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/lit/ - Literature

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2200579 No.2200579 [Reply] [Original]

How much Kerouac have you read?

Overall opinion on the guy?

Personally I've read

>On the Road
>Dharma Bums
>The Subterraneans

He's great at holding attention and making the narrative flow, but he seems to (probably due to writing stream of conciousness) write quite poorly at times, e.g. "Go thou across the ground; go moan for man; go moan, go groan, go groan alone, go roll your bones, alone". Obviously this is a popular quote, but still, just seems like junk

>> No.2200586

The real question here is which novel is superior: Dharma Bums or On the Road


also lol'd at that quote

>> No.2200585

I like what he represented more than i like his work, same with Ken Kesey and Hunter S Thompson.

>> No.2200589

>>2200585
What do you think he represented?

>> No.2200595

>>2200589
Aspiration, self-indulgence and freedom.

>> No.2200598

Read Dharma Bums and really enjoyed it.
Picked up Doctor Sax and made it about 50 pages in before tossing it.
I've heard good things about On The Road and Big Sur though, will probably be the next books of his I read.

>> No.2200602

>>2200579
I've read everything of his save for Doctor Sax. Not a fan of Kerouac or the Beats.

>> No.2200603

OP here. I'm curious as to whether anybody has read 'Pic' and what they thought. I read 40 pages or so and gave up.

Here's an extract: "Well, they takes me down the road to Aunt Gastonia's house, and it's a big old busted house 'case they's eleben, twell folks livin there" (the narrator is a black boy)

>> No.2200614

Just finished book of Blues by him.

He writes the worst poetry I have ever read in my entire life. It rivals some of the worst stuff people post here.

>> No.2200621

>>2200614

That's pretty bad man.

I've always wanted to read more books by Kerouac. I read On the Road when I was about sixteen, and then I tried reading Visions of Cody and never read any more books by him after that.

>> No.2200626

>>2200603
That piques my interest and I might read it.

>> No.2200636

I like his writing. Can still make me very enthusiastic about life when needed. One of those 'changed my life at 15 years old' kind of writers. I've read On the Road, Dharma Bums, Big Sur and Lonesome Traveler.

I like his flow. Even when he writes bad stuff I'll still like him for it because he's too damn earnest and portrays himself as a lovable dumbass a lot of the time, while I suspect he's still trying to be cool or at least edgy. People who don't get him should listen to him read some of his own work, preferably with the Steve Allen piano stuff accompanying him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzCF6hgEfto

How can you not like this man?

Also, he was the first person to steer me into that whole simple/humble/minimalist/contently poor way of living and in that way freed me from a lot of things that I would've never considered freeing myself from. And he has a certain eye for endearing beauty that sticks with you if you read enough of him.

>> No.2200720

>>2200621
i also read on the road and tried reading visions of cody and felt suitably warned off him

>> No.2200801

I read On the Road a few months and loved it.
It was great timing because im in a transitional point in my life and stuff like that is very comforting.

>> No.2202629
File: 27 KB, 500x360, get-off-the-road.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2202629

>On the Road

>> No.2202632

I didn't like on the road. I've read other beat (admittedly not a lot, mostly Burroughs) and I just found the subject matter really uninteresting. Burroughs I loved every page and it felt so unique and captivating but Kerouac just felt flat.

>> No.2202635
File: 7 KB, 274x184, images.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2202635

>>2202629

>> No.2202653

>>2200579
Big Sur
On The Road
Dharma Bums
And The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks
Visions of Cody.

He's enjoyable, funt to read and lacks pretention.

>> No.2202672

I never read him, and I think I'm too old for the Beats at this point.

>> No.2202689

Never been a fan of his fiction.

He's a far better poet, in my opinion.

>> No.2202690

I only know On the Road and The Dharma Bums, and I'm another guy who read OtR as a teenager.

No denying that he's inconsistent, but for me the flow kind of excuses that. I can keep with him even when the writing/subject isn't great. Other, arguably better, writers who aim for amazing sustained passages (Burroughs, Pynchon) can also be a chore when the connection isn't there.

>> No.2202718
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2202718

If it was not for the Be-Bop era slang it would be absolutely impossible to distinguish between a Kerouac sentence and text message written by a 13 year old girl.

>> No.2202770

Sometimes people claim to have outgrown Kerouac. I came across such a writer who was surprised that Pynchon regarded Kerouac as a great writer. He really was amazingly talented. It probably takes genius to write using his method and produce a good novel and he produced a few great ones. A lot of the great 20th century writers, like Nabokov, use gimmicks to incite interest in the plot. There are no gimmicks in Kerouac and yet it's interesting.

>> No.2202771

>>2202770

I've read On the Road, Dharma Bums, Big Sur, and a lot of his poetry