Is On The Road any good? I don't drive and I'm not American so I'm not sure how much I'd get out of it.
I've also become incredibly disillusioned with the whole 50s 60s 70s so called counter culture just being a rich person LARP
Will this book help?
>>24519534 (OP)the only kerouac novel i read was like the first hour of the audiobook of big sur and it was ok but not that good i had no urge for more
>>24519534 (OP)No, it’s one of the few books I’ve ever dropped and it’s relatively short so that says a lot.
>>24519534 (OP)You ever had a friend that you saw at parties that got either too high or too drunk or both (usually off of weed and booze they bummed) and lied a lot?
That’s all this book has to offer. The lies and exaggerations of drunken young men. It’s in no way enjoyable.
>>24519555I work with a guy like that and it's so fucking exhausting
>>24519534 (OP)Kerouac is a phase you're supposed to go through in your late teens. It's fine during that period of life but the further you get into your 20s still taking Kerouac seriously the larger the red flag grows.
>>24519601Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh. I lived it.
Yes, it's good.
No, don't listen to the bozos in this thread talking about their high school friends or the goddamn audiobook they bailed on. Take it from someone who read it, and frankly, read a lot more than just the book.
Let's start here. Kerouac loved jazz. So much so, in fact, that he wanted to replicate the improvisations in writing. No one on the board has been that original or clear in their style. So we at least owe him points for that. For some books (Visions of Gideon), it works against him. Going by the seat of your pants when talking about your dead younger brother who might have been a prophet doesn't really fit stylistically. Those are heavy thoughts that deserve equally heavy prose, so in that instance, the book fails.
Now let's imagine On the Road, which aims to capture the post war listlessness of youth. The abandonment, the addictions, the forward momentum at the cost of all stability. That same improvisational prose, which fell on its face for Visions, now does the heavy lifting in communicating the ideas of the book. It's called reflexivity, and having a small grasp of that is guaranteed to make you a better reader, and if it's your thing, a better writer. How is the way I'm telling my story contributing to the ideas behind it?
On the road excels at that. Big Sur and Dharma Bums do too, albeit to a lesser extent. There's a reason some of the great writers who have come after Kerouac confront him in one way or another. Capote hated him. Pynchon loved him. Make of that what you will, but he's definitely important and this book is his masterpiece. Is it the G.A.N.? Probably not, but it's well worth your time. And after you've read it once and aquainted yourself with the other relevant names, maybe go back and read the original scroll.
>>24519534 (OP)terrible meandering read with little value imo
>>24519787If you put on Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life and think it sucks, well then that just blows for ya, buddy. Regardless, the clarity in adapting music to prose was an impressive decision that, like I said, no one on this board could do. They could replicate him, but they couldn't come up with something equally unique, and in breath of literature, doing something new is hard, let alone something new with decent quality
>>24519793stevie wonder isn't jazz dude lmao
>>24519606>No one on the board has been that original or clear in their style.Honestly, because it's cringe. Jazz is cringe. The only good things to come from jazz are Zatarain's and that it's basically a grinder to turn negros into dead junkies. It's beat, it's be-at, it's beat your stupid face in, loser. The only thing bigger than Kerouac's head was his burst liver. He thinks of Dean Moriarty? I think of getting a refund on my moneyarty.
>>24519787jazz is the only good music genre by blacks
>>24519870None of that was funny or persuasive
