Reading old books of science experiments for children, it's easy to become nostalgic for the days when you could buy jugs of sulfur and mercury at...
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First of, it wasn't too poetically written. It read like a diary of a nineteen year old. Secondly, this shouldn't be the go to encomium to American non-conformity that it has become. Real non-conformity and free spiritedness involve following your own belief system and being able to see the larger picture outside of the mores of your current time or place(Read "Self Reliance" by Emerson). The praised "hero" of this novel steals cars and knocks up women. How is that anything but criminal and irresponsible? Thirdly, I understand that this book and the Beat movement(along with rock'n'roll) were instrumental in removing the giant stick out of the 1950's ass. However, just because it had cultural significance doesn't mean that the work itself is automatically good. If it were possible to do a contemporary blind test of "On The Road", I think there would be more responses like my own. You gather a large group of educated and artistically leaning 20 year olds who never read the book or were familiar with it's premise. Group A reads the book as published with author and title intact. Group B reads the book with with no title, no author and name changes to the characters. I think you know how I guess Group B would rate the book.
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On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Puffopadrino, July 7, 2008
First of, it wasn't too poetically written. It read like a diary of a nineteen year old. Secondly, this shouldn't be the go to encomium to American non-conformity that it has become. Real non-conformity and free spiritedness involve following your own belief system and being able to see the larger picture outside of the mores of your current time or place(Read "Self Reliance" by Emerson). The praised "hero" of this novel steals cars and knocks up women. How is that anything but criminal and irresponsible? Thirdly, I understand that this book and the Beat movement(along with rock'n'roll) were instrumental in removing the giant stick out of the 1950's ass. However, just because it had cultural significance doesn't mean that the work itself is automatically good. If it were possible to do a contemporary blind test of "On The Road", I think there would be more responses like my own. You gather a large group of educated and artistically leaning 20 year olds who never read the book or were familiar with it's premise. Group A reads the book as published with author and title intact. Group B reads the book with with no title, no author and name changes to the characters. I think you know how I guess Group B would rate the book.(10 of 25 readers found this comment helpful)