On the Road- Kerouac

Dean Moriarty was the one I loved. Even if I had hated the rest of the book (which I didn't) it would have been worth it for Dean.

What I liked most about this book is that it was about people looking for a way out and none of them really found it. Drugs are a temporary fix that kill you in the end...but what other options are there? What other ways are there to escape from society and yourself? Today people are facing the same problems that Dean and crew were facing, and we still have found no better solutions. The most interesting, enlightened people are almost always drug addicts or "freaks" in some other way. My question for all of you is what other option did the characters of OTR have? Suits, ties, respectable jobs, middle-class morals, 2.5 children? No wonder they chose drugs.

Also, I would like all of you to join the campaign to bring back "dig". I have so far unsuccessfully attempted to start the trend, but I still have faith that it can be done!;)

Not sure I know what you mean by "dig".

Duuude, I can dig it. It never left my vocabulary. If you manage to bring it back, I'll be back in touch. I'm diggin' that.

Can ya' dig? man

I dig it that you are all about bringing dig back. Well, I have to go dig my biochem final (proper usage?). Bye!

people here at my school say 'dig' and 'diggin'' All the time. Guess thats why I wasn't sure what you meant by "bringing 'dig' back".

I think that's my problem with the book, I just don't understand the concept of having to "escape yourself", what does that mean?

*appears out of the blue* (:D Planning to read this book, so I'm getting some education here.)

Papaya, if you don't know why someone would want to escape themself, I believe you're far luckier than most. However, the theory that one *must* escape himself via chemical means to truly understand the world, I don't believe is justified. I've listened to some of my Kerouac/Thompson-worshipping friends yack on and on about it, and they're almost fried by now -- far from enlightened. Gaining another perspective is important for one's development, but drugs are a poor substitute for meditation and introspection. Recreational only, I say.

*fades into the shadows*

Someone may have already written this but I think it’s important to put this story in the context of the times. That generation, or rather that small slice of people who were just barely too young to have fought in WWII, were indeed a lost generation. The servicemen who were lucky enough to have survived the war returned to thankful nation and had taken all of the jobs and had the respect of the rest of the population. Those who didn’t serve had difficulty finding work, and had difficulty “defining themselves,” and were truly set adrift. I personally think that this is what text portrays so beautifully. The book had resonance then and it continues to speak to people today.

I'm going to start researching into the beat generation-sounds interesting. Anyone have anything to tell me? I still think about On the Road, and I STILL feel like hopping a plane to Alaska, there's that immortal sense of 'I wish I could live my life however.... go anywhere, do anything, just on the spur of the moment' Hey, I've got a fun idea! let's drive to mexico! sort of thing.

Calvin:' I'm going to hitch a ride to Africa'
Hobbes:' Africa's another continent., You can't drive there'
Calvin:' life is full of possiblities. Precluded possibilities.'

Neal Cassady sounds fascinating.

I did a little research also, it was an interesting time. I found a great website: http://www.rooknet.com/beatpage/

I've also started reading Naked Lunch and a little Allen Ginsburg although I have to admit I've never really gotten into poetry.

I have started reading (read about 30 pages) Jack Kerouac's On The Road as it is one of the books in BBC's 100 Big Reads. I had heard/read such positive things about this book that I could not help being disappointed. Although it is an 'easy' to read book and I am not bored while reading it, I am still not getting that 'tingly feeling' either. Is it me? Does one need to be familiar with the American culture to appreciate this book? Or feel a connection with the beat generation? I hardly give up on books so I will carry on reading but I sincerely hope to find 'something' more in later pages.

Exactly! how i felt first reading it!! i've no connection to the beat generation, it was a gift from my very beloved brother, and i tried, tried, and tried to appreciate it.

well, 6 years later, i loved it. no idea why. 34 is not that much different from 28, but the book spoke to me. go figure. it called to a sense of loss, of wide open spaces that i didn't know i missed, the cold nights in the middle of

what it was was the sense that life could snowball into nothing with or without you, and that could mean something, and hedonism and music and sex could take over and at the end one edgy man could shake you and say "This, This was what you have to see, this is what i meant by living"

and that is why the last line made me cry.

i tried reading it and could not get into it.

completely agree with you sche, i read it when i was 16 and was soooooooooooo bored by it. my dad and my friend are the only ones i know who have also read it and they both think that it is rubbish and just typing. apparenly kerouac wrote it on several rolls of wallpaper strapped into his typewriter and typed it in 3 sittings while doped to the gills. frankly it reads that way. boring, nothing prose. bad overrated book just like naked lunch bu william burroughs and most stuff by the beats (with the exception of junky by william burroughs and charles bukowski's work)

:banana: