I can’t get into Kerouac as much as I used to, but ‘On The Road’ is an irrefutable classic if for no other reason than its impact. Besides, I’ll always recall fondly that ‘buzz’ it gave me when I was 19 and full of the same energy and ambition and hunger and questions that Sal and Dean seemed to be.
Even if I misunderstood the book, it still got me HIGH in a way few books have done since.
This perfectly summed up my feelings. When I was seventeen and first discovering Kerouac, Ginsberg, Bukowski, Fante, etc., “On The Road” blew my mind and helped usher in my bohemian years.
To go back and read it now confirms its “classic” status, but it finds less traction in my older, wiser point of view.[/quote]
I agree with this as well. I love Kerouac and will always respect what he gave…
I do however find that Bukowski remains pretty relevant from the older perspective. I like his poetry. This one made me laugh today…
To The Whore Who Took My Poems by Charles Bukowski
some say we should keep personal remorse from the
poem,
stay abstract, and there is some reason in this,
but jezus;
twelve poems gone and I don’t keep carbons and you have
my
paintings too, my best ones; its stifling:
are you trying to crush me out like the rest of them?
why didn’t you take my money? they usually do
from the sleeping drunken pants sick in the corner.
next time take my left arm or a fifty
but not my poems:
I’m not Shakespeare
but sometime simply
there won’t be any more, abstract or otherwise;
there’ll always be money and whores and drunkards
down to the last bomb,
but as God said,
crossing his legs,
I see where I have made plenty of poets
but not so very much
poetry.
I can’t get into Kerouac as much as I used to, but ‘On The Road’ is an irrefutable classic if for no other reason than its impact. Besides, I’ll always recall fondly that ‘buzz’ it gave me when I was 19 and full of the same energy and ambition and hunger and questions that Sal and Dean seemed to be. Even if I misunderstood the book, it still got me HIGH in a way few books have done since.
[/quote]
I have watched this youtube a million times, just because that voice of his washes over me the way it does. I think it’s really beautiful.
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
PonceDeLeon wrote:
I’m sure even the widely accepted classics were recognized for their potential when they were first published.
Because the price of printing a book was significantly greater when books began to be printed en masse than it is today I would imagine publishers took more time to consider a manuscript’s worthiness for printing. Just the fact that a manuscript made it to print put it in contention for classic status. The price of printing is so minimal and the number of publishers so vast in modern times that pretty much anyone who can write a complete story can get published.
Also, just think about all the other materials that one does not need because of the relatively cheap PC – no more typewriter; no more endless amounts of paper; no more ink ribbon. This alone makes literature more available than ever before. With the advent of e-publishing I am going to predict that finding classics is going to be that much more difficult. Virtually everyone who can write will be “published”.[/quote]
Get a copy to Oprah. If she likes it, you’re golden.
what was that movie they made of his book? Brotherhood of the Rose or something?
and thanks for the suggestion[/quote]
The name of the book that you are thinking of is titled, The Name of the Rose. Great read. Good movie.
I believe Eco has written five or six novels. I grabbed Foucalt’s Pendulum off the bookcase (thought his name was quite odd) and found it to be a rather enjoyable read.
