Assignment 6: On The Road
"And I shambled after as I've been
doing all my life after people who
interest me, 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
everytime, the ones that never yawn
or say a common place 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!'"
--from On the Road
The above excerpt is taken from one my favorite novels, On the Road , by Jack Kerouac. Kerouac's revolutionary writing style outlined a "new" way of life for America's youth in the 1950's. The term "beat" which was defined by its originators as meaning beat as in tired, beat as in music (often jazz), and also angelic. The charm of Kerouac's novels is that even though they are fiction, they are based on adventures he had with friends. Part of the intrigue of reading On the Road is becoming better acquainted with the real lives of these "angel-headed hipsters": Jack Kerouac (Page 2),Allen Ginsberg (Page 3),William S. Burroughs (Page 4), and Neal Cassady (Page 5).