jack kerouc

[oddjob]

i know a couple, who are both in their 30s, both very very intelligent people. very well educated. 1 is a doctor.

neither of them have ever heard of jack kerouc. is this possible, or is he less known then i think?

[djk123]

who is jack kerouc?

edit: it's kerouac i think.

[cbloom]

I've never hear of jack kerouc. Jack Kerouac was the famous beat adventure novelist who everyone should know.

That stuff is generally not taught in school though because it's too "edgy" or whatever. School will only give you sanitized literary history free of any modern controversy or counterculture.

[Los Feliz Slim]

First, it's Kerouac.

I really like the idea of Jack Kerouac, but I do not enjoy his writing. It surprises me that an American adult doesn't know who he is.

[TheDudeAbides]

[ QUOTE ]
First, it's Kerouac.

I really like the idea of Jack Kerouac, but I do not enjoy his writing. It surprises me that an American adult doesn't know who he is.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm the same way. In my younger, more hippiesh days I tried to read his stuff and tried to convince myself that I loved it. I didn't. I actually found On the Road to be kinda...boring.

[MicroBob]

I bet I could find several MD's of any age group who have never heard of Kerouac.

My sister is 33 and has a PhD and I'm honestly not sure whether she would recognize the name.
I'm sure many of her friends would be the same.

You can call it the land of the uncultured I guess although I'm not sure Kerouac is really THAT important that everyone has to know him (as evidenced by the fact that all these people who I believe have likely never heard of him are probably getting by in life just fine and dandy).

Some people who spent plenty of time in school were never required to read him and simply aren't very knowledgeable about many things outside their field.

Same goes for the number of educated people who still can't figure out how the blackjack decision of the guy at 3rd base do not really matter or how adding or subtracting one player from the table doesn't really change the 'flow' of the cards.

[mosdef]

I think you are overstating how important Kerouac is when you assume he should be known by all "educated" people. There are plenty of very important writers that are not widely read at all.

[oddjob]

i find him to be a good story teller, but horrible writer. i've enjoyed some of his books, but some are just downright aweful. i think it was desolation angels that each paragraph is 1 drawn out sentence.

and forgive my mispelling of his name.

he was never required reading in high school, but i knew who he was. i didn't end up reading him till after college.

i never really thought of him as a very important american writer, but i did think he was a well known one. guess i was wrong.

[Fishmonger]

On the Road blew, couldn't get through it.

Odd that neither of them have heard of him though.

[EYEWHITES]

[ QUOTE ]
I think you are overstating how important Kerouac is when you assume he should be known by all "educated" people. There are plenty of very important writers that are not widely read at all.

[/ QUOTE ]


i love him, he changed how i write, how i read. But even i think he is held in to high of a regard. I have every book he wrte, and just about everybook wrote about him. I was really obsessed for a while. The more you learn about him, the more the myth of who he was fades.
He was every bit of a drunk [censored] he abondonded his family, and gave 2 [censored] about nothing but himself, for most of his life anyways.
His daughter wrote some books to, the little i read of her, shes was not to impressed with her dad either.

My american lit teacher last year, moved to texas from canada, he taught a course on beat lit there, but nothing is even remotly close to being offered here like that

Forsake of dicussion
Whats his best book?

I vote tristessa