Beat-Up Words

So, I realize that over time, I am changing.  The pictures that once embodied my soul no longer describe me the best.  Instead, new shots off a more serious young man ring truer, except in my moments of unbridled joy.  But, that's not really what I want to talk about.

Instead, I want to talk Jack Kerouac.  Well, not really Kerouac per say (sp?), but the whole idea of the Beat Generation.  For anyone who knows my literary tastes, it comes as little surprise that I love the Beat poets.  I love the idea that you can say whatever the hell comes into your head, put it on paper, and it doesn't matter if it makes sense or if it brings insight or if its vulgar, it's just part of you.  You need to say what you need to say and screw all the rest of it.  I love these ideas, and I tend to live my mental life by these rules.

However, I realized today...realized, perhaps not being the best word...I admitted to myself today that I don't really like to read most of the Beat writers.  I mean, Kerouac is okay in On the Road and Dharma Bums; I love Ginsberg as a poet, though sometimes it gets a little dull, but Burroughs is just bizarre.  And I enjoy their works on an entirely cerebral level, but my soul doesn't really get into it.  I feel the idea, but the story doesn't connect to me.  And who knows, I'm not a Beat expert, maybe that's the point.

But trying to get through Visions of Cody made my brain hurt, and I can't really be in any state but complete focus when I try to get through this kind of literature.  And, since that is so rarely the state that I'm allowed to be in when I'm reading, it doesn't really work for me. 

I read someone who wrote about the stupidity behind the idea of a "guilty pleasure."  I think it was John Waters in one of his essay collections.  Regardless, it said that the idea of feeling bad that something perfectly legal and acceptable felt good was ridiculous.

I think that a lot of times, we don't choose what brings us pleasure.  It's something that is a culmination of the things in your past, your education, and what you've been trained to like.  Then, some things are just simply good to all people.  But, there's no accounting for taste, there is no perfect piece of entertainment, so we all have to find our own way.

Thus, even though I want to be a literature snob, I really enjoy reading Stephen King novels (especially Lisey's Story, Duma Key, The Dark Tower series, and Under the Dome - A supernatural take on real life phenomena).  Augusten Burroughs, a self-described "trashy memoirist" speaks to me in a way that few others do.

Ideas don't make a good read, but a good read can give you all kinds of new ideas.