[Closed] Any "hip" literati hereabouts? Help needed.

It's like 'Catcher In The Rye':
Great to read as a kid, but a bit of a let down as an adult.

As a document of a certain time & place, it's excellent.
But, like 'Look Back In Anger' I just can't sympathise with the characters any more.

I'm too old for it now.

I read Catcher in the Rye last year for the first time (at the age of 39). I thought it was one of the saddest books I've ever read.

Can't comment about On The Road though.

Great book, but of its time - hard to know whether to recommend it to a grown-ass man.
The film version sounds equivalent to reading Star Wars, the novel. Not the right medium.

William Burroughs from that group is a step above - some of his stuff is very good and transcends the parochialism of that scene.

If it's any consolation, you could have picked up Desolation Angels, it's even worse.

I reread CITR again last year after a thread about it on here.
Found it fascinating as a kid, but I agree, it made me feel sad rereading it as an adult.

'To Kill A Mockingbird' and 'Kes' still seem as fresh as they ever did.

I started On The Road but it was pretty dull. It seems to be one of those seminal works that seems hackneyed now due to the scale of its own influence 50 years ago.

one of those seminal works that seems hackneyed now due to the scale of its own influence 50 years ago.

this

not a massive tome so if you get a cheap copy give it a go then you can make your own mind up - never seen the film tho, I'd imagine it's not a great book to turn into a script

I thought it was a rubbish book.

[i] It seems to be one of those seminal works that seems hackneyed now due to the scale of its own influence 50 years ago.[/i]

I don't see how this can be possible unless you've read all the books influenced by it. It's just shit.

If you didn't like The Road avoid Zen & The Dull Witterings of Motorcycle Maintenance like the plague.

Although I haven't read the book

Sort of stopped reading there. Drawing any kind of film / book parallel just isn't worth the bother. Read it or don't, then draw your own conclusion or not (I didn't particularly enjoy it, but it was 20 odd years ago).

Although I generally agree with Brassneck's sentiment, it's hard, nigh-on impossible, to make a decent film based on a rubbish book.

Rob Hilton - Member

If you didn't like The Road avoid Zen & The Dull Witterings of Motorcycle Maintenance like the plague.

Hah, I got pelters for daring to say that on a motorbike forum. Apparently there's much more to it than the mere words and I'm just too stupid to enjoy it, or something. Does have some good lines though.

What else can we slag. Down and Out in London and Paris, fuuuuuuu. Inventing misery tourism.

make a decent film based on a rubbish book

See The 39 Steps (Hitchcock version)

It has been, and will always be, an incredibly difficult book to make into a film, as it is really more of an internal monologue which has been transcribed onto paper than a story with purpose, direction and character threads. This follows with the story of the main protagonist, who does indeed aimlessly wander through the broken landscape, bumping into situations and people, more recording for his own posterity than yours. To try and make a story where perhaps there isn't one, would be to make a a rod for your own back, and invite frustration. It reminds me more of his later work, The Dharma Bums, which if you can ever find a copy, works wonderfully as an audio book, the version read by Ginsberg is a particular treat, and he has the ability to pitch the stories in the right vein, swinging and rocking back and forth like holy incantations, the way Kerouac would often write, without pause or hesitation. Understand this and you'll be able to drip into his works more easily. Having said that, he can be an incredibly difficult person to like. His life was just a mess, although that made him the writer he was, but dying alone, drunk and broke made for an ignominious death. By his own admission, he spent half of his career trying to be famous, and the other half trying to run away from his fame, so it comes as no surprise that he still polarizes opinion.

I rather enjoyed Catcher In The Rye, as it happens. Coincidentally, I also liked The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test.

Coincidentally, because it featured one of the characters (Cassidy) from OTR and also (it has to be said) because I recognised much of what was being described, from my own life experiences of the early-to-late seventies...

Maaaaan.

I read On the Road as a teenager and then again in my late twenties, on neither occasion could I empathise or connect with the characters. May be that it's a book of its time and geography or maybe I'm just an uncultured northern monkey.

As a document of a certain time & place, it's excellent.

I wonder if "a bunch boring tossers doing nothing of the slightest interest" was the authors point given the context? Been a while since I read it, but I do recall this carefully crafted sense of hopelessness throughout.

I read OTR quite a few years ago and enjoyed it. As someone posted above, it's not a long book, so have a go and make up your own mind.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is also a short read and can be enjoyed regardless of how much (or little) you enjoyed the film.

Mm. Nice look and feel, but nobody that likeable to follow. I saw the manuscript in the British Library last year - massive 120' roll of typing paper in a glass case.