However popular Kerouac may be, I think that the greatness of his work is still very underappreciated. For example, what Kerouac accomplished between 1951 & 1957 is very similar to what Kierkegaard did between 1842 & 1848 (at exactly the same ages: between 29 & 35). They both, of course, died young as a consequence, but in those 6 years they accomplished more than a normal lifetime of work anyway. They were both born into families of tragic gloom and then wrote works of love "for revival and increase of inwardness." Adios, King!
"There goes Dean Moriarty." The greatest book ever written. This is haunting and great and Kerouac is absolutely the best. I follow him, when my work travels me places. Eventually I'll have gone everywhere Jack went in On The Road.
Of course it is! Kerouac and the whole Beat Generation listened to jazz and smoked and drank and had sex and got high to jazz and Kerouac wrote On The Road listening to jazz music every single second. Of course jazz is meant to be the background music because Beat literature is all about that stream of consciousness and rythms of progressive jazz! Can't you hear Kerouac's rythm and style and way of speaking going along so naturally with jazz?
The fringe, those that stop and feel and reflect on the sorrow, the fleeting nature of youth and who respond by setting out to chase some of the joy that life gives in bursts. Kerouac will always speak to those and for those. The pooh bear line eludes me too.
I'm currently in the midst of FINALLY getting around to reading this, and man, what an experience. I have told people that this is the book that I would love to equate my life to. Written so beautifully, so honestly. It makes me dream of better times I never had a chance to experience, where people just picked up their friends and had only each other. If you don't read this you are only delaying your own progress.
at 16 , I hitched across America ( 2 of us ) along route 66... we started from NY and picked up 66 in the midwest ....there were no Mcdonalds , Red Roof inns etc .th journey was dotted with 'mom& pop' establishments .. from sleeping on the open dessert , the characters we encountered , the awe inspiring beauty and a few dangers ( some imagined , some not ) it was an awakening experience ..so it seems all road movies pique my interest ...thanks for posting
I just finished On the Road. I went down to the basement, and I was looking through a collection of paperbacks that my wife's late uncle was involved in publishing somehow. Could you believe that I got a 50s paperback copy of On the Road and Dharma Bums? :)
Of course, you are right, I didn't express myself correctly. So, the last sentence, with "and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear?", still amazes me, and still takes me back to that time when I was very young and the Revolution was just a few months old thing... Regards!
Hollywood can do plots.... and do them well but it can't do poetry that pulses and drives with the rhythm of what it is describing so that you know it in a way that no video/celluloid can ever bring forth. Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs and other beat poets and even Nelson Algren were writing an obituary for a reality that is now gone... Thank you Jack.
@19Maks94 I just finished reading this for pleasure. The reason I would praise this book is due to the parallels I (as well as most young people) can draw to my own life: the overwhelming but suppressed urge I have to go out, explore the world and find meaning for my existence, and the realization that this search in and of itself is as close an answer as I will ever uncover to the great question of "Why am I here?" This is just one of the many themes Kerouac delves into.
@MrJim12341121 Oh, MY BOY! To be able to say you never read any of Jack Kerouac's work means you are about, should you chose to, embark on a wonderful journey. In "Dharma Bums" there is an exceptional epiphany he has wherein he announces to God that he loves Him! It will bring you to tears. This man was an astute observer of human beings whose fame robbed him of his annonimity and hence his ability to observe. THAT is what prevented him from writing & ultimately drove him to drink & death.
Yeah, it is cool to actually hear the voice behind the words. I guess I'm not really sure what I pictured him sounding like, but I really get a kick out of the Massachusetts accent. Really authentic!
he inspires me to no end... I dont think Id write nearly as often as I do if I weren't inspired to by his prolific ways. tom waits too... a couple geniuses that havent been matched by another in my opinion. as I write this I may as well mention that I posted a video contained a recitation of some of my writing, a piece called "days feel like dreams", if anyone would care to listen and leave their honest thoughts.honesty is welcome, I dont claim to be anything but an amateur..certainly no jack k
I just saw the documentaries: "What happened to Jack Kerouac?" and "The Source". The Source covers the whole crew of Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corsi, etc.., highly recommend these!
well, the first part of it is from Visions of Cody ... but the broken down river pier sitting sensing all that raw land rolling bulge stuff are the final words of "Road"
One of the most beautiful aspects of Kerouac's writing is his style. For me, his incredible, spontaneous prose reflects in some way, how life really is, or was in the 50's. Life isn't always clean, clear-cut, sometimes it's raw and dirty and wild. He developed his style of prose so he could better express himself as he was unsatisfied with more regular writing styles and structures. Also he didn't particularly want his writing to be attached to the Beat Generation, it just happened that way.
