On the Road to Boredom

Last updated on: March 15, 2015 at 5:16 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

On the Road to Boredom 2015-03-15T17:16:43-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Yesterday’s subversive literature is revealing because we often long for the very society the book sets out to undermine . . . rather like Soviet citizens who had to be kept from reading Brothers Karamazov to avoid sympathy for the comparative justice of the old regime. Reread On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Try not to be sickened by the causal abuse of women, children, older people. Study the utter selfishness of the main characters and ask if any of the beauty they “find” is worth the social cost.

Our Road Trip to Mexico

I see great giftedness in writing turned to making the pig stye of the prodigal look sublime. As you glory in the prose, you do not notice the condescension, the filth, and the boredom. When Hope and I hit the road for Mexico on week (what larks!) we found beauty, Mexicans, and learned things. When Jack Kerouac went to Mexico, he and his friends sought out (and so found) the same decadent behavior they left in the States.

The difference between “hooking up” in club culture all around the world is not so great. Being stoned in Mexico is a great deal like being stoned in San Francisco. Mexico and San Francisco disappear in the mental fog of decadence.

The “beat” generation of artists were part of the long tradition of artists who used great gifts (and passages of On the Road are sublimely beautiful) to promote what seems, a generation later, like old-fashioned decadence. Oldsters comfort ourselves that our grandparents worried about Elvis, our parents about Styx, and this generation will be ok just like we are. Only we are not ok. Pervasive media and the decision to promote any media that sells, standards be mocked, has left us limp in facing the libertine and the libertine in finding new vices to exploit. There is almost nothing that can get the elites mad when it comes to private consensual behavior.

The beats won. The hippies won. The libertines won. How is it working out? We can now go to everyplace and see the same consumerism, decadence, and media. We do not need to go On the Road because we have paved over much that would offend our modernist immorality.

Our situation does make writing literature subversive to conventional morality harder. Tom Jones needed a robustly Christian England. On the Road needed late 1940’s and early 1950’s America. Now if a young person decided to spend a few years “on the road there is” (undoubtedly) a company that would help make this possible. Decadent parties are organized by the grownups. In earlier times the decadent parties of out-of-touch elites could trigger revolution but now mostly inspires envy. The danger is that some of our very brightest minds are turning from the hard discipline of crafts, trades, and academics to the easier pathway of selling personal peace and affluence.

Who celebrates those folk? Who makes their lives seem noble? On the Road leaves the poor and lower middle class, my family, appearing dull or dullards. We were too compliant to rebel and too stupid

Scientists discover things. Artists create beauty. Citizen-soliders defend us. Our elected representatives govern us. Pastors comfort and educate us. Psychologists help heal our hurts. I can go on admiring what my fellow Americans do in profession after profession. We could ignore the vocations and point out the folk who simply are good. These people focus on virtue and make our neighborhoods nice through the sheer power of their wholesomeness. Easy to roll my eyes at my neighbor I see hosing down the drive way, picking up some litter, or cleaning up the community until you live in a neighborhood where nobody does it or waits for the government to do it.

And then there are the parasites who live off the things everyone else creates and mock the failures of those who try to be good. Since at least the eighteenth century a certain group of artists have used their great gifts to pretend the parasites are not parasites. We have books that make their wastrel existence mythic, movies that glorify their intellectual indolence, and television programs that celebrate their moral failure. The most ridiculous aspect of this is that the very, very talented people producing the art are glorifying a lifestyle that would prevent the technology, intellect, or discipline necessary to make or sustain the art.

This should stop but probably will not. Cicero was admired by the founding generation of Americans but we are more likely to make a television series centered on Nero than Cicero. It need not be this way. Trollope poked at hypocrisy while supporting morality in popular novels. Frank Capra glorified regular people and their value in first-rate films. Ron Howard does the same.

I am not suggesting we ban On the Road or censor anything using the government. This is a sigh of boredom for the Lord Byron, Jack Kerouac, or Quentin Tarantino of each generation who insist (as they have the right to do) on the glorification of vice, indolence, and laziness. Here is hope that like past generations most of us remember that great science, art, and civilizations mostly come from hard work, discipline, sacrifice, and a refusal to live for the moment.

Here is an even greater hope that the second-raters do not produce a flood of treacle, sappy moralism, of the sort found in so many Christian films. Good people deserve great films, novels, and art. They are dishonored by second rate artistic goods. My grandparents were interesting people with stories to tell. They lived imperfect but decent lives. Great artists do not glorify their lives, instead turning to the beats and the degenerates who built nothing and consumed everything.

Somebody should tell their story.

Spiritual Reflections

Previous Post

March 14, 2015

Loving Orcs: It's Fantasy Not Reality

Next Post

March 16, 2015 On Money: Neither For It Nor Against It

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How old was Noah when flood began?

Select your answer to see how you score.

500 years 550 years 450 years 600 years

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »