I'm 80 pages in.
>3 different sets of characters have been described as looking like they're "running from something- probably the law"
>narrator can't think of a way of explaining why he likes someone without saying that the person is "mad"
>needless namedropping
>symbolism in the security guard passage was totally transparent
Kerouac is a really lazy writer, at least so far. Why do people like this book?
>>8090617
Dude beats lmao.
The only one of them worth reading is Burroughs, but even then you have to like reading about rectal mucus and such for him to not get old right away.
stinky poo poo butt
>>8090733
So does the acclaim of the beats basically just boil down to them being proto-r9gay?
The Beats get a bad rap on /lit/, and I'm not really sure why. Probably too 'normie' for these spergs. I think the key to appreciating 'Beat' literature is to try and remove it from everything you think you know about 'Beat'.
Taken as it is I find On The Road to be a tragic coming of age story about a youth of promise that fizzles out into disappointment and tedium. To Kerouac the 'beat movement' begins and ends with this book. It is the spark of revolution that goes nowhere. He calls his friends a beat generation in a literal sense. It is the defeatist manifesto of a man who never wanted to face reality. The state Kerouac ended up in towards the end of his life only strengthens the sense of melancholy this book gives me.
It's one of the best books on youth I've ever read. I think it should be read fast, all at once, over the course of a night.
On the Road pays off by the end but I agree it's not really riveting reading for the bulk of the novel.
>>8090733
the only burroughs worth reading it's that one who wrote about john carter
The writing changes pace after halfway. But I'd say the writing, to some extent, reflects the characteristics of a person on drugs such as the ones they'd use, especially because of the rolling and cyclical tone of the first half of the novel.
But I love the book because on the surface it seemed to be about chasing the American Dream, but it's much more about male identity, racial superiority, the hypocrisy of the Beats, and flatout a super bromance.
you've gotta read the original scroll.
the spontaneity of the writing is the key device in OTR
i think every page is gorgeous
>>8091043
wow, u'r a pleb! :D:D:D
>>8091043
Yes i'd hate to read a normie author, thank god le classics still exist so we can be safe with people like byron and shelley, totally spergy, non normie authors xd
>>8091024
No, they're proto-hipsters. Like the other poster said, Burroughs is the only "Beat" worth reading, the only one truly transgressive or original.
>"lol I hitchhiked once, I'm so MAD! XD!"
>"dude buddhism, drugs and jazz, are me and my 2deep4u clique of friends cool yet?"
I'd rather read about people who are actually isolated from society or truly living on the fringe. Raskolnikov murdering a pawnbroker, Hamsun describing the joys of starvation, etc.
>>8091296
i'd advise you to take a look at 'atop an underwood,' the posthumous collection of young kerouac's really early work, and hear from the man himself about what he wanted to do in literature
>>8091296
i think a gay drug addict in 1940's America counts as someone truly living on the fringe.
>>8091336
here is a good miniature version of what he was on about basically his whole career
>>8091346
I acknowledge Burroughs being a true beast and original, also they weren't exactly getting chased by lynch mobs and they had their little group. They were hardly loners.
>>8091356
why should a writer be a complete social outcast, that seems like an odd qualification
>>8091374
people are silly
reclusive writers validate their social incapabilities
>>8091374
and yet it is Kerouac's calling card.
>>8091380
he wasn't reclusive at all, he was a fucking alcoholic
there's a difference
he wanted to be part of a world, and was for a long time, but could never manage it at the end.
that's different from romantic self-imposed exile
I really liked The Dharma Bums and Big Sur. I didn't care so much for On The Road, but maybe I need to read it again.
>>8091392
as i tell everyone, you MUST read the original scroll
the edited version of OTR is such a travesty
>>8091396
Well, I will admit, I didn't read the original scroll. Maybe I'll check it out, thanks.
>>8091405
the textual surface is pretty similar to big sur, which was what he wanted but was too new as a writer to push it through unedited. he wasn't trying to create a rigidly-structured novel made of chapters and paragraps, that's for sure
My friend Tom Pynchon considers On The Road to be a great American novel.
>>8091410
imagine if some editor hacked james joyce down into 'proper formal english,' that's how the novel version of OTR feels
>>8091470
the novel version is a good intro but ultimately i think it takes the reader too far away from what kerouac set out to do, creatively speaking. the original scroll is definitely in my opinion the real text. if it's available to you, by all means go for it
