Via BoingBoing: Rewind the videotape to 1968. Jack Kerouac, author of On the Road, appears (seemingly drunk) on William F. Buckley “Firing Line.” As you’ll see, this meeting of the Beat and the father of modern American conservatism is not exactly filled with substance. But the clip has some historical curiosity. You can find more Kerouac video and audio on the Digital Beat web site.
Meanwhile, we’re also adding below another related clip. Here Gore Vidal meets William F. Buckley and the exchange gets, well, heated.
The Kerouac tape is difficult to watch. By that time, Kerouac’s alcoholism was epic and in his addled attempt to defend his vision against the younger generation’s transmogrification of it his political views, such as they were, astonishingly resembled Buckley’s much more than Vidal’s.