I read his most well-known book, On the Road, earlier this year, and it totally changed my life. Now I'm reading Visions of Cody, and I think the same thing will happen again. I also hope that once I have my record player, I can buy good versions of his audio recordings.
Maybe Jack Kerouac wasn't the best writer, and to some he's grossly over-sentimental. But I think what made him so great was just that. He was writing from his heart. He could give the most mundane of things this dream-like aura about them. And what also makes his books so enchanting is that they're all autobiographical. He just wrote them all as fiction. It's amazing how he could capture so many sides of the same people (as many of the characters are recurring). Lately, I've become convinced that if I ever got to meet Jack Kerouac in real life, I would be totally enamored. We saw the same things, and maybe shared the same kind of soul, if you get what I'm saying. I'm just as "grossly over-sentimental" as he was.
Just wanted to show some love to my favorite writer, and one of the human beings I admire the most. See ya next entry. And happy birthday to Jack Kerouac,
"...because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"
"And I will die, and you will die, and we all will die, and even the stars will fade out one after another in time."
:'D I love author love, as I'm sure you know <3 Me, Gaiman and Lewis share the same birthday week so I never forget them (Scorpios 4 ever <3)
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to read work by J. K. Chesterton (I don't need to explain why, freak'n Chesterton) and J.R.R. Tolkien (him and Lewis were homies, a lot of Lewis' apologetic views on religion before conversion was from him and his friends conversing. I love when to great men are friends)And a writer called G.E.M.Anscombe. She was Lewis' arch rival in debate but, I must admit, a complete BEAST in her field (look up their confrontation on wiki or remind me to tell you the story on last.fm. good story for any fan)
ANYWAY, I need to start opening my horizons to new authors: I only win the Jeopardy questions on English authors of the 19th-20th Centuries. that's sad. But aw well.
*cough cough* ANYWAY so what kinds of things did he right about? I'm afraid I'm unaware of authors without English accents or who don't smoke 69 times a day.
Well, Kerouac was a Pisces, and I'm a Cancer. Scorpios and Cancers are compatible signs too :D
ReplyDeleteI tried reading J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and I just couldn't get into it. He's a good writer though. I looked up G.E.M. Anscombe on Wiki, but I only found vague info on her arch rivalry with C.S. Lewis. So tell me, it sounds like juicy gossip.
Lulz. Most of his stuff was autobiographical. But it doesn't feel like it. Like I said, he made it feel like fiction. His most famous books all tie in somehow. The one I'm reading now ties in with "On the Road". He crossed the country several times, so his books often have that theme. He wrote about his fellow writer friends, jazz, his childhood, love, etc. If you want, I'll let you borrow "On the Road". It's his most famous book, and in some ways his best.
UH-DUH, only one of the most notoriously best friendship compatibilities in the whole darn horoscope :-)
ReplyDeleteThats the juiciness: NOBODY.EFFING.KNOWS. Nobody really recorded the debate 'cept the topic (in the Wiki, idk it on my head) But it was so gnarly that he stayed with kiddies books and religiously supplement writing after that. I first i hated her, but then I was like ,"she must have been a BADA$$(pardon the french, can't describe her any other way)" They have similar conservative backgrounds but look at things through two different windows. Shes quite the card and had a lot of gull taking on Lewis during his famous Oxford hay-days. Him and his posse were there, being super cool Oxford brits, and at a open debate she just straight up beat his but so bad he had to edit a whole chapter in "Miracles" just to defend his viewpoint for future debate. So bad that only two authors, I think, ever VAGUELY recorded it or mentioned it ever STILL no record of what exactly was said. A conservative catholic mother of,like, 8-or-something kids educated women BACK IN DA DAY. I'll bring it up in our next last.fm thread. I thought it was Lewis-hater urban myth. Then I was like "DANNNNNG"
:'D sounds like fun
http://reformclub.blogspot.com/2006/06/cs-lewis-anscombe-debate-revised.html
ReplyDeleteThis is super short with links, that should tell you the story
Horoscope compatibility FTW <3
ReplyDeletePoop. Like, does anyone even know what the debate was ABOUT? I mean, she was a believer too. It wasn't like a heated debate between a believer and a non-believer. She must have beaten him badly. I feel bad for C.S. Lewis. Like really. He was so awesome at debates. And to think someone might have torn him down THAT BADLY. Holy papayas.
Yep, it's a lot of fun to read his works. Sometimes it was a bit sad. Like, "Visions of Gerard" is supposedly really sad. It's about his younger brother who passed away from some disease. But for the most part, it's very inspiring :D