/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.13736498]

How do I even come close to experiencing the emotions these people experienced ?
I want to drink as much from the cup of life as them but feel held back by so many things .
What did you think of the book ?

[Anonymous No.13736509]

That's not writing, that's typing.

[Anonymous No.13736515]

>>13736509
what on earth does that mean

[Anonymous No.13736521]

>>13736509
I found out what it means, sounds like a big cope from him

[Anonymous No.13736600]

>>13736521
cope for what exactly? capote wrote better books

[Anonymous No.13736637]

>>13736600
cope for not enjoying his life as much as Kerouac enjoyed his. Probably spent too much time complaining about other people, was too focused on himself and not enough on the world around him

[Anonymous No.13737017]

I’d say hit the road, Jack but the old free America that he wrote about is gone. As hip and energetic as Kerouac’s writing was, much of it is suffused with nostalgia for a freedom that was rapidly fading. Both him and Cassidy died as substance abuse burnouts, worshipped by the hippie subculture that didn’t really understand them.

[Anonymous No.13737022]

>>13736637
sounds like a cringe pretext for being a shitty writer

[Anonymous No.13737684]

>>13736498
Embrace your fate. Know thyself, test yourself, do some drugs, get out your comfort zone. Heard someone say the other day "to get the life you want, want the life you've got."

It was great. Made me want to be a writer.
Pic related made me want to be what i am.

[Anonymous No.13737752]

>>13736498
Kerouac would sober up and live off pea soup to type on an endless piece of paper while on the road only to finish typing and retire back the the bottle.

[Anonymous No.13737764]

>>13737752
Based

[Anonymous No.13738015]

>>13736498
>I want to drink as much from the cup of life as them but feel held back by so many things .

[Anonymous No.13738036]

>>13737684
Yea man, cool.

[Anonymous No.13738056]

>>13736498
Twin sons of different mothers vs. brothers with the same mother.

[Anonymous No.13738177]

>>13737017
I don't know what you mean by freedom here. You can still meet people, get drunk, be an idiot. You can still travel. Hopping on trains isn't as easy, but you can travel by the cheapest means available and cover vast distances. It's not like Kerouac didn't use money to eat. And drink. Use some of that money to move. Get quick freelance jobs, they still exist.

What's going is the idea of socialising the way he did it. The wander into a bar approach. That's not really freedom though, it's manners, and if he was around today your main man would be trading off his good looks via social media to make quick connections. If I had been around in his day I'd have failed at his game. He wasn't more free, he was just playing b the rules o his day and age.

[Anonymous No.13739459]

>>13736498
Big Sur should be more widely read Imo. Its a quick read and aptly transports you a couple of years down the road from that kind of lifestyle.

[Anonymous No.13739701]

>>13736509
So clever.

[Anonymous No.13739704]

>>13736498
>drink as much from the cup of life
gay

[Anonymous No.13739904]

>>13736498
>>13738177
You are idealizing things way to much, they were both really handsome, that's it. If you don't have the chin of a God and natural charisma as Jack or Neal then you can forget about it.

[Anonymous No.13739985]

>>13739904
Case and point, that part in the book where Sal gets like $100 (today'd be like $800+) off some random girl he bones.

[Anonymous No.13740061]

>>13739985
I should add, with the soul -and explicit- purpose of leaving her and travelling to the other side of the country.

That's giga-chad stuff.

[Anonymous No.13740545]

>>13736509
I always thought this was funny because of how inferior his books were to kerouac's

[Anonymous No.13740662]

>>13738056
I don't know why I never realized these two were brothers. My gene pool feels a bit more shallow, today.

[Anonymous No.13740681]

>>13740545
Capote and Kerouac wrote about completely different things and led completely different lives. To objectively compare their two bodies of work is impossible, so to say that one is inferior to the other is really quite childish. Both were interesting characters (to say the least) and both are worth reading.

