The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!"
So, I'm sitting in a cafe, drinking a coffee, when a song comes on the sound system. It's a woman singing, and the following dialog occurs between me and my brain:
me: Who is it singing that song?
brain: You know, it's that woman singer. She used to be the lead singer for the group 10,000 maniacs. But she's gone solo recently. She had a baby a few years ago. She did that song about Jack Kerouac you liked, back in the late 80's. Here's her picture [flashes me a picture of a woman with mid-length, brunette hair holding a microphone and singing].
me: Yes, but what's her name?
brain: Don't know.
me: What's her name?
brain: Don't know.
I give up, a few minutes go by.
brain: Nicole Kidman [flashes a picture of Nicole Kidman, strawberry-blonde hair, put-together look, etc.]
me: No. That's not right.
brain: Nicole Kidman.
me: No. Stop being stupid.
another minute goes by...
brain: Natalie Portman
me: No. She's much younger, and an actress, not a singer.
brain: Natalie Portman. That's close.
me: NO.
brain: Natalie Merchant.
me: Yes, of course.
But why does it take 5 minutes? What's going on here? What is the mechanism for storing this data. How come I can remember all that stuff about Jack Kerouac, babies, etc. but can't remember her name? How come I'm certain, the minute my brain comes up with the right answer. What's with Nicole Kidman, etc?
ok so i thought that i read somewhere that Jack Kerouac said that the hippie movement did not stem from the beatnik culture...i could be wrong lol if someone could help me out with this or help me find out what he really thought about the hippies that would be helpful
I know that this novel is an American classic, but my what circumstances. What themes and ideas allow it to be so?
... Thanks!
thanks everyone tons and tons of help you both are. in fact i go to a high school that is in the top 100 in the county and i scored way WAY above average on SAT's and i take ALLL honors and AP classes. so please go and suck it! i was looking for an opinion ... i know what my opinion is, but i wanted to know other people's ...
Does anyone know where I could read this book online or purchase it in a store for a cheap price? I want to read this book for free online, that would be the best thing for me. This book is written by Jack Kerouac and William S. Bourroughs.
If you had to design an English class, what would you do it on? What kind of subject material would you focus on? For example, I took an English class once called "Literature of Rebels and Revolutionaries" which was all about books by "rebels" like Jack Kerouac, Che Guevara, etc. Same idea but geared toward a younger audience.
Trying again because several 13 yr olds replied with vampire books. Please no vampire books. Here are mine in exemplum.
Nausea- Jean-Paul Sartre shaped my pre-adolescent misanthropy and guided me down the fabulous path of existentialism. It's been a joyride ever since.
Be Here Now- Ram Dass inspired my teenage little self to throw open all the doors and delve into the deepest psychedelic depths.
Shedding- Verena Stefan gave me the courage to adopt a take-no-prisoners, noncompromising attitude with my sex politics and fueled lots of thoughts about feminist ideology. Still working on it.
Works of Bakunin set into a motion a late political awakening. He is an awful writer and a genius.
The Dharma Bums- Jack Kerouac lent focus to my travels and hoboery
OK now you go
commemorate the 'beats?' I'm looking for say, a museum or something which houses a lot of artifacts, pics, etc of my favorite authors - Jack Kerouac, etc. Does anyone know of the birthplace in Massachusetts of Jack Kerouac?
Is there anyplace that commemorates the life & writing of Neal Cassaday?
I will be travelling to USA next April & would love to take a historic tour of my favorite authors, any information would be most appreciated.
legendary 'beat poet' and hero of "On the Road" - Neal Cassaday and the year it was released? I only recently heard that a movie has actually been made about this legendary American icon. Also, will there ever be a film version of "On the Road"? Has there been a film made about Jack Kerouac?
So my brother is turning 20 on December 26th and these are a few of his favorite books..
On The Road by Jack Kerouac, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter s. Thompson, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I'd love to get him a book he'll actually like so if anyone has read these and has another favorite? or just any recommendations are appreciated.
thank you =]
Was it any good? What are you reading right now?
I just finished The Great Gatsby; I'm going to have to re read it in order to fully understand it, but Fitzgerald was amazingly vivid.
And, I just started On the Road by Jack Kerouac!
For English, i had to read On The Road By Jack Kerouac, which is on the banned books list. And now that i'm done, we have to find out why this book was banned, or why was it too inappropriate for school. help anyone?
