Kerouac was cool

merry christmas, boys & girls,

'cool' is a subjective term, despite its beatnik roots, it's been manipulated into every context possible, whether highbrow or lowbrow, to a degree in which one could consider it pseudo-archaic. pressing onwards, i think jack kerouac was as cool as ****, i have no criteria but i smile and know that he is, it's embedded in our conscience collective. other beatnik authors spring to mind, cult writers also, but stepping away from them who jolts you?

i nominate: gore vidal. sicko.

Oh yeah, Kerouac was hot (hottest writer ever, seriously).

Arthur Rimbaud was cool too (he runs away at fifteen to get wasted and sleep around in Paris; nicely done).

I can't think of any writer "cooler" than Henry Miller. His writing had a nice rock 'n roll swagger to it a whole decade before Mick Jagger was even born.

After On the Road was published Kerouac insisted that his future novels be unedited and go out exactly as he scribbled them in his notebooks. Yet Road is the novel that Kerouac's reputation rests upon. Nobody ever mentions his later works.

I certainly second Henry Miller, how did I forget that randy bastard?

Charles Baudelaire, also.

"Cool" in what sense? In what they wrote, or in the way they lived?

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Originally Posted by Jermac

"Cool" in what sense? In what they wrote, or in the way they lived?

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Don't both traits usually go together?

No, I don't think that both traits usually go together; in some cases they might. Rimbaud for example did not live a cool life, but he wrote some cool stuff. Ginsberg on the contrary lived a cool life and wrote cool stuff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jermac

No, I don't think that both traits usually go together; in some cases they might. Rimbaud for example did not live a cool life, but he wrote some cool stuff. Ginsberg on the contrary lived a cool life and wrote cool stuff.

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But Rimbaud did live a cool (as burntpunk has defined the word) life. He wandered all over Europe, got drunk, had sex and smoked opium non-stop between the ages of fifteen and nineteen, then he ran off to Africa to work in the jungle where he had multiple African mistresses. I think that's cool. Most Rimbaud worshippers that I know compare him to Jim Morrison.

I'd argue that being cool and writing cool usually go together.

i just finished doctor sax the other day.. understand the point of stream of consciousness, and i am all for experimental literature, but this really was a load of drivel.. and i usually love kerouac

nothing to do with the thread title, soz! just that 'cool' definitely is subjective - because i'm sure there are some people who probably think doctor sax is a 'cool' book

To jump in on the cool life verses cool writing discussion, I think Kerouac lived a beatnik kind of life and some people would say that as cool. He also wrote about this life in On the Road. So I disagree with Jermac, in this particular case. The writer's "cool" life can inspire his/her writing. I think that is the point to discuss or think about. How does a writer/artist's life influence their creative process?

Rimbaud did not live a cool life--he was a gun-runner, and he eventually had to have a leg amputated.

JuniperWoolf, we simply disagree and that is "cool."

perhaps because of the time frame it takes place in, I was near Kerouac's age, about 7-8 years younger. Randomly writing as he did, I can see why his work needed a great deal of editing to make any sense out of it. As far as being 'Cool', if you want to drink yourself to death and die of cirrohsis before you are 50, perhaps you consider him to have lived a 'Cool' life. I don't consider wxcessive drink and drugs as being 'Cool'.

I agree, drinking and drugging your life away is not cool as many writers never outgrew this lifestyle.