[Anonymous No.13740814]

>>13740681
Katy Perry and Shakespeare led completely different lives and wrote about completely different things. To objectively compare their two bodies of work is impossible, so to say that one is inferior to the other is really quite childish. Both were interesting characters (to say the least) and both are worth reading.

[Anonymous No.13740831]

>>13737684
Pretty much this. And get the fuck out of 4chan.

[Anonymous No.13740832]

>>13740545
yeah fuck Truman capone

[Anonymous No.13740838]

>>13740545
I'd take In Cold Blood over On the Road any day of the week.

[Anonymous No.13740847]

>>13740838
At least Kerouac had a soul. Capote wouldn't have been able to write that book if it weren't for Harper Lee carrying his gay ass through the interviews, and even then, it's just okay.

[Anonymous No.13740868]

>>13740847
Capote was the better wordsmith and it shows. His short stories are also very well-written and show heart. Soul is nonsense if you can't articulate it with grace. Harper Lee clumsily ripped off Faulkner with impunity. She didn't do anything remarkable.

[Anonymous No.13740875]

>>13736498
Just do it, get on the road. Me, I've hitchhiked all across my native Europe and met some people who were living the life that Kerouac portrays in his book. They're the (mostly Anglo) backpackers touring Europe on a sabbatical, trying to find profound meaning and enjoying the year(s) they spend pushing away the day when they have to grow up. I never liked this type of people, and while traveling, I realised that I would never become one of them because my personality just isn't like theirs. Seeing as you have to pose the questions you do, OP, I'm guessing that it's not for you either. And for the record, "On The Road" is an absolute piece of trash book that isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

[Anonymous No.13740888]

>>13740868
>Harper Lee clumsily ripped off Faulkner with impunity. She didn't do anything remarkable
not addressing it at all. She's the only reason the locals gave Capote their story. He was so unbearable they didn't want to talk to him. Also, Kerouac's prose puts Capotes to shame. Capote did absolutely nothing standout. Seriously, it's like white, untoasted bread with glitter on it.

[Anonymous No.13740901]

>>13740888
>Also, Kerouac's prose puts Capotes to shame.
Good one, pal. But Kerouac couldn't write for shit. The only Beat faggot who could write was Burroughs.

[Anonymous No.13740925]

>>13736498
Desolation Angels has a different tone depending on what characters are present.
There's a nuance to Tristessa too.
Big Sur goes more into the complete nervous breakdown direction.
Dharma Bums is comfy as fuck.

The prose requires a little more concentration, but when it actually kicks in, it's outstanding.

[Anonymous No.13740943]

>>13740901
"The world was upsidedown hanging in an ocean of endless space and here were all these people sitting in theaters watching movies, down there in the world to which I would return. . . . Pacing in the yard at dusk, singing "Wee Small Hours," when I came to the lines "when the whole wide world is fast asleep" my eyes filled with tears. "Okay world," I said, "I'll love ya." In bed at night, warm and happy in my bag on the good hemp bunk, I'd see my table and my clothes in the moonlight and feel, "Poor Raymond boy, his day is so sorrowful and worried, his reasons are so ephemeral, it's such a haunted and pitiful thing to have to live" and on this I'd go to sleep like a lamb. Are we fallen angels who didn't want to believe that nothing is nothing and so were born to lose our loved ones and dear friends one by one and finally our own life, to see it proved?"

"Then I went to meet Rita Bettencourt and took her back to the apartment. I got her in my bedroom
after a long talk in the dark of the front room. She was a nice little girl, simple and true, and
tremendously frightened of sex. I told her it was beautiful. I wanted to prove this to her. She let me
prove it, but I was too impatient and proved nothing. She sighed in the dark. "What do you want out of life?" I asked, and I used to ask that all the time of girls.
"I don't know," she said. "Just wait on tables and try to get along." She yawned. I put my hand over her mouth and told her not to yawn. I tried to tell her how excited I was about life and the things we could do together; saying that, and planning to leave Denver in two days. She turned away wearily. We lay on our backs, looking at the ceiling and wondering what God had wrought when He made life so sad. We made vague plans to meet in Frisco."

