I feel I should explain why I’m reading Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. At the end of this past summer, I had an idea. So I started writing it down and I realized that it was forming into a screenplay, something that I wanted to see turned into a film. At first I thought it’d just be a short film, but as I kept writing, I came to the conclusion that it was going to be too long to be a short film. Just to be clear, this is not a J.K. Rowling deal where I wrote the ending first (isn’t that what she did with Harry Potter?), it’s more like I’m writing it as I go and creating this story on the fly.
This story is kind of about me, and not, at the same time. The main character is basically me and the story is told from her perspective, complete with voiceovers and everything. But she’s going on a road trip and that’s where the Kerouac comes in. I’ve never been on a major road trip like that. When I was like 10 years old or something, my family and I traveled up the east coast, from Georgia to Maryland/DC but I don’t really count that as a real road trip because I was asleep for most of it.
I was going along, trying to write this story about something I’d never actually done, and it occurred to me that I needed to educate myself. I’d heard about Jack Kerouac before but didn’t really know anything about him. All I knew was that he went on a cross country road trip, then he wrote a book about it. I did some research and found out that he was the dude that coined the term Beat Generation. I also found out that On the Road was published in 1951 which was way earlier than I thought the Beat Generation started. There were beatniks in the original 1988 Hairspray, and that film was set in 1962. Did the Beat Generation really last that long? Or was that just a stereotype that John Waters wanted to use? These are questions I’m still trying to find the answers to.
Either way, I knew that if I wanted to understand what going on a road trip was like, without actually going on one, that I needed to read On the Road. So, being a poor musician, I decided to ask for the book for Christmas, rather than spend the sixteen precious dollars myself (hey, that’s like 4 Whopper Jr. meals at Burger King, and a girl’s gotta eat). On Christmas afternoon, sitting in my grandmother’s white living room, with white carpets, and a white Christmas tree, she handed me a present. I ripped it open, and there it was, a red paperback with a giant picture of Jack Kerouac’s face on it. I was super excited. Just holding it made me feel extremely cool. I immediately pictured myself sitting in an oversized armchair in Starbucks, holding an outrageously overpriced coffee, and reading this book. And all the hipsters in my town who, miraculously, can afford to go to Starbucks every day, would see me reading this book and think, “God, she’s so hip, I could puke.” (By the way, I actually did this, except I was at a table, and the most hipster person I know did in fact walk in and came over to my table and we had like a 10 second convo about Kerouac. It was awesome.)
I am a very slow reader. Which is why I don’t really read books. But just for the record, I have read every Harry Potter book and, ashamedly, every Twilight book. Don’t judge, homie. I’m only ten chapters in. What I’ve realized, in the space of 58 pages, is that Kerouac was so ADD. Like whoa. I feel like he’s got this grand story in his head, with so many little details about every person that he meets, and every situation that he’s in, but some how it doesn’t come out on paper very coherently. Maybe if I did some cocaine or something, it’d all make sense. The ironic thing is, I think I write that way a little bit too, amirite? So, I guess I do kinda get his writing style, I just wish it was slightly more organized. I suppose that’s the charm of his writing style, though. He’s so fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants that you feel like you’re there with him. Which is why it’s so important that I read his book! (Yeah, that was me having an epiphany just then.)
I do think that the next step in trying to finish this screen play is to actually go on a road trip myself. You’re supposed to write what you know, right? I need to go out and have this experience that my characters are having. Otherwise, the script would feel like a lie.
So, who’s going with me?
My very hipster Christmas
Not only did he coin the term Beat Generation, he also coined the term Hipsters. (jk, I don't really know, so don't quote me on that.)
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