What are /lit/'s thoughts on Kerouac?

>>9018048
Tragic figure.

What's even more tragic is that the next several generations of Americans would read his book and try to follow in the footsteps of his characters.

>>9018048
He's a hack.

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>>9018048
lame

i like him but thats only because im similar to an extent, especially with his writing style although i dont write but i still have that socially inept way of putting words together

>>9018048

The main issue with Kerouac is the people who read him. Same goes for Ginsberg.

Might be unfair because he's dead but I blame him completely.

reading dharma bums now. very comfy, with cool jazzy prose.

He was a hack. Towards the end of his life he realized that, and it drove him to self destruction. He knew that he was a failure.

English majors that hold him up as some kind of hero don't seem to have understood his books. They're not about finding meaning in life; they're about doing a bunch of dumb, pointless, bullshit, and having nothing to show for it.

>>9018048
No one who takes him seriously is worth listening to

Damn, you guys really hate him. Not even On The Road is good?

>>9018831
It's good if you're still a stupid teenager.

You're all plebs. Mexico City Blues is a great poem.

>>9018831
Protip that most thread topics asking purely for an opinion on anything will get unconventional negativity. Whether intentionally contrarian or not. Better to start out with a discussion thread, but then again that runs the risk of being ignored

>>9018831
I wanted to like On the Road, but all the characters were fucking tools. Sal is a beta pushover and Dean is a huge asshole who treats his friends like shit. Oh yeah and all their other friends and girlfriends are basically nobodies who I don't even remember anything about.

I mean at the end he strands his best friend sick in Mexico so he can take their home and see his girl or something.

And the worst part is that people read it and actually idolize Dean, the same teenage boys who think sincerely Tyler Durden is a good role model.

I did like some of the prose though, and it can be a pretty comfy roadtrip story at parts but if I'm going to read about friends going on a road trip they should at least not all be complete fuckboys.

>>9018974
>he judges characters
Sup grandma

>>9018048
Garbage. Thank god hes becoming more and more hated. By a decade he'll be completely forgotten.

>>9018048
>confirmed manlet

dropped immediately

>>9018048
>LITERALLY revealing Manlet status

>>9018831
i thought only the last 2 or 3 pages of on the road was good

>>9018048
>when you're so hipster you shit on proto hipster kerouac

>be 10/10 devout catholic all star football player from small town new england who loves real literature but is very naive
>go to new york for college
>get corrupted by gay jew junkies
>write some decent books regardless of your partial corruption and decadence because you have a tender soul
>accidentally create the hippie movement
>drink yourself to death ridden by guilt seeing your sincere love letters to america be kidnapped by SJW boomer scum

poor guy

>>9018974

Old Bull Lee was fucking awesome though

>>9018974
>Sal is a beta pushover and Dean is a huge asshole who treats his friends like shit. Oh yeah and all their other friends and girlfriends are basically nobodies who I don't even remember anything about.
This captures all of humanity. Alphas and betas and empty headed whores.

I've come to realise that his writing may not have the depth of a great author, but I can't help but love his books.
He has this pity for all humans which I can't help but share - he's the most comforting writer I know of. I wouldn't put him on a university reading list but I'll always appreciate his books. They bring me more joy than most.