There's more honesty in any one of his chapters than any story of Capote's. I'm sorry you live such a beta life that the Chad beats elude you

[Anonymous No.13740949]

>>13740901
>The only Beat faggot who could write was Burroughs.
Completely agree. Burroughs is still one of my biggest influences, but I hate the rest of the Beats. I'm not even really sure why he's considered a beat other than by affiliation, and their aid in getting him published.

[Anonymous No.13740956]

>>13740814
Correct, comparing Katy Perry and Shakespeare is ridiculous. The two have nothing to do with each other.
>>13740888
Yet despite this “unbearable” personality he wrote a non-fiction classic and a good number of worthwhile short stories and novellas. There’s nothing wrong with his prose, and really he should be lauded for his success given what a bizarre person he was.
>>13740901
What about Ken Kesey?

[Anonymous No.13740968]

>>13740943
What I've noticed from Kerouac's works is there is not a lot of shitting on society. I don't think there's a single bad word he says about it. I don't remember him blaming anyone for anything. Overall it's all about his present life. His surroundings.

There's a part where he commentates a fantasy baseball game on Desolation Peak.
There's a part where he sleeps in the desert near Juarez.
Or that one where he just hangs around in the woods.
Or he's drinking with friends.

Not a lot of bitching going on, except for the one about the absurdity of life.

[Anonymous No.13740969]

>>13740943
Lots of clichés and mediocre writing at best. Where's the godlike prose you promised? If you boast about a dead fag's prose you could at least deliver. This is exactly why people mock American literature.

[Anonymous No.13740976]

>>13740969
>Where's the godlike prose you promised?

Learn how to read faggot.

t. not from America

[Anonymous No.13740981]

>>13740956
>What about Ken Kesey?
He wasn't a Beat.

[Anonymous No.13740989]

>>13740968
A good point, for sure. The chapters in on the road where he sees the shell of America, and all these hopeless people trying to cling on to a dead dream, he does so in a way that's not overwhelmingly depressing. He's always just like, well... yep, tiime to go get a beer and try to fuck a thot.

[Anonymous No.13740993]

>>13740969
It is obviously good prose. It's not a traditional style of writing but it is clearly not poor.

[Anonymous No.13740995]

>>13740976
You're beyond delusional if you think what you posted was even remotely good, let alone godlike. Read more, faggot.

[Anonymous No.13741011]

>>13740989
I remember him saying that "People sit in front of their TV, watching the same thing and thinking the same thing at the same time." Later he adds, "I don't blame them."

There's a rant about psychoanalysis, saying something like "I don't understand you guys, my mom is wonderful."

[Anonymous No.13741018]

>>13740995
First of all, he didn't post it, I did. Second, I don't remember ever calling it godlike. Good strawman tho

[Anonymous No.13741021]

>>13740968
>The part where they are hanging around with William Carlos Williams and where Carlos tells Kerouac to "keep writing like that"

[Anonymous No.13741085]

>>13736509
based

[Anonymous No.13741090]

>>13740981
He considered himself a link between the Beats and the hippies, and had much more in common with the former. I think he belongs in any discussion of Beat authors.

Anyway, people interested in this period should check out Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Both Kesey and Neal Cassady feature in it prominently, and it’s overall an interesting take on the 60’s psychedelic/hippy scene.

[Anonymous No.13741131]

>>13736498
I don't think I've seen someone communicate the idea of freedom the way Kerouac does it.

And it's not "just go hitchhike, go on the road" kind of thing. It's much more deeper and nuanced.

I think Jack partially loved Cody because Cody hated that lifestyle. There's a small sentence echoing through Desolation Angles, when Cody hangs around the horse races and tells Jack "I just don't want to crash." Meaning, that Cody understand the volatility of it, more than they do.

[Anonymous No.13741135]

>>13741090
>He considered himself
lol

[Anonymous No.13741241]

>>13741135
Thanks for your insight; well thought-out comments like yours are what keep us all coming back here.