Thanks
I'm a sophomore in college and I have a rather large book collection. Im looking for something new to read. I love Cormac McCarthy, Hunter S Thompson, Vonnegut, and Steinbeck. Any recommendations that are similar to them or that are just good would be appreciated.
Favorite Authors Include But Are Not Limited To:
Douglas Adams
Jules Verne
Chuck Klosterman
William Faulkner
Ken Kesey
George Orwell
H.G. Wells
Ray Bradbury
Jose Saramago
J.R.R. Tolkien
J.K. Rowling
John Grisham
Oscar Wilde
Joseph Conrad
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Graham Greene
Ernest Hemingway
Jack Kerouac
Chuck Palahniuk
Charles Bukowski
Nick Hornby
I'm to old for this new high school girls trend. thanks tho.
^
Referring to Twilight.
I'll even settle for the 50's. I recently got into these kinds of books. I've read On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. I really liked these books and anything by them or about them or similar to them would be great. Any suggestions? Any of your favorites that you'd recommend would be cool, too.
It's by Jack Kerouac:
And how sweet a story it is
When you hear Charley Parker
tell it,
Either on records or at sessions,
Or at offical bits in clubs,
Shots in the arm for the wallet,
Gleefully he Whistled the
perfect
horn
Anyhow, made no difference.
Charley Parker, forgive me—
Forgive me for not answering your eyes—
For not having made in indication
Of that which you can devise—
Charley Parker, pray for me—
Pray for me and everybody
In the Nirvanas of your brain
Where you hide, indulgent and huge,
No longer Charley Parker
But the secret unsayable name
That carries with it merit
Not to be measured from here
To up, down, east, or west—
—Charley Parker, lay the bane,
off me, and every body
My main question is that if it's a free verse poem or not
Evening San Fran nights are best spent in the streets stirring up trouble with
Happy Jack, are you a fool?—life proved my face to be
Spat upon—that’s a yes, friend. Joints joints marijuana kief joints
Traffic lights reflecting off madcap loonies and stoned
Enthusiasts in their suits and glass towers that rent open the tortured sky
With a metallic riiiip sreeech! Open to angels
And bare-headed smiling oriental garden loving wine tasting chinamen—
Morrison says we must die—what a prophet of Jonestown—
In car, watching city hills rolling past my window,
Feels like I’m miles high, watching the lights of the city roll upon
A canvas of my own mind’s painting—such thoughts surge unchecked
Through my innocent mind as Hank forces the wheel of poor
Aged ‘54 cadillac to squeal like unhappy lovers who couldn’t
Quite get the dime in the coin slot, moan, what a boring love scene,
In observing such playing out in my mind—“dear, we’ll try again in the morning”—“But
I’m drunk!”—“Well then do something other than grab me, I feel
So used”—“But I’m drunk!”—and so on, until Hank finishes his mad
Turn to turn the focus back to the conversation at hand,
Does Rimbaud compare to the complexities of the queer prose
Of Ginsberg, and Kerouac’s capture of the beat american rapture,
I’m sitting drunk in the back seat as Hank turns to me—“what say you,
Love?”—to which I drink my wine and smile belatedly,
I miss blonde haired lovers, Hank perceives such,
“Boy, have we gotta get you fucked by a mad woman!
You are unhappy, a night with a wild brunette will set you straight,
Look at her, standing solemn on the street, what about her?
No wine, boy, no wine.”
—and so on, until I’m sick and tired of listening to mad rants on the mysteries of
Sex and one night stands, I look forward to conversing with Cass
On the subject, perhaps drink and sleep, holding tight,
Promised I’d be faithful, and damn, just waiting—
Watching wine flowing down her dress as she quirks an eyebrow and
Asks “yes?” and cracks a smile to see my expression upon her body,
And back to backseat car ride, not sure where we are headed,
I had never been the one to care, just the one to smile and drink
And smoke to loosen up, to which I then open my soul
Gushing forth and banging the headseat and bursting out,
The world smiles and I laugh, Lucas moans to the pair of fancily adorned
Women on the corner, four way stop, luck dealing him a red light,
Groaning poetry about his journeys to lakes with lovers and red lips
To which the ladies laugh and continue on their way,
Suddenly the radio pushes out another tune,
“hate your next door neighbor,
But don’t forget to say grace”—to which I cry,
“Boys, we’re on the Eve of destruction driving in this mess of a tank,
Let me out!”—O, and poor happy me,
Wine bottle in hand, staggering out on the streets,
Searching for queens, finding wives,
Who are being happy indeed, I feel as in court, but is
Only my mess of a mind, red wine seeping creeping,
And I stumble into a corner, a hub of activity
Where I observe zen cats passing out on the streets and rocking down hillways
Thumbs in pockets an’ eyen’ the passerbys cold and hard,
Like mankind’s ass,
And to me they stop and share their wares and offer me a ride,
Humbly I stumble into a ’92 subaru white and speeding wildly through San Francisco
Parkways and beaches to churches and diners-cafeterias at midnight.
