Fellaheen

“ – in fact life insulting me
because it no longer
included Gerard –
   Get rid of pride
   Get rid of sorrow
   Mix with the People
   Go among the People,
the Fellaheen not the
  American Bourgeois Middle-
  class World of neurosis
  nor the Catholic French
  Canadian European World
        – the People –
Indians, Arabs, the
Fellaheen in the country, village,
    of City slums – an
  essential World Dostoyevksy
    if you want to Gauguin on –
  but mainly, fulfill yr.
needs, live,  – sit staring
in the yard all day, if
  the other men laugh at
  you challenge them
  & ask them if “you would
  like it if I laugh at
   you” – Screw, drink,
     be lasy, roam, do
    nothing ... gather yr.
     food – Get out of
       America for good, it’s
         a Culture holding you,
           no Life – The People
          of No Good & Evil –
         of No Culture, no
        Prophets – nothing but
       essential politics & literature
    as Tales of the People –

  Gauguin practised a
neurotic civilization
  impressionism among
primitive fellaheen
  people – is his
  art so good as they
  say? – is it better
  really than all-out
  culture bourgeois dutch
 come-&-honey Rembrandt?
 – of course not – Impressionism
is & has always been
   a breakup & compromise
  in the art of picturing
 nature & is now a
wild scatological paint
blur call’d Surrealism etc

Primitive art nevertheless
is closer to Surrealism
than “Naturalism”
(which is unnaturally tech-
nical) – but primitive
art does not consider
Subconsciousness or
  Primitivism – & is in
any case Decoration
for Utilitarian Purposes,
not so called “expression
for expression’s sake”
& the difference is
millionfold down deep –
Gauguin would have done
better decorating their pots
  & boats – This humility
is the true artist’s –  ”

Kerouac, Jack. « Sun Apr 26 SWING THE HILLTOMBSTONE », Book of sketches. Penguin Books, 1952-1953, New York. Page 273-276