[Anonymous No.13741257]

>>13741241
If you can't see the ridiculousness in your reply, then that's your issue and maybe it's better that people like you and OP don't come here at all.

[Anonymous No.13741297]

>>13736498
>How do I even come close to experiencing the emotions these people experienced ?

You can't.

>I want to drink as much from the cup of life as them but feel held back by so many things .

You're probably not handsome enough to pull off the "nomad bohemian" aesthetic, and you don't live in the America they lived in.

>What did you think of the book ?

Like 95% of beat literature, all style, no substance. Watered-down oriental mysticism, casual sex, pseudo-intellectual babbling, and drug-addled degeneracy can't substitute for substance.

The beats were the deathrattle of American literature. Every unholy seed that bloomed later on was already planted by the time they left the stage.

[Anonymous No.13741307]

>>13741297
Cope

[Anonymous No.13741315]

>>13741257
There’s nothing ridiculous about it. Kesey was well known among the Beats and hippies, and considered himself a link between the two. This is hardly a controversial opinion and I have no idea what your problem with it is.

[Anonymous No.13741322]

>>13741297
OP IRREVOCABLY BTFO

[Anonymous No.13741326]

>>13741307
>C-cope
cope

[Anonymous No.13741349]

>>13741315
The bottom line is that he wasn't a main beat.

[Anonymous No.13741358]

>>13740847
>Capote wouldn't have been able to write that book if it weren't for Harper Lee
Probably true, but Kerouac wouldn’t have been able to write On the Road without the influence of Henry Miller. The result is what matters, not the process.

[Anonymous No.13741371]

>>13741349
>he wasn't a main beat
Nobody said he was. You’re getting pissy over nothing.

[Anonymous No.13741376]

>>13736498
Are you sure you're not putting Chad's indulgent lifestyle on a pedestal, anon?

Is it truly a transcendent and all-fulfilling experience to fuck thots you don't care about, like most incels ( not in the pejorative sense ) think?

[Anonymous No.13741449]

>>13741297

I disagree with you..

The Beats were a result of both the willingness to say, and the willingness to read American literature that challenged the narrative of their times.

The Great Depression and WW2 created new stories with which to make stories. Literary Themes of Family, Social structure, and expected behavior gave way to both dark and hopeful paths into Themes of uncertainty, creativity, and challenge. The actor as a cog in the machine was replaced by the actor as the machine.

The forms of novels themselves changed: Sci fi and comics gains respectability as art; the novel as non-fiction blurred the lines and rules; and books could be about nothing and still communicate a story.

Instead of literature being a reaction to the world, literature created worlds that collided. I don't see any authors of novels before that doing that that weren't philosophy and French.

You may find them pretentious and not even a group by any pattern or standards up to that time, but that to me just shows your reactionary nature.

[Anonymous No.13741484]

>>13741376
OP's just a faggot who romanticizes the frauds that were the beats.

[Anonymous No.13741654]

>>13741484
>the frauds that were the beats
In what sense were Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Kerouac frauds? Please enlighten us.

[Anonymous No.13741673]

>>13741654
In every fundamental way that matters. The only salvageable one is Burroughs and in my opinion he's not really part of the Beat generation.

[Anonymous No.13741686]

>>13741673
Nice job dodging the question. Why even bother replying if you can’t substantiate your statement?

[Anonymous No.13741696]

>>13741686
They rarely can. It's a common thing on this board to bash the beats, but few, if any, actually offer legitimate reasons as to why

[Anonymous No.13741702]

>>13741696
>>13741686
It's already been answered here: >>13741297

[Anonymous No.13741727]

>>13741702
No, it hasn’t. That post quite clearly took the Beats to task for style over substance, as well as assorted degeneracies. Neither of these criticisms has anything remotely to do with fraud, which is what you accused them of. I presume you know what “fraud” means, so have at it — exactly how were Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Kerouac frauds?

p.s. Your opinion that Burroughs wasn’t a Beat is really amusing.