Humble college boy with cherubic expression and pool eyes with Visions of Cody
Hanging out jacket pocket smiles at me over my meal of beefy soup and
Hard-tack bread, tastes of garlic and vegetable oil—I’m not one to complain—especially
Over the time I rode six hours straight by Amtrak train from Sacramento to Hanford
For Thanksgiving holiday next to hard pimp
And drawing up knees to chin curled against window temple resting on churning rocking
Window watching the countryside melt along melding into towns rusting abandoned
Company windows and loading docks, overgrown yards and farmsteads—needless to say
The boy is a knowledgeable loon talking and in constant motion of combing
Hair back to smile and blink rapidly—muscle spasm?—and talks to me
About novels and classical tone clarity, beating thrumming his ink-stained
Fingertips against the grain of the rusting chipped table at which I sit and
Slurp soup, words coming up against me rising cascading and running clean
Out the other side—I seldom listen to anyone anymore.
hi, i need to do an essay on innovation of experimentation used by a writer with regard to form/and narrative structure.
ive picked jack kerouac and his novel on the road, but dont know wat to say.
any tips?
Again, this is just a 1960s quiz/poll for those of you who are looking for something to do and are fans of the 1960s. The questions are basically based on what you prefer. Okay, Here goes:
1. The Doors' "Break on Through" or The Rolling Stones' "Gimmer Shelter"?
2. Deadhead (Grateful Dead) or Ledhead (Led Zeppelin) <---(Led Zeppelin began in 1968, so it counts)
3. Jack Kerouac or Allen Ginsberg? (Which one was the better writer and more influential in the 1960s)
4. Iron Butterfly or MC5?
5. Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" or Donovan's "Sunshine Superman"?
6. Counterculture or Nuclear family kid?
7. Fill in the quote: "If you're old enough to die for your country, you're old enough to ______"
8. Sit-ins or marches?
9. Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow" or The Animals' "Winds of Change"?
10. Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X?
11. Summer of Love (1967) or going on the bus ride across the country with the Merry Pranksters and Ken Kesey?
12. Psychedelic drugs for spiritual reasons or for kicks?
13. Psychedelic Rock or Folk music?
14. Janis Joplin with Big Brother and The Holding Company, or Janis by herself?
15. Jimi Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland" or The Doors' "Strange Days"?
16. Woodstock or Altamont?
17. The protests at Chicago in 1968, or the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley (1964-1965)? (Which would you have wanted to be apart of)
18. The Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreamin'" or Canned Heat's "Going up the Country"?
19. Joe Cocker's "Let's Go Get Stoned" or Country Joe and The Fish's "Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag"?
20. Artist during the Summer of Love in the Haight Ashbury (before it got scary) or musician who got to play at Woodstock? (which would you rather be)
There you guys go! Peace!
I am reading On the Road right now, but I don't know where to go next!
I have almost all of his books and I know that he writes about some of the same characters, does anyone know of any order we should read them in?
Thank you kindly
Don’t suggest Twilight, because I can guarantee I read it before you.
I want a book that's fast-paced, impulsive, and darkly ironic, but at the same time almost satirical. Something heart-wrenching. Something that will make me think.
Just to give an idea, some books I really enjoy are:
Godless, Pete Hautman.
The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot.
On the Road, Jack Kerouac.
Naked Lunch, William S. Boroughs.
The Inferno, Dante.
Maximum Ride, James Patterson.
Needful Things, Stephen King.
Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare.
I am the Cheese, Robert Cormack.
The Midnighters, Steven Westerfield.
Open to anything, whether it meets all, some, or even none of my criteria.
