Beat/Kerouac general

Was he a ingenious writer of litterature, a romanticized alcoholic or do the truth lie somewhere inbetween? Also discuss "beat-generation" in general, just started The Dharma Bums, found Naked Lunch a little difficult for my taste. (I don't have english as native language and is quite young if that means anything)

We're against liberal thought. Try the redpill instead of these cultural marxists

Lol, Kerouac was conservative and catholic, get your facts straight...

>into gay
>into sex
>into promiscuity
>into drugs
>into alcohol
>into tattoos
>had blacks and jews for friends

He was a degenerate, sweetheart.

The point is not his habits but his writing

I read On The Road and didn't like it. It has its moments, like when the protagonist is in the clubs and narrates how the musician play, but the other parts are shallow at best.
The first chapters is like reading a map of the USA, it gets a little better in the mid, but the ending is the true definition of lackluster.
I think we'll forget about him soon enough.
Read a book. No your Mein Kampf fanfic doesn't count.

>catholics dont sin
go back to /pol/

So I'll just say that I am an optimist, and I hate shitting on books, but On the Road is probably the worst book i've ever read.

It's trash.

You can't hide your personal degeneracy from your writing

>Catholics stick their dicks into AIDS-ridden man ass

Spotted the liberal

I loved On the Road. It has a great energy and very stylish prose. Burroughs shits all over him though. He was a real visionary.
Allen Ginsberg is easily chief among the beats for me. Sunflower Sutra and America are both very underrated poems. "A Supermarket in California" was the first poem I memorized. The way he updates Whitman's themes and style with modern urban imagery is perfect.

Speak for yourself ignorant faggot.

Sorry to infiltrate but what's the name of that really edgy poet who is always drunk and talks like an asshole?

That describes literally dozens of poets. Fuck off.

No, but you can write good books despite it.

Charles Bukowski

Thanks
? Not really. Name 5 others that fit Bukowski's description

>Name 5 other poets who were blunt/rude alcoholics

Frank O'Hara
Jack Kerouac
Edgar Allen Poe
Dorothy Parker
Dylan Thomas

Just off the top of my head.

Did some movement precipitate the Beat generation?

Modernism

I bet if people here were introduced to Kerouac via Dharma Bums rather than On the Road he'd have a much better reputation

I feel so too. I'm op and was thinking a shorter one would be a better start as well.

I usually read a little about the book before reading and sometimes during.

Anyone on here read The Subterraneans by him?

My feels on that novel are very mixed, would love to discuss it w/ someone.

bump

>I think we'll forget about him soon enough.

not likely, american literature would probably be entirely different if not for him

>read Junky
>think ''wew this is pretty good''
>decide to get more seriously into the Beats
>start reading On The Road as an intro
>tfw its entirely different to Burroughs stuff

I love both books but they're pretty different in terms of themes and style, and from what I know Naked Lunch and Burroughs other work is even more different.


What is it exactly that makes Burroughs 'beat' other than being friends with Ginsberg and Keroac?

...

is Hunter J Thompson a beat

I've read On the Road and Dharma Bums, and I'll put it like this: I don't like anyone in these books. They're self-obsessed, pseudo-intellectual deadbeats, and it's hard to feel all that sympathetic for Neal Cassady/Dean Moriarty, no matter how much Kerouac insists on him being some sort of tortured genius.

With that said, there is something he caputres that resonates above all of his - it's the meeting friends, getting drunk, making plans, travelling, all the stupid conversations and people you only ever met once. Likewise in Dharma Bums, I think the hiking parts and him living on the mountain are both quite beautiful. I suppose I also identify somewhat with Kerouac at times too.

Someone said you should read his works when you're older, and I think that's true. When I first read On the Road I didn't think much of it, but I think it gets better with age.

I honestly feel like the only likeable person in On The Road was Sal himself and to a lesser extent Carlo Marx

who is the best beat and why is it Bukowski?

like, he's obviously kind of a post beat, in terms of context and thematics, but i would lump him in the group.

i think thompson makes much more sense if you read him in the context of the beats

omg i love fear and trembling

Childhood is idolizing the beats. Adulthood is realizing Henry Miller made them all redundant.

omg i love fear and hatred in reno

Who would be up for making a Beats chart?

Kerouac hatted hippies, supported McCarthyism, was a traditionalist catholic, screamed about the Jews and literally burned a cross outside of a black neighbourhood when living in Florida in his mom's basement where he painted crosses and portraits of the pope.

He may have popularised mid-century bohemianism at first but he was /pol/ incarnate later on.

I mean to be fair he converted to Buddhism

The Lost Generation innit.

Of course he was romanticized, in the conforming 50s suddently appears a book filled with substance abuse, infidelity, and giving a middle finger to having a stable job, a book wich starts with talking about divorce. He became an icon overnight in the eyes of the youth, and also layed the groundwork for 60s rebelion, that was among other things - looking for self actualisation. Of course he never found it himself, just like the beats and the hippies after him. He looked for people and places that made him appreciate existence.