[Anonymous No.13741730]

>>13741702
that's an incel that doesn't even know what substance is

[Anonymous No.13741868]

>>13736509
this would be a sick burn except you just know truman spent hours by himself trying to get the wording just perfect and practicing so he could toss it off nonchalantly in front of an adoring audience

[Anonymous No.13741883]

>>13737017
i'd argue that one lives at a similar junction in history. a big part of on the road is the remnants of gilded age and depression america starting to give way to the consumer economy of the postwar years. jack and neal straddle both eras and could see the change happening

[Anonymous No.13741891]

>>13741696
>few, if any, actually offer legitimate reasons as to why
If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say the dislike is based on three things. (1) The Beats are close in age to the Baby Boomers, who a lot of people on 4chins bitterly resent; (2) The Beats espoused a rather degenerate lifestyle, which doesn’t resonate well with the more reactionary elements here; and (3) The Beats influenced the hippies, who in turn created/influenced today’s SJWs, so if you’re not pleased with the effects the latter group has you’ll naturally bash their spiritual ancestors. All these of course focus on who the Beats were and not the work they produced, as likely very few people here at at all widely read in the Beat canon, and those that are can’t produce literary criticism worth a damn (>>13740969 is a prime example). FWIW, I’m not a big fan of the Beats myself, though I read a lot of Kerouac and Burroughs (and their precursor Henry Miller) when I was in my early 20’s. If you’re an angsty iconoclastic little fart it’s great stuff, but rapidly loses a lot of its charm as you get older.

[Anonymous No.13741906]

>>13741297
christ, i hope you're meming because if you really believe this it's just sad

[Anonymous No.13741909]

>>13741891
>Like 95% of beat literature, all style, no substance. Watered-down oriental mysticism, casual sex, pseudo-intellectual babbling, and drug-addled degeneracy can't substitute for substance.

Refute this.

[Anonymous No.13741920]

>>13741906
How come, anon?

[Anonymous No.13741935]

>>13741891
You come to 4chan for literary criticism?? Are you serious?

[Anonymous No.13741945]

>>13741909
Why should I? You complained the Beats were frauds and I asked you to provide examples, which so far you’ve refused to do. I’m not interested in your attempts to change the subject.
>>13741868
Maybe so, but the result is cutting and quite witty. Let’s see you come up with something even half as good.

[Anonymous No.13741958]

>>13741945
> I asked you to provide examples, which so far you’ve refused to do.

Didn't you read any of them?

[Anonymous No.13741981]

>>13741958
No, because you haven’t provided any. You shot off your mouth, couldn’t back it up when challenged, and are now trying to change the subject. That would make you — what’s the word I’m looking for? — a fraud.

[Anonymous No.13741997]

>>13741981
I'm >>13741297, are you sure you're not confusing me with that other anon you are arguing with? Nevertheless, arguing with you is like arguing with a child. Come back when you actually have something to say.

[Anonymous No.13742049]

>>13741997
If you’re not the other anon, why are you then jumping into the discussion between us with a complete non sequitur? That’s rather childish of you.

[Anonymous No.13742073]

>>13736498
How the fuck did incels like this lead such chad lifestyles?

[Anonymous No.13742081]

>>13742073
no internet

[Anonymous No.13742091]

>>13742081
I could have been chad if I didn't spend my life posting on 4chan?

[Anonymous No.13742110]

>>13742073
>implying incels look like them

[Anonymous No.13742134]

>>13742073
it was a different time

[Anonymous No.13742227]

>>13742073
Because they weren’t incels. Kerouac was a star athlete as a teen and Cassady spent his childhood between skid row and reform school. I’d be willing to bet both had more pussy thrown at them during their short lives than you’ve had hot dinners.

[Anonymous No.13742240]

>>13742227
They had a more mature attitude towards sex too, coming probably from the abundance of pussy.

[Anonymous No.13742262]

>>13742240
>mature attitude towards sex

???

[Anonymous No.13742263]

>>13742227
Kerouac was a chad. Cassady was just a normie who was lucky to have a chad friend.

