novel Why I Am So Beat (Putnam), detailing the weekend parties of four students.

"Beat" came from underworld slang--the world of hustlers, drug addicts, and petty thieves--from which Allen Ginsberg and Kerouac sought inspiration. "Beat" was slang for "beaten down" or "downtrodden". However, to Kerouac and Ginsberg, it also had a spiritual connotation, as in "beatitude". Other adjectives discussed by Holmes and Kerouac were "found" and "furtive". Kerouac felt he