July / Counter - Culture Reading: On the Road

[Scheherazade]

In July, we will be reading On the Road by Jack Kerouack.

Please post your comments and questions in this thread.

[Uberzensch]

Did you notice that poll says "On the Roof"?

[Stargazer86]

I just googled it and it looks interesting I'm off to the bookstore next week!

[medusa_woman]

Is this where we post comments about our reading of On The Road? I'm just making sure -- I know it says it on top. I guess I thought people would be writing every day? I guess that's not how it's done?

[Dark Muse]

Yes, this is the place for discussing On the Road, but some people probably haven't started the book yet, or gotton that far into it, and some like to wait untill they are finnished reading before they comment on it, but one can post at any time, there are no real rules on how to do it, though it is prefered to post a warning if one is going to post a spoiler, for those who might not have finnished the book yet.

[Mathor]

I need to get this book!

[Dark Muse]

When I started reading this book I thought it was kind of interesting because it was really quite unlike anything I have read before. Though I have read some of the beat poetry, and admittedly don't care for a lot of it that much, but I never read a novel about that generation and so the tone and style of the book was quite different than what I have been accustomed to reading.

But now it is starting to drag for me, because the novelty wore off, and nothing new is happening, it has some nice prose work here and there, but it is just the same thing over and over, there is no anticipation or expectation. It reminds me of a movie I tried to watch about these two guys who got lost in a desert, and I kept falling asleep but every time I woke up, it was just like, and they are still walking through the desert. I don't think anything else happened in the whole, hour or two hours of that movie.

So I haven't gotten even half-way through yet, and I am starting to get a little bored with it.

[TheFifthElement]

That's interesting DM, because I've had quite the opposite experience. I wasn't reading On the Road for the reading group, just in general anyway, but I don't know. At first I wasn't too interested and then it hit me BAM and suddenly I feel like I don't want to ever stop reading it. The whole book strikes me as a wild-zen analogy of life; living in the moment, experiencing, up and down the same road, living by your wits and scraping scraping scraping scraping and through it all the only constant, the only real constant is yourself and the madness and the beauty and the torture and the wildness of life. And there's something about JOY and the oppressive love that Kerouac has for Cassady that despite the madness and the degredation and the chaos and the frailty and tenuousness of life it is still marvellous and amazing. And I don't know if I'm getting IT or it whatever it is but I'm getting something. And I can see now where the supposed link with buddhism comes, though I don't profess to be any kind of expert on buddhism, but I see Kerouac throughout the book as being on an amazing wheel rolling rolling rolling one way or the other and getting nowhere and then there's these moments when he gets it when everything is one and complete and calm, when the wheel stops rolling. And there's peace in that, I think.

I'm reading the original scroll; someone told me that was more representative of Kerouac's style which is very free and very open, or at least that's what I'm getting from it anyway. I don't get the sense that Kerouac strained and struggled over every word and there's a kind of madness in that too. But it's quite attractive, as madness goes. Anyways I'm about 50 pages from the end and I'm a bit sad about it and I'm probably going to spend a lot of time going yes, yass, yes...ahem...yup over the next few days.

[Dark Muse]

I will see what happens as I continue, right now I am on like the 13th of 14th chapter in Part 1 and I have hit a moment where I am having to force myself to plough through to keep reading, but maybe I will get over the hump and it will spark an interest in me, or maybe the style is just not my thing, and I won't ever really get into it. Right now, it does not speak to me on any real level and I don't see the enlightment of it, it is just a guy hanging out with with this group of friends, and then hanging out with that group friends, and just constantly talking about being out of money, and drinking, and traveling from here to there. And I have a feeling the whole book is just going to be that repeating itself over and over agian.

[medusa_woman]

I've been wanting to read this book for a long time. And I was worried that I had put it off for too long. I knew that I wouldn't feel the impact that the first readers felt in the 1950s when all this was new and shocking -- when post-war America was settling in the suburbs. The sex was scandalous! There was no structure! Drugs, drugs, drugs! So, in that respect, I'm not surprised that I find the events in the book pretty tame. I was excited that the book opened up in NYC -- he talked about places I know -- but then before long, he was on that BORING trip to Denver -- the details and the stops -- I found that to be a drag. However, just before he arrived in Denver -- maybe it was when he was on that big truck driven by the brothers when all the riders were crowded into the back, I began to get caught up in his enthusiasm. His delight in everything around him -- the lack of pretense, his interest in everything. He makes me feel like I'm missing out on what's out there on the road, in the world. I feel bogged down by my possessions. When he talked about sleeping out all night in the deserted ship, I wondered when the last time was that I slept out under the stars. So far, I'm enjoying the ride!

[Dark Muse]

Yeah right now I am where he is still in CA and it was kind of fun reading him mention places that are close to him, or that I might have personally been to. In some ways I envy that being able to just get up one day and decide to go with the wind and worry about nothing else ahead of time and just see what comes as it does and figure it out along the way.

[MSDGreen]

So far this book just reminds me of life. How places can stay the same, but feel different. The only thing that makes sense sometimes is to just keep going. Almost like they are drawn to live like vagabonds.

[Dark Muse]

I have just begun Part 2 and I do not know why, since it hasn't really changed much, it is pretty much the same as Part 1 but I am getting a little more into it I think. Or at least I have enjoyed the part of it so far. I really enjoyed the scenes in New Orleans with Bull.

One thing I notcied, and perhaps it is just a further expression of the carefree attitude within the story, and that whole idea of living on the whim, but it seems as if the narrator pays a lot of attention to the way other people laugh and the affect thier laughter has.

[caspian]

I was expecting something disgusting like Henry Miller's- but thanks God, it wasn't that nasty. so I finished it.
I liked the first (almost DeanLESS) part . Enjoyed hitchhiking parts-so many colourful characters. Loved time with Remi (dostioffski) - funniest part of the book. Felt for poor Terry.
I hated the rest of the book, reading about this disgusting Dean guy, his women, parties,whole gang of petty thiefs, immorality...................
Glad discovered Beat generation - something new for me

[Dark Muse]

Dean got a little of annoying, but I cannot say I really hated him that much, becasue the women who got involved with him all knew just what he was about and what to expect from him, so they were willingly a part of his lifestyle.

I found Part 1 one of the book was a bit boring to me, I really enjoyed Part 2 perhaps becasue of my interest in New Orleans and most of that part being set there, but I loved reading about thier whole jouney back to California. There were some really interesting verses in Part 2 I thought.

I just loved this

What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see thier specks dispersing?--it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.

I am just getting ready to start Part 3