I read On The Road but really, truly came to hate the characters. Dean Moriarty is so evil and Sal is so stupid and I feel like this never comes full circle.
The characters are seen from Sal's perspective, and I will admit he is not the sharpest pencil in the box (I think Kerouac, who was quite smart, realises this). I wonder what OTR written from Dean's point of view would be like?
Dean Moriarty physically abuses multiple women, and impregnates and abandons multiple women in terrible circumstances with no regard for his children's welfare. And many other crimes. Sal glosses over them and still idolizes him.
If retweets aren’t endorsements, artistic/literary depictions aren’t meant to promote the person or personages being so portrayed.
The map is not the territory anymore than the mapmaker is God. Holding a mirror up to society does not make one Narcissus.
For what it’s worth, Socrates wasn’t very popular in polite society of his time and place either, but rather reviled and given an ultimatum: repudiate your interrogatory work of our society, or die in exile. He chose the latter on his own terms via quaffing hemlock, and he went down in infamy.
