On The Road The Original Scroll

[E.A Rumfield]

I reading a copy of Kerouacs On The Road the complete unabridged rough draft. There are no paragraph breaks, no chapters just a continuous stream of writing. I understand that in On The Road, Dean Moriarty is Neal Cassady, in this version Neal is Neal. I can hardly put this down and I don't imagine that the novel could stand up next to this first draft, really its amazing.

[dfloyd]

When I first started to read it in the 60s, it was my introduction to stream of conscious writing. I had a hard time with it. Returning to it about five years ago, I listened to a cd audio book. I really enjoyed it, and had no problem understanding it. Not nearly as difficult as reading some Joyce and Faulkner.

[E.A Rumfield]

I think the writing is pretty straightforward though their were a few points where things progressed in a order that felt didn't make sense or I had trouble understanding who was talking when it came to dialogue but really minor. As for the content I like it and this is wrong but he reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson or maybe just The Rum Diaries.