On the Road- Kerouac

[fayefaye]

Wow. I did NOT like this book. Kerouac BORES me. (heh heh. That ought to get a discussion going) Well, I mean... it's like this spiritual journey where the characters hardly develop as they travel around the US with no direction in their lives. Kinda feel like shaking my fist at them and screaming 'get a job you hippies!' Worst thing is, it made me FEEL like I actually WAS on a road trip. A long trip going nowhere with that eternal feeling of 'are we there yet?' I would love to read Neal Cassady's letters though. 'Cause at the same time, it made me feel llike going on a road trip. Life is so dull and mediocre. I love the idea of cruising downhill with the motor off and the clutch in. I feel like taking someone's car, tracking down a large hill and doing that. In Dunedin, they have these great steep cliffside roads with the most beautiful views.... I'd love to just cruise by there.... On the Road made me feel like my life was really claustrophobic. Like-'stop this car! I'm getting out.' Stupid Kerouac. Make me realise there's something else out there. Geez. I hate it when authors do that.

[AbdoRinbo]

Who cares what you think? You don't exist.

[fayefaye]

I'm all too real. Besides, I was just trying to get a discussion going. There isn't much in General Lit right now... I didn't really DISlike it, I just didn't like it much either. Come up with a better reason to ignore my opinion than that. How about I'm too stupid to appreciate it, or the fact I contradict myself in my last post? Doesn't that sound like I'm too indeterminate in my opinion?

[Koa]

Have you read it? I mean, you said you had just bought it or something, or am I mistaken? *getting confused* I remember it's awfully long and as I said I wondered how the hell I read it all, it's so useless... If I wrote a 500 pages book about my daily bus journeys to university and back, it'd be waaaaaay more interesting, at least I happen to have some real adventures at times...

[AbdoRinbo]

Shut up, both of you.

Don't mess with American Pride.

[ihrocks]

Since none of you were born when this book was written, let alone had the opportunity to grow up in pre-60s America, the best advice I can give you is wait a few years, grow up, get jobs, face life in the cubicle for a few more years, then sit down and re-read the book. The sense of liberation it captures, as well as the world-weariness, then may have more meaning for you. Of course, the American road Kerouac traveled doesn't really exist anymore, which I guess makes that book even more meaningful for some of us.

ihrocks
The Aging Hippie Woman

P.S. -- Ever decide to throw an askew glance over "Howl" and there'll be hell to pay!

[fayefaye]

Koa, I have read it. I was only half way through when I wrote it 'sucked' in another thread though. It's a pretty easy read, if you don't mind the lack of plot. I still don't LIKE it-it's not as great as everyone makes it out to be. Whether or not it's a good book remains to be disputed though. Even though I don't like it, I generally think any book that manages to have some sort of effect on you is good, just because it had the ability to do that.

Ihrocks, I get the point. I got the point when I finished the book (I don't sit around for years with a book trying to work out what it's about. and if I did, I'm sure I wouldn't come to any greater conclusions), anyway that's the thing that got under my skin. That's sort of what I meant in my last post.... it makes me realise how claustophobic my life is, and suddenly I want to hop a plane to Alaska. that's what I meant when I said that kerouac made me realise there's something else out there. (damn him) But the bum lifestyle appeals waaaayyy too much for me(more than it should), and the book left me with the feeling that I'd like to run wild and free and at the same time I KNOW I can't. Which is largely what irritates me about it. If it was just some book about people on a road I'd simply find it boring. Since it's more about life, I find it .... *pausing to think of word* almost depressing. No, irritating. No, the thing I'll use in my defense in the insanity hearing when the courts are left to decide my future.

p.s Abdo, I'll mess with American pride all I like.

[AbdoRinbo]

Did you know America has plans to go to war with Australia?

[fayefaye]

Oh, so John Howard's little love affair with Bush didn't work out?

uh-oh. Current politics. Back on topic!

[azmuse]

well...back to the road; i am slightly embarassed to admit that got this book as a gift from my beloved brother...started to read it about 4 years ago, and couldn't; it put me to sleep in the same manner that studying the stamp act did. maybe maybe should go feed the brain cells left in limbo when i stopped turning the pages... thanx, ihrocks

[DumbLikeAPoet]

I've never read it....what road does he travel?

Jonus

[AbdoRinbo]

Stupid, lazy Australians and their crocodile hunter . . .

(Munro being aware that he is the only exception.)

[sloegin]

Kerouac isn't a bum; compared to Miller, he is a responsible citizen.

[ihrocks]

First Kerouac, now Miller??? Who's next?

Sorry, fayefaye, didn't mean to lecture. Obviously, I wasn't bored by Kerouac. And btw, Kerouac wasn't a hippie. As a member of the Beat Generation, he pre-dates the hippies by a considerable margin. It also makes him a great deal more interesting. It's always fascinating to me how the generation that came of age in the 1960s (especially in America) tends to claim credit for a great many things that really came well before them, like the Beats, Rock n' Roll, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Uh-oh, I may be lecturing again! I better stop now.

irhocks

[Koa]

Originally posted by fayefaye
it makes me realise how claustophobic my life is, and suddenly I want to hop a plane to Alaska. that's what I meant when I said that kerouac made me realise there's something else out there. (damn him) But the bum lifestyle appeals waaaayyy too much for me(more than it should), and the book left me with the feeling that I'd like to run wild and free and at the same time I KNOW I can't. Which is largely what irritates me about it. If it was just some book about people on a road I'd simply find it boring. Since it's more about life, I find it .... *pausing to think of word* almost depressing. No, irritating. No, the thing I'll use in my defense in the insanity hearing when the courts are left to decide my future. [/B]

Thankfully I didn't get that. I'm like that all the time: would like to be anywhere but here. I'd like to travel and live somewhere for 6 months and somewhere else for the other 6 (alwyas in an emisphere where it's winter ) and so on... It's a mood I often have, don't need Kerouac or whoever.

Still I have a feeling that this book is overrated....might be because of the nostalgics?