvAC |title=Encyclopedia of Beat Literature |page=244 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=9781438109084 }}</ref> Regarding ''On the Road'', he wrote in a letter to Ginsberg, "I can tell you now as I look back on the flood of language. It is like ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' and should be treated with the same gravity."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5FN49R58-gC&pg=PT163 |title=Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters |publisher=Penguin |year=2010 |isbn=9781101437131 }}</ref> Additionally, Kerouac admired Joyce's experimental use of language, as seen in his novel ''Visions of Cody'', which uses an unconventional narrative as well as a multiplicity of authorial voices.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Begnal|first1=Michael|title="To be an Irishman Too": Jack Kerouac's Irish Connection|journal=Irish Province of the Society of Jesus|year=2003|volume=92|issue= 368|page=372|ref=71|jstor=30095661}}</ref>