Re: jack kerouac/terrible drafts
Chris Ohlhoff (chrisohlhoff@yahoo.com)
Mon, 21 Jun 1999 07:29:19 -0700 (PDT)
Hi depressed,
I love On The Road, but I think I can understand how someone who was
raised outside of the U.S. may not be able to appreciate or relate to
it. I am also someone who has read a fair share of Hemmingway and
Vonnegut and I consider myself pretty familiar with all the "Beats"-
Kerouac, Ginseberg, Corso, Burroughs, etc, and this may also be part of
the appeal of the book, simply knowing about them all, their
friendships outside the literature. Maybe for a Kerouac sampler you
should read The Dharma Bums first and get into Japhy Ryder's (Gary
Snyder's) world. Realize that in On The Road when Sal refers to Carlo
Marx that is Ginsberg, Dean Moriarity is Neil Cassady, and Old Bull Lee
is William Burroughs. I would like to recommend that you give it a
shot again though, it may require more than a couple of pages to
develop a feel for the style and content of this ever-so-American a
story.
-Chris
--- depressed@collegemail.com wrote:
>
> I heard about this book, On the Road, by Jack
> Kerouac, in some movie
> and thought I should check it out. I read some of
> the reviews at
> amazon and many of them said that it was great. I
> liked the subject
> just some guy who travels around doing nothing,
> thought 'Hey, this
> is probably a book I'll like'. Anyway, I got it and
> read a few pages
> and it SUCKED!! I don't understand how anyone can
> think this book is
> great. I don't read much "important" literature,
> I've never read anything
> by Hemingway or Vonnegut or something but I thought
> I'd like this one
> and I really didn't. Anyone have any thoughts about
> this book?
>
> I've said before that I don't much like _Seymour: an
> introduction_.
> I tried reading it again a few days ago, to see if I
> would "get it".
> Well, I didn't, but there are a few things in there
> that I like a lot.
> My favorite line in the story is probably about the
> drafts, when he's
> talking about how when Seymour had been awake for
> long his hands would
> get really cold and "..he sometimes asked me if I
> felt a terrible draft.
> (No-one in our family felt drafts. Only terrible
> drafts)"
> I don't remember if that's exactly how it goes but
> something like that.
> I don't know why I like that line so much, probably
> because it kinda
> reminds me of my own family. Just thought I'd share
> that with ya.
> I also like the line in catcher when he says "She
> had a really nice voice.
> A nice telephone voice mostly. She should have
> carried a goddam telephone
> around with her."
>
> I live in iceland and I recently read a icelandic
> translation of
> Catcher and it sucked big time! Maybe it's because
> I'd read it in
> english before, I don't know.
>
> Well, anyway, I'm just rambling on and on
> bye
> -Grant-
>
>
> "I'm not like them, but I can pretend"
> -K. Cobain-
>
>
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>
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