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What Gets Kept

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Re: What Gets Kept

#41

Post by breezybottom »

keiferski wrote: post #14
saagarjha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok but you do realize that he was alive in the 1900s, not 1000 BC.

The moral views of the average person circa 1930 are very different from one today. But I read old books for their interesting stories, viewpoints on life, literary quality, etc. – not to tut-tut someone for having different moral views than me, a hundred years later. So it doesn't bother me. Like I said, I really cannot understand the mindset of someone that reads a book from another era/civilization and focuses on…

I don't see it. The 1930s weren't that long ago, there are still people alive who lived through them. If you were talking about ancient Egypt, you might have a point.

Re: What Gets Kept

#42

Post by tclancy »

huhkerrf wrote: post #7

Maybe it's because I never had my On the Road phase, but this review on Kerouac I always found really strong: > On the Road is a terrible book about terrible people. Jack Kerouac and his terrible friends drive across the US about seven zillion times for no particular reason, getting in car accidents and stealing stuff and screwing women whom they promise to marry and then don’t. > Jack Kerouac’s relationship with Dea…

This New Yorker piece inspired me to finally pick up On the Road last night. I don think it’s a terrible book, but I would say the jury’s out on the people. I’m eighty or so pages in and waiting for the magic to happen. If it’s more of a tone poem, I’ll wind up tapping out because those books and movies are never my jam.

Could be I just like On the Road: The Musical, book by Craig Finn, music by The Hold Steady.

> generally in flagrant contravention of all applicable traffic laws

Being up front, I cannot stand this author in the first place. The idea there were any applicable traffic laws in the Great Inbetween in 1950s America is stupid.

Re: What Gets Kept

#43

Post by cassepipe »

thelarrys wrote: post #25
huhkerrf wrote: post #7

Maybe it's because I never had my On the Road phase, but this review on Kerouac I always found really strong: > On the Road is a terrible book about terrible people. Jack Kerouac and his terrible friends drive across the US about seven zillion times for no particular reason, getting in car accidents and stealing stuff and screwing women whom they promise to marry and then don’t. > Jack Kerouac’s relationship with Dea…

The deep pockmarks in Scott Alexander's hands left from so strongly clutching his pearls will take an eternity to de-dimple.

TIL I learned that not liking a-holes and to find the story their repititive adventures boring is pearl-clutching

Re: What Gets Kept

#44

Post by jgalt212 »

huhkerrf wrote: post #7

Maybe it's because I never had my On the Road phase, but this review on Kerouac I always found really strong: > On the Road is a terrible book about terrible people. Jack Kerouac and his terrible friends drive across the US about seven zillion times for no particular reason, getting in car accidents and stealing stuff and screwing women whom they promise to marry and then don’t. > Jack Kerouac’s relationship with Dea…

> screwing women whom they promise to marry and then don’t.

It really is unfortunate that man's sex drive is above and beyond the level he can achieve without subterfuge (at best) and violence (at worst).

Re: What Gets Kept

#45

Post by keiferski »

breezybottom wrote: post #41
keiferski wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The moral views of the average person circa 1930 are very different from one today. But I read old books for their interesting stories, viewpoints on life, literary quality, etc. – not to tut-tut someone for having different moral views than me, a hundred years later. So it doesn't bother me. Like I said, I really cannot understand the mindset of someone that reads a book from another era/civilization and focuses on…

I don't see it. The 1930s weren't that long ago, there are still people alive who lived through them. If you were talking about ancient Egypt, you might have a point.

The 1930s had radically different opinions on race, gender, religion, and a host of other things as compared to today.

Re: What Gets Kept

#46

Post by doginasuit »

huhkerrf wrote: post #7

Maybe it's because I never had my On the Road phase, but this review on Kerouac I always found really strong: > On the Road is a terrible book about terrible people. Jack Kerouac and his terrible friends drive across the US about seven zillion times for no particular reason, getting in car accidents and stealing stuff and screwing women whom they promise to marry and then don’t. > Jack Kerouac’s relationship with Dea…

I'm curious, do the people who love the book generally believe that the characters in the story are admirable? I remember a certain sick feeling, the same you get with any story that pulls you along to places you aren't sure you want to go. But at the same time I could relate to the "anything but this" spirit it held toward the culture at the time. I appreciated the mood and the restlessness of it, like watching the sunrise after a regrettable night out.

It has been a long time and now I feel like I should revisit it to see if that still holds.

Re: What Gets Kept

#47

Post by keiferski »

tclancy wrote: post #40
keiferski wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just finished American Tabloid and I don’t think there was a single honorable character in the whole novel. Not one, out of dozens.

That’s interesting. I was a huge Ellroy fan and I think that’s probably my favorite book. I always got the impression in his books the idea was the protagonists were heroes or, more accurately, could have been if there was any place for them in the Ellroy universe. Instead, they do sordid stuff because there really isn’t another way in the rigged game they live in. To feel like they have agency, they try to find a th…

I haven't read any of his other books, but Tabloid definitely didn't have that feeling you mentioned. It's more of a pervasive matter-of-fact "everyone is corrupt" vibe, even people like JFK, the FBI, cops, etc.

Re: What Gets Kept

#48

Post by tclancy »

keiferski wrote: post #47
tclancy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s interesting. I was a huge Ellroy fan and I think that’s probably my favorite book. I always got the impression in his books the idea was the protagonists were heroes or, more accurately, could have been if there was any place for them in the Ellroy universe. Instead, they do sordid stuff because there really isn’t another way in the rigged game they live in. To feel like they have agency, they try to find a th…

I haven't read any of his other books, but Tabloid definitely didn't have that feeling you mentioned. It's more of a pervasive matter-of-fact "everyone is corrupt" vibe, even people like JFK, the FBI, cops, etc.

I should revisit it, but we came at it from different places (and good Lord I read it over a quarter century ago). There are some threads from previous Ellroy books (Pete Bondurant himself) and, assuming I recall any of this correctly after all this time, I feel like the Kemper Boyd character is the same basic Guy as Ed Exley from LA Confidential and the protagonist of White Jazz. Or maybe The Black Dahlia. But obviously it’s not all black and white, right?

Re: What Gets Kept

#49

Post by [deleted] »

jgalt212 wrote: post #44
huhkerrf wrote: post #7

Maybe it's because I never had my On the Road phase, but this review on Kerouac I always found really strong: > On the Road is a terrible book about terrible people. Jack Kerouac and his terrible friends drive across the US about seven zillion times for no particular reason, getting in car accidents and stealing stuff and screwing women whom they promise to marry and then don’t. > Jack Kerouac’s relationship with Dea…

> screwing women whom they promise to marry and then don’t. It really is unfortunate that man's sex drive is above and beyond the level he can achieve without subterfuge (at best) and violence (at worst).

[deleted]

Re: What Gets Kept

#50

Post by tclancy »

jhpankow wrote: post #37
tclancy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They most certainly do motorcycle maintenance! I remember asking my dad what the hell points used to be on engines. The first few chapters contain a lot of talk about motorcycle maintenance. You’re not going to learn to change out a carb or anything but it’s there.

"Oh yeah. Tappets."

That was the other one. I was very happy with “points” because I finally got the double entendre in Bob Seger’s Night Moves. Until then I only knew the entendre part!
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