nealcassady
01-06-2003, 02:26 PM
This is a spinoff of the Barfly discussion.
First let me start off by saying that Charles Bukowski is a wonderful writer. Check out: The Most Beautiful Woman In Town, Post Office, Factotum. Intelligent, honest, sensitive and brutal he inspired a generation of writers to give up over-intellecutalized writing. Rather he stressed the importance of one thing: heart/soul/pain/love. Focus on your own life and your own pain. He's a very interesting contrast to Kerouac who just burnt out. I love Kerouac, but his later life was just sad.
For those of you who don't know Jack Kerouac wrote On The Road an account of his travels across Mexico and the U.S.A. during the late 40s. After reading it for the first time I was blown away. It makes you want to just GO and LIVE. The energy of the book is incredible. Throughout the course of the book you meet a cast of poets, writers, and just incredibly cool people. In the first pages you meet Neal Cassady a badass from Denver who is energy, movement and passion personified. Anyway, its interesting because Kerouac had this fascination with Cassady (as did Jerry Garcian and Bukowski). In the end Cassady comes across as a tragic figure... free in life but always alone... fathering children everywhere.
It's sad that Kerouac who inspired so many people wound up dying of alcoholism in his mothers house on Long Island all the while failing to recognize his daughter.
Makes you think. Which is better:
1) to live a young life full of energy only to be embittered with middle age and die alone (Kerouac)
2) to live your whole life with freedom, abandonment, and energy... leaving fatherless children and broken marriages (Cassady)
3) to be embittered your whole life with humanity... staying on skid row with bums... never having any grand notions about life or love... focusing on yourself (Bukowski)
"Don't try"
-On Gravestone of Charles Bukowski
"Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy"
-Slacker
First let me start off by saying that Charles Bukowski is a wonderful writer. Check out: The Most Beautiful Woman In Town, Post Office, Factotum. Intelligent, honest, sensitive and brutal he inspired a generation of writers to give up over-intellecutalized writing. Rather he stressed the importance of one thing: heart/soul/pain/love. Focus on your own life and your own pain. He's a very interesting contrast to Kerouac who just burnt out. I love Kerouac, but his later life was just sad.
For those of you who don't know Jack Kerouac wrote On The Road an account of his travels across Mexico and the U.S.A. during the late 40s. After reading it for the first time I was blown away. It makes you want to just GO and LIVE. The energy of the book is incredible. Throughout the course of the book you meet a cast of poets, writers, and just incredibly cool people. In the first pages you meet Neal Cassady a badass from Denver who is energy, movement and passion personified. Anyway, its interesting because Kerouac had this fascination with Cassady (as did Jerry Garcian and Bukowski). In the end Cassady comes across as a tragic figure... free in life but always alone... fathering children everywhere.
It's sad that Kerouac who inspired so many people wound up dying of alcoholism in his mothers house on Long Island all the while failing to recognize his daughter.
Makes you think. Which is better:
1) to live a young life full of energy only to be embittered with middle age and die alone (Kerouac)
2) to live your whole life with freedom, abandonment, and energy... leaving fatherless children and broken marriages (Cassady)
3) to be embittered your whole life with humanity... staying on skid row with bums... never having any grand notions about life or love... focusing on yourself (Bukowski)
"Don't try"
-On Gravestone of Charles Bukowski
"Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy"
-Slacker