JACK KEROUAC. BtVS Intertext/Allusion.
Jack
Kerouac (1922-1969) was one of the key figures of the counter-cultural Beat
Movement of the 1950s. Both a novelist and a poet, he is best known for such
autobiographical fictions as On the Road (1957) and The Dharma Bums (1958),
road books which celebrate the anarchic freedom of American life. (Photo
from http://www.cmgww.com/historic/kerouac/.)
In "Choices" the Scooby Gang engages in the following conversation about their post-high school options. Xander's is inspired by Kerouac.
WILLOW: Sounds like your mom's in a state of denial.
BUFFY: More like a continent. She just has to realize that I can't go away.
WILLOW: Well, maybe not now, but soon, maybe. Or maybe I too hail from Denial Land.
BUFFY: Faith's turn to the dark side of the Force pretty much put the proverbial kibosh on any away plans for me. UC Sunnydale-–at least I got in. You! I mean I can't believe you got into Oxford!
WILLOW: It's pretty exciting.
OZ: That's some deep academia there.
BUFFY: That's where they make Gileses.
WILLOW: I know! I could learn and, and have scones. Although I--I don't know how I feel about going to school in a foreign country.
Xander is sitting at a nearby tree reading Jack Kerouac's On the Road.
XANDER: Everything in life is foreign territory. Kerouac. He's my teacher. The open road is my school.
BUFFY: Making the open dumpster your cafeteria?
XANDER: Go ahead, mock me.
OZ: I think she just did.
XANDER: We Bohemian anti-establishment types have always been persecuted.
OZ: Well, sure. You're all so weird.
WILLOW: I think it's neat, you doing the backpack, trail mix, happy wanderer thing.
XANDER: I'm aware it scores kinda high on the hokey-meter, but I think it will be good for me. You know, help me to find myself.
CORDELIA: And help us to lose you. Everyone's a winner.