On the Road- Kerouac

[optimisticnad]

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.

It's definitely 'american' but that's not neccessarily a bad a thing. I love 'true' classics but I also love cult-books like Fight Club! (Didn't know fight club was a classic? Really?)

[JBI]

It isn't, but people like to pretend it is, as with On the Road, being that it is barely 50 years old.

[mayneverhave]

Arguably owing to the cult phenomenon that is Fight Club, the movie.

[weltanschauung]

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.

indeed. its a rather dull book to be quite honest, i started it and never finished, because it was just anoying and infantile. i guess it was pretty amazing back when it was writen, but right now, it tells me nothing.

[Pewnut]

I've said it before. This book depressed the hell out of me and I quit reading it when I had only 20 or so pages left to go.

[Chava]

Does someone need to visit the lit net crush thread?

I assure you this is not necessary, I'm a large proponent for discussing literature, music and art with friends, without it involving crushes

In general it seems that everyone so far has agreed with me about On the Road. But I can't help but feel I'm missing out on something. There are a lot of people who love this book, and I'd really like to understand why. Maybe I should restart it

[novelsryou]

Doesn't everyone have a friend like Dean? Think about it...

I enjoyed the book for the story it's self and it could easily be rewriten as a couple of kids following Phish around the country or in 50 more years as whatever the trends might be.

My favorite part was the trip From Denver to Chicago in the Cadillac - they really trashed that car!!

[LitNetIsGreat]

I’ve got a soft spot for poor Kerouac and have read the most of his books. I think that Kerouac really seems to divide people and quite often it seems the sexes too. He often gets criticised as being infantile or immature and I can see that argument, but nevertheless that infantile aspect of the novel is very much part of its nature, it makes it what it is in some ways.

All in all I think that On the Road is a great read and I would argue worthy of some literary acclaim. As for latching on to something to get you into the novel a perspective or angle I really think do look for something of this nature is missing the point of the novel. You really just have to go with the flow, read it for the flow of the words, the beat and rhythm of the language, focus on the how it is said as well as what is said. Read it quickly and feel the novel and don’t look too deep into it.

I suspect that if you have got half-way and you are unsure you will be one of those who end up hating it in the end, dashing it for being “silly” and “immature” or wondering why he just doesn’t get a job and stop chasing around. Let us know how you get on with it though you might prove me wrong, hopefully, though I doubt it.

[Chava]

Doesn't everyone have a friend like Dean? Think about it...

Yes

Neely: I'm glad to hear some positive feedback. I don't think Kerouac is anly less mature than myself, and the tale of travelling around the country is completly fine. Write now, what's killing it for me is the style of writing. It feels so unenthusiastic, which is odd since he claims that this would be the experience of his life!

Chapter 13, hitchhiking with Terry: "He had my dollar already. He was afraid to point at the floor. It was no floor, just basement. There lay something that looked like a little brown turd. He was absurdly cautious."

And so on, and so on. It's so straining to read, because of the choppy sentences. I'm sure there si a point, and what I'm really hoping is to somehow gain some form of insight that will allow me to enjoy this. Hemingway uses short sentences, but they have a flow to them, this is just hearbreaking.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yes but from the same page:

Who did they think they were, yaahing at somebody on the road just because they were little high-school punks and their parents carved the roast beef on Sunday afternoons? Who did they thing they were, making fun of a girl reduced to poor circumstances with a man who wanted to belove?


I think there is a lot in the "roast beef" part. You get the picture of the people Kerouac is describing quite easily, the white middle class snobbery, the expensive clothes, the senseless grins and distorted faces as they whiz pass in their expensive cars looking down at the rest of the world. You get a feel for the people, and the lifestyle which is being criticised here just in a simple line about roast beef.

More than that, the style of the novel changes rhythm and flow throughout, at this part we may have shorter sentences, but later you may find longer, free-flowing sentences. I don't think it is correct to compare his style to Hemingway's, whose style is more or less consistent throughout, Kerouac’s isn't, if I recall correctly it is much more varied.