[Anonymous No.13742285]

>>13742227
Kerouac was a little repressed, had mother issues and was a romantic rather than a horndog. He seemed to do ok with women though but nothing like sex machine Cassady who was always juggling multiple women. He was also situationally bi, tolerating crushes from Allen Ginsberg and others. For the rest of his life Ginsberg tried to recapture the feelings he had when he met Jack and Neal, always looking for some young athletic yet poetic Adonis.

[Anonymous No.13742308]

>>13742285
Kerouac had no mother issues.

[Anonymous No.13742311]

>>13742263
Cassidy was the chad. Kerouac was a repressed Catholic boy who wanted to be wild and spontaneous like Cassady. I’m not tearing down Kerouac. He lived up to his potential as a writer while Cassady never did but if you read On the Road it’s Sal who has the man crush on wild crazy Dean.

[Anonymous No.13742318]

>>13742227
>>13742110
Both of them are legit subhuman in looks.

[Anonymous No.13742322]

>>13742227
This. People who think they could have lived their lifestyles if only they were born back then are fucking delusional. In all likelihood, you incels would've been the schlubby husband of some thot they slept with on their journey.

[Anonymous No.13742356]

>>13742311
strong homoerotic vibes. they sound like closeted homos, no offence.

[Anonymous No.13742359]

>>13742240
>>13742285
True and true.
>>13742263
If Cassady was normal, then God help us all. The man lived an incredibly fucked up life.
>>13742311
I don’t think Kerouac was all that repressed, although this is of course a judgement call as neither of us knew him. For example, he was outgoing enough to hide material evidence in a murder case.
>>13742318
You know what they say, anon. Opinions are like assholes — is it your fault that yours stinks?
>>13742322
Also true.

[Anonymous No.13742382]

>>13742356
Kerouac was completely straight, Cassady was bisexual and Ginsberg was a full-on homo. There wasn’t anything closeted about any of them.

[Anonymous No.13742390]

>>13742382
Was Burroughs pansexual?

[Anonymous No.13742399]

>>13736498
>do shitloads of speed
>treat women, relatives, everyone you meet as either obstacles or utensils
>crank out a book that's one long paragraph AND THEN THEY WENT AND THEN THEY WENT AND THEN THEY WENT
>working title: CRANKENSTEIN
>claim it's a paean to the American Dream of Freedom
>worship a narcissistic tweaker as a prophet
You can really miss this. In fact once you work out a book is a theorized turd being sold on the "Muh American Dream" menu you can generally live without it.

[Anonymous No.13742400]

>>13742311
I just learned that Cassady died in the town I'm from in Mexico WTF

[Anonymous No.13742409]

>>13742399
>>worship a narcissistic tweaker as a prophet
burroughs?

[Anonymous No.13742410]

>>13742390
No, he just loved hot young boy dick, after Ginsberg of course.

[Anonymous No.13742418]

>>13736498
I traveled around the United States like he did for a while.it's not as easy as when he did, but I found it it's relatively safe. you can't hitch a ride most places unless you're in a liberal State like Vermont. Mainly I'd say get involved in the WWOOF Program and work on farms for a month on end. it's easier than sleeping in the street. As long as you're willing to dumpster, have a bicycle a phone and a backpack your fine. I found it easier to be homeless than have a job that I hate.

[Anonymous No.13742421]

>>13742409
Burroughs was a junkie. Neal was the manchild tweaker who keeps getting presented as some free spirit when really he's a rolling ball of bullshit. People quote Burroghs, nobody quotes Cassady.

[Anonymous No.13742430]

>>13742421
>A tweaker is someone high as fuck on crystal meth. Tweakers can have sex with their partners for days at a time. They love to clean, organize, pace, etc. Tweakers can never sit still and can only focus on one thing at a time.
that explains le chad attitude in cassady

[Anonymous No.13742437]

>>13742418
You're in an entirely different world now, these guys bummed a few dollars from an aunt and bought a car and left. They could dump the thing if it threw a rod then buy another. Today you're on camera most of the time from coast-to-coast and you really could be just murdered. Credit cards were cardboard when they were first issued. You could walk back and forwards to Mexico carrying stacks of whatever and there really was nothing to be done about it. Nobody cared, the war was won. So let's do what we wanna do, and have a good time!
Groovy.

