On the Road- Kerouac

[B-Mental]

[QUOTE=A Hard Rain]I made a slight mistake.

I meant to say these forums 'can' be a waste of time more or less.

I've read forums for years on different subjects... i use to be into some
online video games etc. lots of forums there.

Over the years i've learned though, as while you can speculate and analyze
and take what everyone has to say and try to piece it together as one big puzzle... sometimes it helps to just go and find out for yourself.

I didn't mean to militate against any of your feelings about this forum.

Any thoughts on the other stuff that i mentioned?
-on the road
-the way you read
-vocabulary
-etc.

Another question i thought of recently was about the order i read an authors works. So far i've just been jumping around, trying to get a feel for many different writing styles and topics. However, i wonder if i would get a bigger feel for the artist if i read many of his works consecutively. It is interesting jumping around seeing how different of a style of writing can be and whilist still love every moment of it. And i suppose insight has many mediums. ok i gotta run uh

any thoughts on that?

I've done this with several writers...Hemingway, Steinbeck, Tolstoy, the list is quite long. I think for some authors you pick up their style, and it grows on you making it easier to read especially translated texts. However, if you really grow fond of an author, stop after a couple and savor the remaining ones. The first read of a book is probably the way you will remember the book.

I like On the Road, but I really like Darmha Bums by Kerouac. Same feeling, a little less manic.

[Scheherazade]

Hi Rain,

I have read On The Road not so long ago. Even though I found it to be a fairly easy read, almost a page turner, it is still a mystery to me why the book was written and what sort of message it wanted to give. It seems like I cannot see eye to eye with the beat generation and their way of coping with life (mainly drinking or another way of intoxication).

There has been a discussion thread on this book before, which you might find interesting: http://www.online-literature.com/for...highlight=road

When I started learning English, I used to learn a word a day. I know it sounds like an awfully slow process but they usually stay with you. And I try to look up the words I don't know while reading books rather than pretending they are not there. We also have a 'Word of the Day' thread on the Forum if you would like to take part! http://www.online-literature.com/for...4&page=1&pp=15

And vocabulary quizes as well: http://www.online-literature.com/for...iz.php?catid=4

As for reading the works of the same author... I have done similar things; I kept reading the works of the same author one after another especially those whose styles I particularly liked. However, later on I realised that one can have too much of a good thing. Reading similar things one after another made it feel sort of bland after a while. Nowadays, I try to vary my reading diet. The Book Club is a good chance to get out of the usual reading cycle and see what other people read: http://www.online-literature.com/for...splay.php?f=15

Welcome to the Forum!

[PeterL]

I have read On The Road not so long ago. Even though I found it to be a fairly easy read, almost a page turner, it is still a mystery to me why the book was written and what sort of message it wanted to give. It seems like I cannot see eye to eye with the beat generation and their way of coping with life (mainly drinking or another way of intoxication).

On the Road was written for two reasons. The main reason was the hope that it would produce some income for Kerouac. He had been writing for years without getting a noticeable amount of income. The reason why something like that was the vehicle was that it would be controversal, and it also would give the general public a picture of what the beats were actually like. The public knew that there were beatniks around playing bongos and writing poetry, but the rumors about their lifestyle were pretty extreme. On the Road did result in the beats beong given more attention by the American public at large. In effect it was a recruiting pamphlet, and a very effective one, consider how many people became part of the counter-culture over the next 15 years - nearly all of them had read On the Road.

For several reasons I prefer "Dharma Bums", but that didn't become as notorious. The Subterraneans should have been buried.

Another question i thought of recently was about the order i read an authors works. So far i've just been jumping around, trying to get a feel for many different writing styles and topics. However, i wonder if i would get a bigger feel for the artist if i read many of his works consecutively. It is interesting jumping around seeing how different of a style of writing can be and whilist still love every moment of it. And i suppose insight has many mediums. ok i gotta run uh

any thoughts on that?

The writings of some authors should be read in the order that they were written, but for other authors the order makes no difference. For example, James Joyce probably is best read in order, but for Nabokov the order isn't important.

[A Hard Rain]

Thanks guys. Your infos were very helpful and provoking.

It just ate me a little that i didn't find a very easily clear message in on the road and what Schehe and PeterL wrote helps make a lot of sense.

See you around.

[papayahed]

Thanks guys. Your infos were very helpful and provoking.

It just ate me a little that i didn't find a very easily clear message in on the road and what Schehe and PeterL wrote helps make a lot of sense.

See you around.