Letter to Shannon Did you know that I love you madly. Far out gone gone love. Only the truly mad can love like that. But I also need you as much as I love you. I breath you in and forget how to breath on my own. You give life to me and awaken my senses. Love love love like some mad gone jazz cat playing in the cool rain. Thank you Jack for everything, JW Purdy
@HeadfulOfHollow I'm glad you did! I am not sure if I'm happy that a film is being made, but I definitely am nervous. I feel that if the movie is a hit, the Twilight fans will all read On The Road because it will be the "hip" thing to do. It's not that I don't want the book to get more exposure, but come on!
I'm 21 years old. When I read just the first chapter of this book it brought about an epiphany for me, the same I suspect it did for people who first picked it up when it hit the shelves in the fifties. It's a timeless literary masterpiece.
Kerouac should have made a tape where he spoke out the whole book like this, like those tapes you can get at the library. I love hearing Kerouac's monologue and hearing him speak out the book to the sound of a jazzy violin. Just an opinion.
(to) swing (verb): To achieve the highest state of well-being. To soar free and clear. Bobby Rydell attended a "Swinging' School." Bruce and Sinatra graduated.
He sounds like a typical American of that time, with the unpronounced Rs. He sounds a lot like Alan Ginsberg reading "Howl." Kerouac's parents were French Canadians, he was born in Massachusetts, and he didn't speak English until he was 6. He supposedly wasn't comfortable with English until his late teens! But this sounds like typical American English of the time.
This is audio from the Steve Allen Show - a precursor to the Tonight Show. Before a TV spot Jack would get nervous, but he made an album with Steve and would eventually relax. The preamble is not in the book but starts after "Gone.." with..."So, in America when the sun goes down..." And he ends, "I think of Dean Moriarty,I think of Dean Mor-i-ar-ty" Once upon a time in America! ed note: once a winner our jack got beaten down by the people that do those sorts of tings. A beat beat down = irony.
Jack was my "father", friend mentor in Northport 1957 and not too many people realize the real angle-headed hipster that he was and will always be..what time is it? 1957.
I am just finishing listening to Matt Dillon reading the entire novel on CD, having listened to it on a cross country road trip. I think everyone should do that. Dillon is terrific, but I only wish Kerouac himself had recorded it.
so many revolutionary, brilliant, forward-thinking men and women are gone from this plane of existence today. let's not make them the last to pave the way
@j23erbs Jack and the ones you mention were brilliant. Either you get this stuff, feel it, or you don't. If ya do, its great. The difficult thing is trying to get other people to realize what is being said, thru how it is being said. Life is abstract... and its hard to get!- anybody who gets close to it, in my book, kicks ass. The people you mention were trying to get there
I don't envy the lives of Kerouac and Neal Cassady. But I DO desire the cars they drove, especially the Hudson. Think I'm gonna buy myself a '49 Hudson.
@pradawallflower As long as it's true to the text. This book is about the burst of human freedom- like "Zorba the Greek!" The central focus is the bond between the 2 male characters. You know, like "Thelma & Louise" only the mirror image. Trying to break the bonds of human existence by cutting your own swath through nature. Ultimately you may fail -BUT WHAT A RIDE!
@Kellogs43able Agreed about the William Tell. Different from your original post - Russian Roulette? He pointed the pistol and fired one shot from a fully loaded gun. He shot Joan Vollmer Burroughs while they were in Mexico City, before leaving for a second trip to South America, then briefly NY, and on to Tangiers. He was arrested and jailed right after the murder - he was incarcerated for about two weeks, after his Mexican lawyer asked him to high tail it out of Mexico - he never returned.
He fulfilled his own prophecy of becoming an old rag, as he laid, like all hopeless drunks will eventually lay, on his deathbed having all those who had loved him scuttle to service his last, few, feeble wants while suffering the toils of their lost Jack's dementia. Bedpans replacing mountains and roads.
