/lit/ - Literature

>>3698346

*brofist*

We'll never let the legacy of Buck disappear.

>>3656045

you are a quality chap *brofist*

>>3649384

You're right anon. Please forgive us all.

OP, be happy like anon says. I will work my ass off so you can have a happy retirement at my expense.

>>3641667

*high five*

>>3631086

OP here. Laudatory, bro.

>>3615148

Always. My love for humankind is regardless of them agreeing or not with me.

Hey, we can be bros even if you support Manchester United! lol

On The Road.

I cannot resist it. I end up reading it every year while browsing the bookstore shelves for something interesting. It smells of search for meaning. If dropped against its historical context, it is definitely a challenge of the societal norms of a conformist time.

I honestly can find few contemporary works, if any at all, which truly and effectively challenge the norms of the times we're living in, the same way On The Road did back then.

How ironic. In a search for books which shake me and push me into looking at the oppressive status quo... I end up, as usual, with Kerouac.

How badly do you love OTR, /lit/ ?

>>2455376
sames. its the best for me so far as well

one more bump for the masses.

i'd love to get a thoughtful response

So I'm reading On The Road (inb4 baby's first hipster book blah blah blah)

And I keep hearing about Dean (neil cassady) inspiring so many people at the time, but when I read the book all I can picture is some tweaking douche bag that talks way too much when he's high. I guess maybe I don't understand how they were "pushing the envelope" because I don't know the social norms of the time. It doesn't seem at all taboo to me, and it wouldn't to anyone my age. So why do people lie about enjoying this sort of thing?

I hate it when people on speed think that the rest of the world wants to hear their bullshit.

I'm reading Jack Kerouac's On the Road and I'm wondering if there are any similair books, set about 10-20 years later.

I haven't read anything from Hunter Thompson, but I saw the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and wondered if you could compare 'the feeling'.
Also, what about Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test?

read Big Sur by him. its kerouac on top of his game

What does /lit/ recommend for books about "Belonging/Not Belonging" ?

It's for school and so far I've got "On The Road" as well as other Kerouac novels.

I know 'Belonging' is a bit of a gay topic but I'm trying to do the best I can with it, I appreciate the help.

>>2218821
this is a good idea. i think, and maybe this is what everyone's getting at, that the syntax is perhaps a little convoluted? I guess i'm just having a hard time fitting these words around an image that feels very concrete in my mind

Alright, so I just finished Kerouac's On The Road, and I'm not really sure what to think.

I enjoyed it, and I thought that Kerouac had some interesting things to say. Most of the time, that is. Other times it was just rambling. Overall, the book was sort of directionless, and I know that's sort of the point, but it seemed to end really abruptly. It's like he couldn't think of any point to make and just stopped writing.

I'm curious to know what kind of opinions /lit/ has on this book.

1The Recognitions / William Gaddis
2Big Sur / Jack Kerouac

>Kerouac and Cassady played by two babyfaced DiCaprio hipsters (read: the 2011 definition) faggots

srsly, what the fuck. Kerouac and Cassady were handsome motherfuckers.

10:51A:"Jº to the counter of the bar, orders inaudibly from an invisible counter employee, returns to couch, sits, finds that he sits lower than Jo, as if the couch bows toward the middle. Ja sits opposite Jo, but has turned herself slightly toward Jº, her legs crossed at the knee. Jo leans back comfortably, leg crossed at ankle. Jº, still feeling small and generally sunken-in, crosses his legs at the knee and leans forward awkwardly.
Jo: The directors always just want to do the weird, like its somehow better to be just really interesting and inappropriate and modern.
Ja: So wait— what was the name of that one you were telling about— with the dead girl?
Jo: No but its just annoying, the way they do it. Like, R and I are trying to get them to do a musicals class, but you know, I don't know if its going to happen.
Ja: Oh oh right, yeah.
Jo: And like, don't even get me started on the whole Romeo and Juliet interpretation they did— where I was playing Mercutio. They made Mercutio gay and uh— it was just— just such a, like such a drag. (Pause)
But you know— they wanted to do it subtle right? So I mean, at least it wasn't like I had to just be super flamboyant. But I guess— because some people told me— that like— my character made them cry so that's always nice to hear. But I mean, the theater program there is really not that good so I feel like the— one of the top already. Like, they love me there.
Ja: Thats really funny.
Jo laughs, Jº leans further forward and looks from Ja toward the counter and back twice. Ja uncrosses and recrosses her legs, placing the formerly lower leg now on top.
Ja: (to Jº) Are they bringing you your drink?
Jº: My— oh I don't— I think so. They should eventually, um— its gotta be done soon, right? I— I think I'll go ask if its not here in a minute.

Big Sur— Kerouac
The Crying of Lot 49— Pynchon
Infinite Jest— Wallace

"Yass, yass. Well, Sal old man, what's the story, when do we take off for Mexico?"

Allen was so jelly

people need to stop talking context and start talking content. fucking really lit? was he a good author or not. it doesn't matter what his background is. this shit makes me so fucking mad. god damn it, i've lost so much faith in you

"Dean can I suck your cock while we pretend we are negros"

It's all about context and time-and-place. The literary scene at the time was pretty stilted and formulaic, at least in the US. Even the more experimental stuff wasn't exploring a lot of the world beyond the wealthy and powerful, the most basic tropes. And along comes this kid from industrial revolution Massachusetts with perfect recall, a fondness for flights of fantasy and drunken trouble, and what turn out to be some extremely influential and notorious friends -- who starts writing about another notorious buddy, but in doing so captures the whole emergent chaos vibe of jazz and drugs and the cracking of the tranquilized Eisenhower 50s USA lifemolds into what would become the psycho (delic and maniacal) 1960s.

It's not his prose, it's not his plots, it's not even (quite) his characters -- it's all the stuff in-between that really nails what the less-than-Main Street USA world looked/felt like back in the days.