Jack London

If you had asked me anytime before I took this class what my associations of Literature and San Francisco were, I’d most likely have said “Jack London” and be hard pressed for more names. Maybe it’s since I have never been into Modern/Postmodern literature or because I have never been exposed to San Francisco’s great literary scene – either way I was clueless.

Jack London at his desk

Jack London is of course one of our most well known and respected authors in the American cannon, and most people are consequently exposed to one of his novels or another by the time they have finished high school. For me, the defining “San Francisco” novel of his would have been “The Sea-Wolf”. Although it takes place on the ocean, the starting location being in and around the SF Bay definitely gives the story an interpretation that can see the characters’ struggles against Nietzschean Übermensch ideals as the struggle of a working class with the aristocracy. This is a pretty decent analog for San Francisco’s history and I feel sums it up quite well. 

Maybe I’m just caught up on that novel but I found its underlying themes quite Bohemian in nature, albeit slightly outdated. Most of the works we read in class this quarter dealt with this power struggle in some way and in my opinion embodies a certain San Franciscan attitude that was revived in the Beat movement.