
THE STAR
ROVER
(Copyright
by Jack London, 1915) full text at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/StarRover/
The story goes that Jack
London following an interview with a prisoner wrote a novel concerning the excess of
torture prior to 1920 when such punishment was still legal in California Penitentiaries.
By the constraining power of the strait jacket a prisoner's physical will was crushed but
not always his spirit. Jack London recorded that prisoners under this severe punishment
had in some cases left their body and soared above their place of captivity, time traveled
and even visited upon their various incarnations. While reading this novel one may wonder
as to the extent that Jack London himself had visited his past lives having crossed
beyond the line where spirit is free of the body. |