David Stephen Calonne - R. Crumb : literature, autobiography, and the quest for self

DAVID STEPHEN CALONNE

The University Press of Mississippi is the scholarly publishing agency of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning: Alcorn State University, Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi State University, Mississippi University for Women, Mississippi Valley State University, University of Mississippi, and University of Southern Mississippi.

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Designed by Peter D. Halverson

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Copyright 2021 by University Press of Mississippi

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Manufactured in the United States of America

First printing 2021

Library of Congress Control Number available

Hardback ISBN 978-1-4968-3185-9

Trade paperback ISBN 978-1-4968-3186-6

Epub single ISBN 978-1-4968-3187-3

Epub institutional ISBN 978-1-4968-3188-0

PDF single ISBN 978-1-4968-3189-7

PDF institutional ISBN 978-1-4968-3190-3

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

Chapter 1.
ON THE ROAD

Beats, Zen Buddhism, and Bukowski

Chapter 2.
JELLY ROLL MORTON, CHARLEY PATTON

Blues, Voodoo, and the Devil

Chapter 3.
PHILIP K. DICK

Gnostic Travels

Chapter 4.
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE AND THE EXISTENTIAL QUEST

Chapter 5.
FRANZ KAFKA

Allegories of the Soul

Chapter 6.
IN THE BEGINNING

The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb

R. Crumb: Literature, Autobiography, and the Quest for Self is the third book of a trilogy I have written exploring the American counterculture. In each of my preceding booksThe Spiritual Imagination of the Beats (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017) and Diane di Prima: Visionary Poetics and the Hidden Religions (New York: Bloomsbury, 2019)I traced the ways American writers have pursued philosophical enlightenment in a culture that they found to be devoid of deeper values and meanings. It became increasingly clear to me that Crumbwhose work had fascinated me from my young adulthoodwas depicting throughout his prolific and brilliant art many of the same spiritual and psychological topics that had confronted his literary contemporaries. Like other members of the Californian baby boom generation, I grew up during the early sixties with Mad magazine and became aware of Crumbs work when Keep on Truckin and Fritz the Cat were ubiquitous. I recall seeing truck drivers barreling down Californias old Highway 99 with Keep on Truckin insignia emblazoned on their tire flaps. At that timeand still todayCrumbs genius has unfortunately been little understood by those who mistakenly see his work as little more than light and clever entertainment. In R. Crumb: Literature, Autobiography, and the Quest for Self I have sought to take Crumb seriously as well as humorously, and several people have helped me during its genesis and composition.

I thank Roni, who organized the Bukowski Gesellschaft Conference held in Andernach, Germany, in August 2012, where I delivered a lecture and had the pleasure of hearing Rolf Grans presentation ber die Bukowski Illustrationen von Robert Crumb, which insightfully explored Crumbs drawings to accompany Charles Bukowskis The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship. I also thank Alan Golding and the conveners of the Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, held at the University of Louisville in February 2020, where I spoke on R. Crumb and the Beats. Jeffrey Weinberg, publisher of Water Row Press; Everett Rand, editor of Mineshaft magazine; and Crumbs bibliographer Carl Richter all patiently answered my queries. At the University Press of Mississippi, I would like to thank Jordan Nettles, marketing assistant and digital publishing coordinator; Courtney McCreary, marketing assistant; Victoria Washington, marketing aide; Katie Keene, senior acquisitions editor; and Mary Heath, editorial associate, all of whom have worked with me tirelesslyand with the justly famous unfailing Mississippi gentility and kindnessfrom the outset preparing my manuscript for publication. Pete Halverson, senior book designer, created a lovely cover, and many thanks to Norman Ware for his superb copyediting. I would also like to express my gratitude the two anonymous reviewers, who made helpful comments on the manuscript. The interlibrary loan staff at Eastern Michigan University and the Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan have been generous in supplying me with articles and books. As always, I thank Maria Beye for everything. I have been sustained again during the composition of this book by playing as often as I can on my piano the keyboard music of William Byrd.

Robert Crumb (1943) is an artist who from adolescence has been intensely engaged with literature. He compulsively reads several genresnot only novels, stories, and poetry but also a wide range of historical, musical, biographical, psychological, and spiritual texts, which he has enjoyed for their philosophical and aesthetic power and from which he has often drawn ideas for his inventive art. Because Crumb is also an intensely autobiographical artisthe pours onto the page every conceivable detail concerning his inner lifehis reading and creativity have evolved into a mutually enriching network of influences. As one studies Crumb from the outset of his career to the present, it becomes evident that he has embarked on a massive autobiographical enterprise in which personal, secret confessionsin a mode reminiscent of figures as diverse as Saint Augustine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Henry Miller, and Allen Ginsbergare made public and merge with the topics to which he is drawn in literature. Crumb himself is also frequently an engaging, appealing, and entertaining writerhe has carried on a massive, lively correspondence with many friends, professional associates, and admirers, keeps a compendious notebook chronicling his dreams, and composes the texts of the majority of his narrativesand of course his art is often outrageously humorous. However, Crumbs pervasive, brilliant, and often zany comedy does not obscure the fact that he has also been engaged in a philosophical quest for authentic selfhood. The theme of the falsity and hypocrisy of human institutions, orthodoxies, and political ideologies recurs constantly throughout his oeuvre. While Crumb has garnered attention for his centrality in the development of underground comix, stirred controversy for its putative misogyny and racism, and achieved well-deserved fame for his spectacular draftsmanship and mastery of the intricate craft of combining words and images, I will argue in the following chapters that what has often been ignored in considerations of Crumbs achievements is his deep search for philosophical meaning. Crumb does not arrive at clear resolutions to the perennial questions of human existence, but rather he sets up a constant dialogue between competing visions of life and frequently leaves it to the reader/viewer to contemplate the contradictions he exposes.