Reading On the Road

[Anonymous No.20763451]

The beats are all insufferable faggots who thought they were way cooler than they actually were

[Anonymous No.20763501]

>>20763451
Okay?

[Anonymous No.20763532]

>>20763451
They were mostly a bunch of gay junky nerds that gassed themselves up because they had gay sex with dumb drunk jocks.

[Anonymous No.20763730]

>>20763451
>>20763532
You realize that the book is about the search for god? Not the literal plot elements or "being cool?"

[Anonymous No.20763756]

>>20763730
no its not. Its about driving around spitting pseudointellectual nonsense and taking advantage of people to support your shitty attempt at a bohemian lifestyle

[Anonymous No.20763766]

>>20763451
Burroughs was based and redpilled.

[Anonymous No.20763774]

>>20763756
As Kerouac himself put it
>Dean and I were embarked on a journey through post-Whitman America to FIND that America and to FIND the inherent goodness in American man. It was really a story about 2 Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God. And we found him.
This is really not that difficult to see if you are not a plot fag. Instead of spending the entire book judging them, try questioning their motives and actions, why are they doing these things, why are they on the trip, what are they looking for? You have the reading comprehension of a 6th grader.

[Anonymous No.20763778]

>>20763451
One of the most misunderstood books. Sometimes I wonder if people have even read it. Kerouac paints Dean in a clear negative light. Not sure why some think Kerouac was celebrating Dean

[Anonymous No.20763913]

>>20763778
You’re really not sure? Like Bukowski said, most people are dumb

[Anonymous No.20763916]

Ginsberg is probably the best of the Beats. At his best he really managed to channel a manic modern Whitman. Read Wales Visitation or Kaddish. Pity he fell off though.

[Anonymous No.20763926]

>>20763916
Like, this is clearly sublime Nature poetry:

All the Valley quivered, one extended motion, wind
undulating on mossy hills
a giant wash that sank white fog delicately down red runnels
on the mountainside
whose leaf-branch tendrils moved asway
in granitic undertow down—
and lifted the floating Nebulous upward, and lifted the arms of the trees
and lifted the grasses an instant in balance
and lifted the lambs to hold still
and lifted the green of the hill, in one solemn wave

[Anonymous No.20763942]

>>20763774
ostensibly they have some sort of "search for a higher power" in mind when they embark on these trips, but all they really do is come off as hollow pseuds on a bender.

they drive around, they get drunk and listen to jazz, try to fuck chicks, and generally act like shitheads to everyone they meet. Just because you try to qualify your hedonism as a "search for god," it doesnt mean you've actually explored anything profound. There's really no depth to any of their insights. "I dig life." Cool man. Real groundbreaking stuff.

>FIND the inherent goodness in American man
Yeah like the goodness of stealing shit and taking advantage of anyone who places an ounce of trust in you. The characters have no goodness or redeeming qualities

[Anonymous No.20763984]

>>20763942
You really are a plot fag of the worst kind.
>The characters have no goodness or redeeming qualities
No one claims them to be good, they are looking for the good that they were raised to believe was inherent in American men because they saw none of it around them. They were disenfranchised and angry but wanted something more, wanted that idea which they had grown up believing in. The hedonism in the novel ultimately is a representation of modern society and what they attempt to escape.

[Anonymous No.20764070]

>>20763451
This is correct. Burroughs is the exception and Ginsberg was the worst of them.

You're supposed to go through your Beats phase as a teenager (early 20s tops). The later it happens the more likely one is to be an insufferable pseud. Check out The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test if you want to hate hippies.

[Anonymous No.20764101]

>>20763916
>Ginsberg
That's not how you spell Burroughs

[Anonymous No.20764109]

>>20763984
Stop couching your argument with ad hominem attacks and buzzwords like “plotfag”
First of all, there isn’t much to the book besides plot. The dialog is sparse (and not very good) symbolism is almost nonexistent, and there are few literary devices employed beyond a straightforward telling of events as they happened. It reads as your most self absorbed friend describing you what he did over the summer.
Sure, you might argue that there is an overarching theme of searching throughout his anecdotes, but it still comes across as shallow. If your attempt at finding some sort of meaning in your life and in the American experience is bumming around and getting drunk, did you really make much of an effort?

[Anonymous No.20764111]

>>20764101
Kaddish is infinitely more affecting than anything written by any other Beats and shows far more self-reflectiveness, self-effacement and awareness of his own flaws. The rest are poseurs really.

[Anonymous No.20764118]

>>20764109
>I concede but I am still right
ok.

[Anonymous No.20764278]

>>20764111
Ginsburg is a pedo. Burroughs is based.

[Anonymous No.20764290]

Pynchon considers it one of the greatest American novels of all time. So what does that tell you?

[Anonymous No.20764309]

>>20763766
>pederast
>murderer
>art vandal
fuck him

[Anonymous No.20764319]

>>20763926
Wales Visitation might be my favorite poem of all time.

[Anonymous No.20765320]

>>20764309
he just keeps filtering scum!

[Anonymous No.20765767]

>>20764118
You just be underage or something

[Anonymous No.20767094]

>>20765767
You pretend to address what was said but you really just talk around what was said. You have not actually addressed a single thing I said itt, just keep on saying "I am right" and listing plot elements. Hard not too see such behavior as someone who knows they are wrong but unwilling to admit it.

[Anonymous No.20767183]

>>20763451
That's because you're living in the world the beats created. In early postwar America you'd be a square faggot (just like today, but without internet access) and your mind would be blown by these assholes and their writing.

[Anonymous No.20767584]

>>20767094
you didnt argue anything besides the novel being a search for god or a search for the goodness of America. I brought up elements of the book that I felt showed that it was a shitty search and lacked anything profound.
I've already noted the lack of much dialogue, but the few times Dean talks about finding "IT" I assume are meant to encapsulate the thing they're searching for. My argument is this search for IT is shallow. The book is saying "here are the things me and my friends did on our quest to find some essence of IT in America." I think their search for IT rang hollow because they never really got closer to finding IT and never really grew as people. I think the reason for this is that the search mainly consisted of getting drunk and rambling and acting like shitty people.
Saying "I think I am right and here is why" is called making an argument. I've addressed what you claim to be the author's intent of the novel was, and I am telling you I do not think he does a very good job of this.

[Anonymous No.20768076]

>>20763730
All you gotta do is perfect the art of making the normals jealous, angry, and intrigued, like that guy at the Family Express gas station.

[Anonymous No.20768561]

>>20764109
It is shallow he wrote it at 29 and was generally drunk and retarded. The only value from Kerouac is subjective hedonism. I like him for that, as when I read his later books when he was more drenched in alcohol I feel as If I'm there with him and it's fun, but any insight or revelation from him is pure fantasy. Good Series of posts.

>>20763774
There's not much formal merit to this search for God, just read the bible. Ending with an orgy in Mexico and thinking a white Venezuelan is divine is not revelatory, along with vague allusions to Solomon. Anyway, I've read all of Kerouac and he's retarded.