Hahahahaha! I've read Bunnicula, actually. I like the part where Chester reads to kill a vampire, you have to stab him in the heart with a stake, and then Harold attacks the bunny with a steak. Hahaha.
Hahahahaha! I've read Bunnicula, actually. I like the part where Chester reads to kill a vampire, you have to stab him in the heart with a stake, and then Harold attacks the bunny with a steak. Hahaha.
There are too many good answers to choose! I can't pick, so I'm putting it to vote. Thanks so much, everyone!
School project :(
I'm thinking On the Road by Jack Kerouac
but I wasn't sure if anyone has actually ever
read any books. The main authors my teacher
was talking about are Keroac, William S. Burroughs,
and Allen Ginsberg. (Sorry if the names are misspelled!)
I've been looking all over the internet and I'm having trouble finding anything that gives me a straightforward answer. Any help would be very much appreciated! =)
I really want to go hitch hiking and be crazy like Jack Kerouac for a year. I will be using couchsurfing.com to set myself with places to stay and friends, but some nights I'm sure I will be camping out. I will also be busking the whole time for food money and what not. I do have a car, but I don't want to bring it along. Any tips from pros out there? I can go south where it is warmer, but winter is a good long time. Thanks and peace
I want a book that's fast-paced, impulsive, and darkly ironic, but at the same time almost satirical. Something heart-wrenching. Something that will make me think.
Just to give an idea, some books I really enjoy are:
The Inferno, Dante.
Godless, Pete Hautman.
The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot.
On the Road, Jack Kerouac.
Naked Lunch, William S. Boroughs.
The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli.
Maximum Ride, James Patterson.
Needful Things, Stephen King.
Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare.
I am the Cheese, Robert Cormack.
The Midnighters, Steven Westerfield.
Open to anything, whether it meets all, some, or even none of my criteria.
And please, don't suggest Twilight. It annoys me. I read that book the year it came out, when no one knew about it and a Google search yielded about 30 results.
Also enjoyed:
The Alchemist, Paulo Coehlo.
The Inheritence Triology, Christopher Poalini.
The Odyssey, Homer.
And yes, my taste is rather catholic.
Lots of reading here, be warned.
I broke up with my girlfriend in the beginning of July. It was a tough thing to do but necessary because we had grown into very different people over 3 years and at a young age (I am 23, she is 21). I know opposites attract, but think of water and oil, or ugly and Natalie Portman.
I haven't had any contact with her at all since then. About a month ago a mutual friend said she had run into her, and learned that my ex girlfriend had moved in with a boyfriend. A little sudden, I thought, but I decided that she knew what was best for herself and anything I did would only be interfering. Besides, it hurt enough to hear about her and I didn't need to try opening up lines of communication again. We were like drugs for each other, no matter how much it hurt we always got back together and then broke up, it was like weaning yourself off of a drug. The only way that I could successfully do it was to just break up big time and leave it. It's worked til now.
Recently, my email address changed, and every week or two I check my old one to see if I have recieved new messages from people who think that I still use it. Well, dated 6 days ago today, was an email from her.
To spare copy/pasting the whole sad thing, I'll paraphrase and say that the boyfriend she moved in with had broken up with her, though she still was living with him and sleeping opposite sides of the same bed. It was a terrible place to live, apparently, very cold and mice and other gross stuff around. She said her pants don't fit her anymore and she'd been crying for days, and just couldn't do anything. Apparently in no condition to drive she even found it hard just to move normally, to the point her ex boyfriend wouldn't let her leave the house because he was afraid she would hurt herself.
She decided to close it by saying I'm the only person she would even think of letting hold her now, and that she really needed someone to talk to, to just call her when I got the email.
This is hard to discuss because you folks obviously don't know anything about her or me. Again, I'll try to keep it brief.
She had family problems for a long time, and moved in with me when I was 19, I think. We had a normal relationship in the beginning, but she eventually had to move back in with her parents when I did the same thing. She's had a lot of mental things going on, like a minor case of OCD and a major lack of confidance, major body image issues and a self-imposed eating disorder. This is in addition to trying to kill herself twice, going days without eating and taking laxatives when she did, and a string of infidelity when we were together. She's a fashionista and a party girl and looked at any guy who gave her compliments with fluttering eye lashes. She also had a terrible ability to read people and their intentions.
