what doe Ocean Vuong mean by his Jack Kerouac Reference?

Submitted by danzleif t3_11brubr in books

hi, i have not read Nightsky With Exit Wounds yet, but there is this particular quote i came across:

“If a guy tells you his favorite poet is Jack Kerouac, there's a very good chance he's a douchebag"

I'm aware of the beatnik generation and the sort of person Jack Kerouac was, and upon googling more, i found out that people actually hate him a lot and are at least hinting at him being somewhat pretentious. is that what Ocean Vuong is referring to?

p.s.: on a side note, i also found out that the beatniks are not very appreciated by the reader community, so i'm even more confused because when reading about them in my course, i really liked them and so did the rest of the class. any link to that is also appreciated!

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headlesslady t1_j9zl7r2 wrote

Jack Kerouac’s poetry was terrible. I love his prose, but a great poet he was not.

So anyone claiming Kerouac is his favorite poet probably knows very little about the author.

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Rich_Librarian_7758 t1_ja12dcd wrote

Not knowing what he was thinking, this was my first thought. Kerouac as a novelist, sure. As a party guest, even better. But as a poet?! Going toe to toe with Yeats? I think not.

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danzleif OP t1_ja2fyzu wrote

"as a party guest, even better" had me rolling but yeah, his poetry can only be inspired at most by Yeats, but nothing like him

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danzleif OP t1_ja2fmm5 wrote

i see, thanks! i'll look into this more into this

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daven_callings t1_ja1y3zc wrote

For me, I feel as if he’s saying less about Kerouac, and more about the guys who name-drop Kerouac as a way of making themselves look smarter and more literary than they actually are.

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Chad_Abraxas t1_ja39szo wrote

I mean... it seems self-evident.

Kerouac, like Bukowski, is a perennial favorite author among a certain type of man...

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Available-Page-2738 t1_ja1k8vu wrote

As stated, the vast consensus is that Kerouac was a lousy poet.

However, as turnabout is fair play, let's look at what Vuong is saying. He's making a very nonsubtle observation. It's basically a bit of hack writing in that he took the easiest example he could find. It's like saying Shirley Temple was a lousy basketball player.

Perhaps Vuong's a better poet than he is a writer.

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danzleif OP t1_ja2g522 wrote

how ironic hahahaa thanks for the explanation!

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Effective-Papaya1209 t1_ja21h4s wrote

I’d picture the dude he’s talking about as sort of self-important with a lot of ideas that he thinks are genius but are really more like “I’m 18 and the system is dumb!” But they’re in their 20s or 30s and never got over that.

*none of that is a statement on JK, just the kind of guys who would choose him as their favorite poet

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markireland t1_ja1re3d wrote

The beatniks called anyone falsely claiming to be hip 'hippies' So anyone claiming to like beat poetry may be false.

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