[papayahed]

All in all I think that On the Road is a great read and I would argue worthy of some literary acclaim. As for latching on to something to get you into the novel a perspective or angle I really think do look for something of this nature is missing the point of the novel. You really just have to go with the flow, read it for the flow of the words, the beat and rhythm of the language, focus on the how it is said as well as what is said. Read it quickly and feel the novel and don’t look too deep into it.

Exactly. I really like the book for the feeling it created.

Here are some reviews:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=27563

[Chava]

Ah, yeah, I didn't mean a literal comparison of Hemingway and Kerouac, that would be very misplaced.

I'm glad you've given me some insight. I've read that chapter twice already, and didn't even remember the roastbeef part, which is very odd, because i'm usually good at remembering citations. I'm going to attribute it to my beeing distracted by the short stubble sentences, and thus just skimming for a while.

Taking your word for it, and acknowledging that the worth of the text lies in the writing and in the flow, I might have to restart. I've been reading this to substitute my text books, and what I should really have been reading would have been more plot and action oriented. Literary junk food if you may.

But thanks, I'm glad to get a better opinion of this, because I'm in love with the book, the cover, the page texture everything.

[Mag Master 21]

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.

I completely agree... sans the American comment.

[Dara1409]

I read the origonal scroll and it tired me. i love paragraphs. i did happen to pick up a copy of the 'edited' version but dont have the incentive to read it based on what i saw inthe origonal scroll. i started reading the dharma bums during the summer but once again...just kind of fell off of the story. maybe another time, another place.

[mono]

Ah, Keruoac, lovely, lovely! His endless tales of free-spiritedness, risks, human nature, and spirituality astound me!

I’ve got a soft spot for poor Kerouac and have read the most of his books. I think that Kerouac really seems to divide people and quite often it seems the sexes too. He often gets criticised as being infantile or immature and I can see that argument, but nevertheless that infantile aspect of the novel is very much part of its nature, it makes it what it is in some ways.

Absolutely! Just because Kerouac writes in 'infantile' language, and rarely uses words over 10 letters does not subtract from his genius. Perhaps we could say the same of Hemingway or Salinger? Never!
Though all of Kerouac's novels seem written simply, only a simpleton could call his writing simple; so much more seems written, as we say, 'between the lines.' He writes in such a raw, uninhibited style, as if composing his sentences by describing each moment in its own moment, much like the same intention as poets had of free verse. Words do not make an author great, but rather thoughts; words only seem an author's tools, and we would not question the tools of a great automechanic, but instead his/her ability.

I'm glad to hear some positive feedback. I don't think Kerouac is anly less mature than myself, and the tale of travelling around the country is completly fine. Write now, what's killing it for me is the style of writing. It feels so unenthusiastic, which is odd since he claims that this would be the experience of his life!

Chapter 13, hitchhiking with Terry: "He had my dollar already. He was afraid to point at the floor. It was no floor, just basement. There lay something that looked like a little brown turd. He was absurdly cautious."

And so on, and so on. It's so straining to read, because of the choppy sentences. I'm sure there si a point, and what I'm really hoping is to somehow gain some form of insight that will allow me to enjoy this. Hemingway uses short sentences, but they have a flow to them, this is just hearbreaking.

Indeedy, Keruoac can get a bit choppy, but at least we have found a writer who never uses run-on sentences.
These brief, separated (but often related) sentences seem a common trend in Keruoac's era of writing, especially among the Beat poets. It can get a bit annoying, and, as Neely described by alluded to critics, infantile, but I think it further contributes to his rawness of style - writing of that exact moment, unedited. Most of us write, stop, think, edit, etc.; even while typing this, I have stopped several times to think, deleted that thought, added another, a comma here and there, while Keruoac had a talent for composing haikus nearly within seconds.
I have not read all of his novels, but, if you have the time, give The Dharma Bums a chance; though On the Road gets a lot more publicity, I got a bit more out of The Dharma Bums.