Not having a clear message could be part of the message of the book. The Beats were not very clear with their place in society, and didn't really know what to do or how to be. Sal was always traveling somewhere and was always in a hurry to get there, but once there there was always someplace else to go, never really find the right place.

[A Hard Rain]

I was reading these boards the other night after i took a bunch of vicodin and i came to exactly what you were saying papaya. It makes sense to me now. The book in retrospect, now, is quite interesting, as anything challengign to me is. However, i'm not an advocate of drugs. I just use them. I'm working on that...

I've always looked for a good work on alcoholism or the use of drugs...

I even thought i'd write one...

It ended Faulkner, Hemmingway, and more...

i hope i can stop.

[kimpossible]

you know kerouac wrote while he was high on benzedrine right? When you're reading his work, you can really feel it in his prose, i really enjoy his spontaneity, though i have not yet decided what i think of him as an author...

from what i have read in the many posts concerning him, you either love him or loath him

What do you think of Kerouac's prose?

[Chase]

I dig Keruoac a lot, but I admit it is frustrating that nearly all of his books (at least his more famous ones) are a chronicle of someone that he finds more interesting than himself. I think the underlying thread of both OTR and Dharma Bums (an excellent read) is that his particular blend of self-discovery lends itself to observing others. If you read, say, Lonesome Traveler, which is about his own extremely drunken thoughts, it leaves the reader (or at least me) a little bored. This genre, though it seems to be lead by Keruoac, is pretty sprawling. As far as discovery through traveling goes, I also liked Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda, and a personal favorite Blue Highways by William Least-Heat Moon. This last one chronicles his journey over all of the little roads throughout the country. It has more of a journal feel, which can be boring at times, but it is beautifully written. I am sorry to have rambled, but this genre get me going. Take it easy.

[A Hard Rain]

i like kerouacs prose.

[Scheherazade]

Kerouac writes nicely. OTR is a page turner and very well paced; something I read without getting bored. It seems like he is a good observer and good with words... which makes me wonder. Those who have read his other books: Are all his books based on his observations and experiences with his friends? Or has he ever written out of his imagination?

[B-Mental]

I can't think of any that aren't written in a similar manner. The Subterraneans is about a relationship. Dharma Bums is Kerouac drinking in SanFran. and then going a little mystic in the natural world (probably my fave for writing and context).

[PeterL]

Are all his books based on his observations and experiences with his friends? Or has he ever written out of his imagination?

You got me wondering, so I searched. It appears that he wrote one novel that wasn't a fictionalized account of him and his friends: "Pic (written 1951/1969, posthumously published 1971) Adventures of a black child in the South."
http://www.litkicks.com/Lists/KerouacWorks.html

I have read OTR, Dharma Bums, and the Subterraneans, and part of Visions of Cody. I kind of like his writing style, but it's a pity that he didn't have anything to write about.

[Chava]

I recently bought On The Road, by Jack Kerouac after a friends recomendation. We'd been sittin in the sun all day on an empty street, too hot, to sweaty, and too exhausted to do our Amnesty International campaiging. So we started talking about music, about art, and about great literature. A few days later, I had this ordered, couldn't get it in the country, so I had to have it sent from abroad. He, in exchange, got a hold of Catch-22, by my all time favourite, Joseph Heller.

I've read about half of the book now, and it is going very slowly, having to compete with course material and such. I know it's a classic, and I know I should be more into it than I am. But I'm wondering, why, why did this man;

who had to restart, and restart, and eventually just gave up, and decided to write about what he knew, his life, captivate so many people?

I really need to get more interested in this book, and I think some discussion of it might help, so if anyone is prepared to present some interesting analytical views, or just praise/slay it, lets join forces.

[optimisticnad]

I recently bought On The Road, by Jack Kerouac after a friends recomendation. We'd been sittin in the sun all day on an empty street, too hot, to sweaty, and too exhausted to do our Amnesty International campaiging. So we started talking about music, about art, and about great literature. A few days later, I had this ordered, couldn't get it in the country, so I had to have it sent from abroad. He, in exchange, got a hold of Catch-22, by my all time favourite, Joseph Heller..

Does someone need to visit the lit net crush thread?

P.s I have no amazing thoughts on this book, I found it melancholy - which we all love indulging in. Life's a map you navigate through, Kerouac takes this metaphor literally.

[JBI]

I personally don't like the book, and don't consider it a classic, and I know there are others here who agree. It's such a cult-book, like Fight Club really, but doesn't quite do it in terms of literary value. Also, it happens to be so darn American, so that may say something.