Kerouac.... and being caught in a bad bromance

It's Tuesday, which is Cloud Atlas day... and the reading is progressing nicely, thank you very much.  I didn't get to read as much as I liked, but I'll have another go in a minute - Zack is cooking dinner and this means that after the ironing and the dishes have been done, I have time to sit here and tap away at my keyboard.

I don't really need to update you all anymore on Cloud Atlas, so I figured it might be a good opportunity to discuss another book from the list, one that I have read previously.  My eyes have trawled down my "original" list and I reach #64 On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

I read this book in my second year at Drama School.  I was very much into discovering my sexuality back then, and so many folks had talked about this book being THE book about bromance - a term that back in 1989 had not yet been invented, or, if it had, certainly had not been widely used in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

I have very fond memories of this book.  It was said (by the author himself) that Kerouac wrote it in approximately three weeks after taking LSD.  In fact, it was due to this rumour that LSD was for a while being touted as some kind of writer's wunder-drug.  This rumour has now been discredited, of course, with the writer's notebooks and letters proving that it was indeed a project that had spanned many years prior to its publication.

The homoeroticism contained within the book (now commonly described as 'bromance') was something that interested me greatly back when I was first reading it.  Some say that Kerouac wasn't actually a homosexual but in my mind he probably was at least bisexual.  Most likely Kerouac, like many gay folk today (+David and myself included), looked about himself and saw what was considered to be a "homosexual" at that time and decided that it wasn't him. Stereotypes have a tendency to do that and certainly amongst the gay community (if there truly is such a thing) there is often a blatant attempt at trying to be shocking or overtly feminine.  Back in 1950 this was possibly even more likely to be the case.  Men who wanted to remain men, even though they were attracted to men sexually, would have felt a little alienated, .

Or maybe not.  Personally, I felt such a strong rapport with the character of Sal and his relationship with Dean Moriarty, there was so much that resonated between them that reminded me of my own teenage years and the friendships that I had with quite a few young men - purely platonic, of course, but now that I look back and knowing what I know about myself now, it is almost laughable to think that I wasn't aware at the time what was really going on.

Days Left:    351

Books Read:   4