What Author Speaks To You The Most?

For me it has always been Jack Kerouac. My introduction to his writing was of course On The Road but I think of all his novels “Big Sur” speaks to me the most. Perhaps because I read it at a time when I had just moved to San Francisco, and spent time in Big Sur, but I felt as if many of the things he wrote were thoughts currently living in my brain. The stream-of-consciousness style of writing takes on a sense of urgency, even more so than On The Road, with thoughts literally pouring out of his mind straight onto the paper.

bigsur

“The sea seems to yell to me ‘go to your desire don’t hang around here.'”

big sur

“It’s as familiar as an old face in an old photograph as tho I’m gone a million years from all that sun shaded brush on rocks and that heartless blue of the sea washing white on yellow sand, those rills of yellow arroyo running down mighty cliff shoulders, those distant blue meadows, that whole ponderous groaning upheaval so strange to see after the last several days of just looking at little faces and mouths of people.”

big sur

“I wrote the sounds of the sea, and I’ll tell you about it – it was the most happy three weeks of my life.”

big sur

“This is the kind of place where a person should really be alone, you know? When you bring a big gang here it somehow desecrates it not that I’m referring to us or anybody in particular? There’s such a sad sweetness to those trees as tho yells shouldn’t insult them or conversation only.”

big sur

“The more Ups and Downs the more Joy I feel – the greater the fear, the greater the happiness I feel…”

What author speaks to you the most?

Check out our On The Road coverage from the BLDG 25 book club, and check out the trailer for On The Road the movie!

Photos by Julia.

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11 years ago

beautiful images! that bridge is so magical. i hope the movie does the book justice

http://canvasofculture.blogspot.com/

Angela
11 years ago

Beautiful images!

I love Anais Nin and Nobokov. :)

11 years ago

I agree! took a course two semesters ago about classic american road narratives, i loved the way Kerouac wrote and described his experience. Im not sure about the movie, cast looks pretty good, but no movies compare with how pure imagination creates the characters based on the way the author depicts them.

11 years ago

I love so many authors- it’s hard to choose just one. I love Adrienne Rich, whom, I’d say, was primarily a poet. She has really taught me that it’s much braver to write and stand for a cause than to fight. She was an advocate for lesbianism (which I am not one) and feminism, was completely unafraid of who she was, and encouraged all women (lesbian or not) to be open about their opinions and live freely. One of my favorite quotes of hers is: “The moment of change is the only poem.”

I also love Pablo Neruda, Kate Chopin, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Aldous Huxley. Yes, that’s quite a diverse list!

JON
11 years ago

I have recently been re reading Pearl S Buck. The “Good Earth Trilogy.

Jillian
11 years ago

Ralph Waldo Emerson will always be a favorite author of mine. No matter how many times I read his essays, lectures, or poems, there are new meanings and emotions that speak to me. Whitman also has a great energy and boldness to his writing. Both authors inspired Kerouac and all the Beats. My favorite Beat, Ginsberg really captures the freedom and spirituality of the Romantics. Other than that, I read a lot of Russian authors — Dostoevsky being my favorite.

Bri
11 years ago

As dorky as it is mine is JK Rowling. Only because her books were such a big part of my childhood. I can pick up any of the harry potter books and instantly feel at home. Like I have been reunited with a long lost friend

11 years ago

john steinbeck speaks to my soul. the first time i read cannery row i was in love. i’ve been working my way through all his novels and short stories and have never been disappointed. east of eden is my favorite. his descriptions of landscapes combined with the time period and seedery side of life make for excellent reading.

11 years ago

I know Tom Robbins is pretty popular here on the FP blog…but I really do love his work. He lived for a time here in my hometown of Richmond, VA which makes him especially near and dear to my heart. But what I love most about his writing is his sense of humor. I also love how his fantasious stories always veer off at some point in a character’s tangent to solve one of the world’s mysteries. There is always tons of inadvertent advice with Tom. I feel like he writes the way I think…tangents and side notes.

11 years ago

C.S. Lewis, always.

Hanztolo
11 years ago

My latest, Walt Witman’s “Leaves of Grass”

11 years ago

I’m obsessed with Barbara Kingsolver, Joan Didion and Edward Abbey. But Kerouac will always be special to me as well.

11 years ago

Anaïs Nin!!! From the first time I read “Under a glass bell,” I’m convinced that my soul is connected to hers somehow. Reading her writing is like reading an old journal from a past life. She was way ahead of her time and really pushes her readers to be their highest selves. I also love Ayn Rand, e.e. Cummings, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the amazingly researched historical biographies by Alison Weir.

Elisabeth
11 years ago

I adore F.Scott Fitzgerald because completely inspired me from the first time I read one of his short stories to now, and I’m currently reading The Beautiful and Damned. The way he describes to time period is gorgeous and sometimes I actually stop reading after a particularly good sentence to take it in.

Ashley
11 years ago

Hunter S. Thompson

alyson
11 years ago

anais nin, maya angelou, sylvia plath, virginia woolf, miranda july!

Jessie
10 years ago

I’m french, I love KEROUAC of course, but my master is Jim HARRISON, he is my guru !