Mike, Your Opinion of Kerouac?

[Vampyro]

Besides you, he is one of my favorite writers
I'm just curious of your take on him and the Beat Generation, Thanks!

[Michael Moorcock]

Met him briefly in Paris in the 50s. Knew Bill Burroughs, of course. My own view is that Burroughs is the great genius and that Kerouac could be good and not so good. I read On the Road while on the road (also read Brideshead Revisited -- only two books I had) and much enjoyed it, but I found the sentimentality a bit awkward, as I did with Hemingway, Fitzgerald and others. Faulkner's my favourite, still. Faulker and Burroughs were great originals, in my view. Don't much like Ginsbergh at all, but like some of the others well enough. I don't know what it is which made me read, at the same time, quite a lot of sf by Americans of the same period but that's what I did and I suppose I still like Bester better than Kerouac, over all. Probably not very cool to say so, but there it is. What's always surprised me is how conservative the Beats' taste often was in English writers. I suppose I ought to tell the story of Carolyn Cassidy chasing Peter Ackroyd sometime... :)

[Mikey_C]

Kerouac's so damn cool it's become quite embarrassing to say I like him. People automatically assume you're a poseur!

[Vampyro]

Thanks for the reply Mike
I have come to realize that besides being one of the great writers of the 20th century, you also have met a lot of the others...

I agree with you in that Kerouac's writing (especially towards the end) was lacking, but when he was great, he was magnificent...

Bill Burroughs audio work was almost as interesting as reading his books.
I have a number of his recordings/cds, the Dead City Radio cd is highly recommended. For anyone new to him and his writings< I think listening to his poetry will further pique your interest in him...actually I can say the same for Kerouac and his cds.

I am curious did Mr. Burroughs read any of your literature?
oh when you do get a chance please do tell that story, I can't tell if it sounds steamy or vengeful :o

[manmiles]

I've only read Orpheus Emerged which was one of his early written, unpublished works and it shows. It just waffled on unto infinity. Maybe soon I will actually read one of his actual books.

Burroughs though, started to get into him recently. Great writer.

[Pietro_Mercurios]

I've found Kerouac to be almost unreadable and Ginsberg to be just plain creepy. But, Burroughs (and I nearly got into a fight, in a bar, one time, with one of his junkie fans, over the shooting of his wife...), his stuff is downright compelling. It drives along at a heck of a pace, dragging you along with it, even if it wraps you round the axles.

[RussellB]

Can't have a Kerouac thread without remembering the immortal description of his work offered up by Truman Capote (I think on the old Dick Cavett television show):

"That's not writing. It's typewriting!"

Greatest two lines of literary criticism ever...

[Vampyro]

well alot can be said about Capote's writing as well...hehe

I think The Dharma Bums is very accessible

[Michael Moorcock]

Bill Burroughs read NW pretty regularly, liked Barry Bayley (from whom he got the idea of people as a virus), me and Ballard. A certain mutual admiration society was running in the mid-60s! I was promoting Bill AND Ballard in some odd places in those days (see the recent Golden Nugget
addition in Image Gallery)... I was recently somewhat annoyed to see a guy writing either in the TLS or LRB who mocked my defence of Burroughs in TLS, quoted me out of context to make himself look good and then said exactly what I'd said at the time (which, of course, he hadn't quoted) about Burroughs being in the tradition of Swift. He was quoting the famous 'Ugh' correspondence, which I'm sure exists somewhere online. Savoy Books also have a connection to Burroughs, as does my friend Iain Sinclair who is something of an expert on the Beats in general.

[johneffay]

The 'Ugh' correspondence is hilarious. My favourite is Edith Sitwell congratulating the TLS for slating a book that she has never read, and ending her letter by complaining that, whilst she is no prude, she doesn't want her nose nailed to the lavatory. I bet she's spinning in her grave these days at the lionisation of Burroughs in academic departments whilst she and her brothers fade into obscurity. :lol:

[Michael Moorcock]

Absolutely. When I read that letter I had this wonderful image of Dame Edith, who wasn't short in the schnozzle dept, walking around with a lavatory seat nailed to the end of it. Scarfe would have done the image proud.