[Anonymous No.13742446]

>>13742399
>>claim it's a paean to the American Dream of Freedom
Kerouac claimed On the Road was about the search for God. He was a devout Catholic all his life.

[Anonymous No.13742458]

>>13742430
If your definition of chad is 'self centered, immature and manipulative' then yeah, he totally was.
Out in the real world a chad has more to do with how he is valued by his peers, not how he looks on instagram. Cassady had some of that too, but only amongst fringe dwelling types like him. They don't write much about the times they got slapped by cops for being all weird and noisy at 3:30am, or rousted by train company guards for trying to hop a ride that would void the company's liability if they fall off and get killed.
The books are an ad for being a shitheel, none of the rough, bad, boring and tragic stuff is really pressed on hard.

Look up that picture of drunk Kerouac taken by his wife at a party to show him how the fuck he looked and wake him up.

[Anonymous No.13742475]

>>13742390
He married and fathered a kid with the woman he later shot playing William Tell. They had a weird platonic connection and I don’t think he had a sexual relationship with any other woman.

[Anonymous No.13742531]

https://youtu.be/R0KluIXx6fI
Kerouac drunk with William F. Buckley. It’s painful to watch and read about him in his final years, bloated, bitter, drunk and living with his mom. I don’t want to debunk or put him down. I’ve read most of his major fiction and poetry, Beat biographies and criticism, and met people who knew him. He worked his ass off and then couldn’t handle the sudden fame and all the people misunderstanding him and looking for a counterculture leader.

[Anonymous No.13742534]

>>13742531
>and met people who knew him.
so what was he like? what did they tell you?

[Anonymous No.13742576]

>>13742446
That's what a devout Catholic would say. You could present a self-destructive and self-indulgent life as some sort of martyrdom. That would work back then, but not now. Not enough people are devout except evangelists who are in the bottom third of the IQ chart.

[Anonymous No.13742679]

>>13742534
Ed Sanders, who is part of that Buckley interview, said how sad it was to see his idol drunk and putting down the hippies though he understood why he turned out the way he did. Anne Waldman said she saw him walking around the Village when she was a little girl growing up there and how hawt he looked. Anyone else just talked about his writing with no revealing antidotes. There’s several biographies and his fiction is so biographical that there’s not much to reveal.
I saw a big exhibit at the New York Public Library where they had the On the Road “scroll” on display and a lot of his notebooks and paintings. The weirdest thing was notebooks and cards for this fantasy baseball game that he invented and sometimes mentions in his fiction. Apparently he played it all his life and it was a huge deal. So maybe he was a bit of a sperg?

[Anonymous No.13742698]

>>13742679
My brothers had a game like that. Imagined teams, batting averages, pitching speeds, positions. They remembered it all.

[Anonymous No.13742720]

>>13742698
It's a meme the world over that USAmericans are dumb. There's footage of adults fucking up multiple choice questions about 9/11, thinking Europe is a country, thinking the moon is bigger than the sun. It's the country in the world that leads in number of adults who believe in angels.

But Americans aren't dumb, just hear them talking about sport stats. There's men who haven't read a book since high school who can quote baseball and/or football stats going back to the 1920s.

Americans aren't dumb, their heads are just stuffed with irrelevant shit.

[Anonymous No.13742723]

>>13742698
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/jack-kerouacs-secret-obsessive-fantasy-baseball-hobby-before-fantasy-sports-became-a-phenomenon.html

[Anonymous No.13742734]

>>13742475
>the woman he later shot playing William Tell

this is funny to me every time I hear it

[Anonymous No.13742749]

>>13742679
>that he invented and sometimes mentions in his fiction

desolation angels, towards the end of part 1
for reference