Car (literature) Talk

"And even though BP execs point at NPR and say 'look what they're spewing!' whenever they hear us say it, this is NPR." -Car Talk

"I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusions." -On the Road

"We know life, Sal, we're growing older, each of us, little by little, and are coming to know things." -ibid.

My complete-works-of-Michael-Chabon kick has been interrupted by On The Road and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Despite all these car-related media (the two books and, of course, Car Talk), I'm not getting a car--not before New Hampshire, at least. But if you're looking for something to read, here's notes on those two books:

Zen and the Art etc.

I think I expected too much from this book. I'm sure when it first came out, the ideas seemed new, but they're really just the tensions that my entire Swarthmore education has trained me to look for. So as a philosophy book, I didn't find it that exciting. And it wasn't that well-written. But formally, it was impressive--an internal monologue interwoven with a road narrative, with the reveal coming (spoiler alert) that the narrator may in fact be two narrators (end spoiler). It gets a little gimmicky at the end, but all in all, the formal experiment holds up.

On the Road

This book is phenomenal. Problematic, sprawling, as formally messy as Zen etc. is formally tight, but phenomenal, particularly the late sections where Kerouac gets into describing the bop concerts that he attended. For a long time I thought I liked Dharma Bums better, but after this reading of On the Road, I'm not sure.

FOR DISCUSSION:

What is a great road trip route (from your experience or imagination)?