4 ms·

"On the road" is all about consuming. Consume alcohol on a bar. Consume music (literally dancing to other people's tune). Consume women (literally paying for

"On the road" is all about consuming. Consume alcohol on a bar. Consume music (literally dancing to other people's tune). Consume women (literally paying for them as well). Consume drugs. There's very little production at all on the book. "People talking shit fruitlessly on drugs to each other" is the closest it gets to it. Oh yeah sorry, there's the production of a few babies, treated mostly as nuisances to get rid of. If your counterculture consists of spending money on the hospitality sector and petty crime, well, good luck. I think it works pretty well as a warning, though. Maybe I'm just old?

dbspin 7y ago
Have you somehow missed the fact that the reason we're discussing the beats at all is that they collectively produced some of the most influential works of 20th century literature? The point of the beat movement, if it's reducible to a single idea, was to escape the prison of an expected life - to be and to experience the possibilities inherent in the final gasp of [white imperialist patriarchal] freedom in colonial America, and then to create art that successfully articulated and perhaps even evangelised that experience. I don't think anyones denying the misogynistic, sociopathic elements of their behaviour (or indeed of artists throughout history from Carravagio to Cosby). To advocate for the importance of art as cartography of experience is radically different to suggesting the lifestyle of the artist should be one to emulate. Part of the seductiveness of art is as escapism, as confrontation with darkness, as elegiac vision. There is little space in our contemporary culture for exploring the contradictions inherent in our shadow selves - let alone how they are necessary for light to thrive. It's exactly this resonance: with irresponsibility, with self destruction, with the truth of the moment (irregardless of consequences) that makes the work of the beats still so seductive.
- silveroriole 7y ago
  The problem is, who is likely to find On the Road an escapist, elegiac, seductive fantasy? Sure, it’s not the ‘sensible rationalist’ slatestarcodex guy, but it’s certainly not, say, most women (unless their greatest fantasy is very masochistic). IMO the people who will find it the most seductive are precisely the trembling bourgeoisie who, of course, harbour fantasies of grabbing everything they can, using it mercilessly, throwing off the shackles of marriage and shagging everyone they can, etc. Every boring mediocre middle class white dude has these fantasies. If it was transgressive then, it ain’t now. It’s the opposite.
  - ulisesrmzroche 7y ago
    That’s not what the books are about. Kerouac went on the road because of a very messy divorce, he didn’t abandon his wife. It’s literally the opening paragraph
    - watwut 7y ago
      Reading about his behavior and attitudes makes me think the divorcing him was a quite a good idea for her.
      - ulisesrmzroche 7y ago
        You don’t know what your talking about. Common problem here in HN.

dbspin 7y ago

Have you somehow missed the fact that the reason we're discussing the beats at all is that they collectively produced some of the most influential works of 20th century literature? The point of the beat movement, if it's reducible to a single idea, was to escape the prison of an expected life - to be and to experience the possibilities inherent in the final gasp of [white imperialist patriarchal] freedom in colonial America, and then to create art that successfully articulated and perhaps even evangelised that experience. I don't think anyones denying the misogynistic, sociopathic elements of their behaviour (or indeed of artists throughout history from Carravagio to Cosby). To advocate for the importance of art as cartography of experience is radically different to suggesting the lifestyle of the artist should be one to emulate. Part of the seductiveness of art is as escapism, as confrontation with darkness, as elegiac vision. There is little space in our contemporary culture for exploring the contradictions inherent in our shadow selves - let alone how they are necessary for light to thrive. It's exactly this resonance: with irresponsibility, with self destruction, with the truth of the moment (irregardless of consequences) that makes the work of the beats still so seductive.

silveroriole 7y ago
The problem is, who is likely to find On the Road an escapist, elegiac, seductive fantasy? Sure, it’s not the ‘sensible rationalist’ slatestarcodex guy, but it’s certainly not, say, most women (unless their greatest fantasy is very masochistic). IMO the people who will find it the most seductive are precisely the trembling bourgeoisie who, of course, harbour fantasies of grabbing everything they can, using it mercilessly, throwing off the shackles of marriage and shagging everyone they can, etc. Every boring mediocre middle class white dude has these fantasies. If it was transgressive then, it ain’t now. It’s the opposite.
- ulisesrmzroche 7y ago
  That’s not what the books are about. Kerouac went on the road because of a very messy divorce, he didn’t abandon his wife. It’s literally the opening paragraph
  - watwut 7y ago
    Reading about his behavior and attitudes makes me think the divorcing him was a quite a good idea for her.
    - ulisesrmzroche 7y ago
      You don’t know what your talking about. Common problem here in HN.