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JUNE_ORIENTATION

                                 May 15, 2004 

About Jack Kerouac's  
"The Vanity of Duluoz" (1967):

The question at hand...       
                                       
     LOOKING_FOR_JOAN_VOLLMER

Joan Vollmer appears near the end  
(under the alias "June") in yet 
another non-speaking role.  Well, 
actually she has *one* line.  

This is about the scene on 117th street
"a year of low, evil decadence", 
beginning around xmas of 1944): 

   "...and worst of all, on June's huge
   doublebed with the Oriental         
   drapecover on it we had ample room  
   for sometimes six of us to sprawl   
   with cofee cups and ashtrays and    
   discuss the decadence of the        
   'bourgeoisie' for days on end."
                     p.259   

   "I can never forget how June's
   present husband, Harry Evans, 
   suddenly came clomping down the hall
   of her apartment in his Army boots,
   fresh from the German front, around
   September 1945, and he was appaled
   to see us, six fullgrown people, all
   high on Benny sprawled and sitting
   and cat-legged on that vast       
   double-doublebed of 'skepticism' and 
   'decadence', discussing the   
   nothingness of values, pale-faced,
   weak bodies, Gad the poor guy said:
   'This is what I fought for?' His
   wife told him to come down from his
   'character heights' or some such."
                     p.261       


And that's typical for the Joan Vollmer story.
An "intellectual" who is only ever allowed
dramatic lines.


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