EP236: Still On the Road

[gelee]

I have tried three times to read On The Road. I love the way Kerouac wrote, but the characters were so despicable that I found it hard to stick to the story. When I realized that I was just hoping for something awful to happen to Sal and Dean, I knew it was time to hang it up.
I think this piece did a good job of evoking the Beat voice, but on the whole, it was really just pastiche, and hard to judge on it's own merits.

[l33tminion]

By coincidence, I'd just been reading "On the Road" and finished it mere days before this story showed up in my podcast feed.  Nice timing.

Thought the story was good.  Just sort of a one-off short story, a written-in-the-style-of piece without much in the way of further substance.  But that's all right, I enjoyed it.

(As for "On the Road" itself, I enjoyed the writing style for the first half of the book or so, then it started to drag.  At least, despite all the cover-blurb comparisons, it was better than "The Sun Also Rises".)

[pinkyoot]

I have made it through ‘On The Road’ years (decades) ago but it did not make much of an impression on me at the time.  Now, listening to the story, a flood of memories came to me with things I have done, people I have met, and places I have seen.  Nothing grand, but I had a sudden longing for seeking new experiences again, even crazy or weird ones.  But...kids, wife, house (mortgage), dog, dishes, blah blah blah piss whine moan. Short of taking up smoking (in deference to the author’s reference to toxic atmospheres) I am going to think of something.

[kibitzer]

Sorry folks, this one really did nothing at all for me. For mine, it's one of those stories that just uses the trappings of sci-fi to pass itself off as sci-fi. I didn't get the "in" joke about Kerouac and On The Road and whatever other stuff so it was kinda dull. Oh well.

[Gamercow]

I liked the story as a flash, but didn't get a heck of a lot out of it.  I understood(I think) what it was trying to say, and if you're looking for some depth here, I just don't think its there.  The story was a nudge and wink reference to Kerouac and Cassady, and their crazy lives. 

slightly amusing story:  I was in a college dorm with a relative of Jack Kerouac, his nephew I believe, or second cousin, or somesuch, and this Kerouac was best friends and roommates with a relative of William S Burroughs.  They were constantly stoned, and would ramble on for hours about philosophy in their dorm room.  Their third roomate's last name was Nixon, but he was no relation to the former President.

[LaShawn]

Wow. I'm going to be the dissenting voice here in that I got this. I totally got this.

I read On the Road on my own back in college, and I have huge fond memories of it. It made me want to get in a car and just drive, though I was always too chicken to. Listening to this story brought back all those feelings of driving and adventure, and I love the language and the mind pictures. Heck, I can still see Kerouac and Cassady bouncing around out there.

Hmmm...maybe I should plan a driving trip sometime soon.

[Icky]

I liked the story, despite not liking Kerouac terribly much.  (Blasphemy, I know.  He just always seemed a little... immature.  I dunno.)  However, that enabled me to empathize with the protagonist pretty well, smiling politely and edging away as quickly as he could.

Fun story.

  I think Kerouac is more a poet than anything else...  and, personally, I think the "method" he used had as much to do with the phenomenon as anything else.  Still... You're right.  You're a blasphemer.