Long Description:
The novel begins with
Jackie Duluoz, based on Kerouac
himself, relating a dream in which he finds himself in
Lowell,
Massachusetts, his childhood hometown. Prompted by this dream,
he recollects the story of his childhood, along with his childhood
fantasies, which have become inextricable from the memories.
The fantasies pertain to a mansion in Lowell atop a hill that
Jackie calls Snake Hill. Underneath the mansion, the Great World
Snake sleeps. Various vampires, monsters, gnomes, werewolves, and
dark magicians from all over the world gather to the mansion with
the intention of awakening the Snake so that it will devour the
entire world (although a small minority of them, derisively called
"Dovists", believe that the Snake is merely "a husk of doves," and
when it awakens it will burst open, releasing thousands of
doves).
The eponymous Doctor Sax, also part of Jackie's fantasy
world, is a dark, but ultimately friendly, figure with a flowing
black cape, a black slouch hat, a haunting laugh, and a "disease of
the night" called Visagus Nightsoil that causes his skin to turn
green at night. Sax, who also came to Lowell because of the Great
World Snake, lives in the forest near the town, where he conducts
various alchemical experiments, attempting to concoct a potion to
destroy the Snake when it awakens.
When the Snake is finally awakened, Doctor Sax uses his potion
on the Snake, but the potion fails to do any damage. Sax, defeated,
discards his costume and watches the events unfold as an ordinary
man.
Originally, Kerouac had intended for Doctor Sax's potion to
succeed in destroying the Great World Snake. However, shortly after
completing the first draft, Kerouac watched for the first time the
film "The Wizard of Oz", the ending of which inspired him to
change the ending of his novel to one in which Sax, having been
built up throughout the book as a great alchemist, is ultimately
revealed to be an ineffectual, ordinary man.
Kerouac also wrote a screenplay adaptation of the novel entitled
Doctor Sax and the Great World Snake. It was never filmed, but in
1998, Kerouac's nephew Jim Sampas discovered the text in Kerouac's
archives. He proceeded to produce the piece in audio form, much
like a radio drama,(Dr. Sax is loosely based on "The
Shadow") and release it in 2003 from his independent record
label, Gallery Six (named for the site of the famous Six Gallery
reading). The release consisted of two CDs and a book containing
the screenplay with illustrations by Richard Sala.
Voice acting
- Robert Creeley: narration
- Jim Carroll: Jackie Duluoz, Count Condu
- Robert Hunter: Doctor Sax
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti: the Wizard
- Kate Pierson: Vamp Contessa
- Graham Parker: Baroque
- Ellis Paul : Lousy
- Bill Janovitz
Score by John Medeski