I came from a poor family, still am poor, but not destitute. We draw names for Christmas, keep the heat at 65, that kind of thing. My dad died when I was 5 and my brother had a problem with alchoholism before he hit the road for a few years (he turned out straight, don't worry), so it was me and two sisters and my mom. From that I developed a sort of chivalry where it was my duty to take care of the women. The problems I have in my character are, from what I've heard and can understand about myself, a case of laziness, a bit of an anger problem (I hate driving), unparalleled ability at ruining a moment (this is usually intentional to make people laugh), and a habit of white lies to make a situation more palatable ("No, I didn't check her out" or "These cookies you baked really ARE good!"). I'm a tramp (in the Jack Kerouac sense of the word) and an optimist and KNOW that it is my life's purpose to help people in need. It's been said that the only time you can pull the wool over my eyes is when I put on a sweater, so I am an excellent judge of people. But she never listened.
So now you have this long list of things. Maybe you would say that I should go back and talk to her, at least to give her a shoulder to cry on. Maybe you are asking yourself why I've written this in an almost light-hearted tone. Because it's easier for me to cope if I'm not all sappy and emotional, and because it's a lot of material- I might as well try to make it easy to read.
Now for why I don't want to talk to her, why we broke up for good in the first place.
We had broken up for about two months before all of this. Out of the blue, I get a phone call from her. It's an emergency, get back to her ASAP. We end up meeting at a local school on the swings to talk about it, against all my judgements. What's the problem, I ask her. I'm pregnant, she says. After my heart started beating again I asked if it was mine. I threw all of my personal goals out the window to help raise a child because that's the kind of person I am. It's not yours, she says, it's [insert doucebag's name here], you know, your best friend.
So again, once m
I keep searching and it keeps talking about mercury or some other science crap but I need to know what it means in the context of this:
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" was, in fact, an extraordinary three-way amalgam of Jack Kerouac, the Guthrie/Pete Seeger song "Taking It Easy" ('mom was in the kitchen preparing to eat/sis was in the pantry looking for some yeast') and the riffed-up rock'n'roll poetry of Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business."
THANKS
I'm looking for some new books to read. I'm fourteen and in ninth grade. Books I have really enjoyed include:
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
(Actually all Kerouac and Burroughs for that matter)
Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Any Hunter S. Thompson books
Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
Walden by Thoreau
Ulysses by James Joyce
Kurt Vonnegut books
And so on...
I've been getting into the classics lately too. Any recommendations?
I've read Saratoris by Faulker, I've been meaning to check out Sound and Fury though, so I'll give that a shot. Thank you.
*PLEASE HELP ME COMPARE/CONTRAST:
VARDIS FISHER, JOHN STEINBECK, JACK KEROUAC
-I need their comparison to Eudora Welty
-I'm not asking for any suggestion or answers "google it!"
- I just need other more facts!!!
-Hope I find the ones im looking for!
Thanks!
I was told that most of his novels involve the same characters and that for the books to make more sense you should read them in order. Trouble is I don't know what order to read them in!
I'd appreciate any help. Thanks much!
And by what order I mean which particular book first, followed by what book second, etc. etc. Sorry that I wasn't SPECIFIC enough for the smart asses out there.
These are similar to the Before and After category questions on Jeopardy. I desperately need to figure these out for a game I'm playing. Any answers, even if they're just guesses would be very appreciated!
1. "Popular" blonde cheerleader is Prince Charles' mom
2. Tiny movie mouse who wins a child beauty pageant
3. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet star in the movie "Don't be nosy!"
4. Captain John H. Miller's favourite Reality TV show host
5. Ignacio Suarez's daughter watches this Max Fleischer cartoon
6. J.K. Rowling's fifth basketball team from Arizona
7. Amy Poehler's show opening line about John Travolta's 1977 classic
8. Halle Berry's 007 film won her a Susan Lucci-esque award
9. Celine Dion sings this chart-topping theme song for Jack Kerouac's novel
10. Barbara Eden's TV show featuring Christina Aguilera's first #1 single
11. Will Smith must have worn these MJ shoes to play sports
12. Britney's first #1 single that might've been co-written by Jim Croce
13. The Circle's first evictee might have this tap-tapping bird as a pet
14. The Beatles' 8th studio album was a ten-part miniseries on World War II
15. Adam Sandler's titular character living in Stars Hollow
