How Kerouac's On the Road Created a Generation of Half-Believers

How Kerouac's On the Road Created a Generation of Half-Believers

Author: Mark Sayers

Publisher: Moody Publishers

Published: 2012-12-01

Total Pages: 31

ISBN-13: 0802489400

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The content in this short e-book is excerpted from The Road Trip That Changed the World, by Mark Sayers. The book examines the influence of Jack Kerouac on Western Culture and the Church from a Christian perspective. We live in a culture of the road—restless for adventure, glorifying experience, seeing life as a journey. Dissatisfied with where we are, we are constantly on the move to redefine our sense of home. Why do we see the world like this? How did we come to believe that our best chance of finding home is to be constantly moving? Jack Kerouac was one of America’s original proponents of the culture of the road, documenting his famous road trip across America in his classic work, On the Road. The standards he set forth in that book have influenced Western culture and church so much that we still read his book, echo his philosophies, and make movies in the vein of his iconic road trip. (A movie adaptation of On the Road is set to release winter 2012.) In this twenty-minute read, Australian cultural commentator Mark Sayers examines how Kerouac’s influence has shaped Western traditions, our cultural identity, and the church. By analyzing our culture of the road and its influence on us, he leads us to understanding what it means to have a true sense of home.


Book Synopsis How Kerouac's On the Road Created a Generation of Half-Believers by : Mark Sayers

Download or read book How Kerouac's On the Road Created a Generation of Half-Believers written by Mark Sayers and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The content in this short e-book is excerpted from The Road Trip That Changed the World, by Mark Sayers. The book examines the influence of Jack Kerouac on Western Culture and the Church from a Christian perspective. We live in a culture of the road—restless for adventure, glorifying experience, seeing life as a journey. Dissatisfied with where we are, we are constantly on the move to redefine our sense of home. Why do we see the world like this? How did we come to believe that our best chance of finding home is to be constantly moving? Jack Kerouac was one of America’s original proponents of the culture of the road, documenting his famous road trip across America in his classic work, On the Road. The standards he set forth in that book have influenced Western culture and church so much that we still read his book, echo his philosophies, and make movies in the vein of his iconic road trip. (A movie adaptation of On the Road is set to release winter 2012.) In this twenty-minute read, Australian cultural commentator Mark Sayers examines how Kerouac’s influence has shaped Western traditions, our cultural identity, and the church. By analyzing our culture of the road and its influence on us, he leads us to understanding what it means to have a true sense of home.

The Road Trip that Changed the World SAMPLER

The Road Trip that Changed the World SAMPLER

Author: Mark Sayers

Publisher: Moody Publishers

Published: 2012-05-01

Total Pages: 38

ISBN-13: 0802486150

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Enjoy these SAMPLE pages from The Road that Changed the World- What if the problem is us? Sixty years ago a goatee beard would have gotten you beat up in a lot of places. Chin fuzz was the symbol of the Beats or Beatniks, a mid-century, marginal group who pioneered a new kind of lifestyle. Their approach to life was hedonistic, experiential, fluid, and individualistic. Their contradictory approach to spirituality combined a search for God with a search for 'kicks'. In 1947, these Beatnik heroes set out on a road trip across America re-writing the "life-script" of all future generations. Theirs was a new kind of lifestyle for a secular age. Their lives then (like so many of our lives now) were built upon experience, pleasure, mobility and self-discovery. They would also model a new approach to faith: desiring Christ, while still pursuing a laundry list of vices. Yet this dream would turn into a nightmare and the open road would lead back to an ancient half-forgotten path. This was a path trodden by millions of feet over thousands of years. It was a path that began with a single step of faith as a pilgrim named Abraham stepped away from a cynical culture. A path of devotion that would lead to a cross on a hill named Golgotha.


Book Synopsis The Road Trip that Changed the World SAMPLER by : Mark Sayers

Download or read book The Road Trip that Changed the World SAMPLER written by Mark Sayers and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enjoy these SAMPLE pages from The Road that Changed the World- What if the problem is us? Sixty years ago a goatee beard would have gotten you beat up in a lot of places. Chin fuzz was the symbol of the Beats or Beatniks, a mid-century, marginal group who pioneered a new kind of lifestyle. Their approach to life was hedonistic, experiential, fluid, and individualistic. Their contradictory approach to spirituality combined a search for God with a search for 'kicks'. In 1947, these Beatnik heroes set out on a road trip across America re-writing the "life-script" of all future generations. Theirs was a new kind of lifestyle for a secular age. Their lives then (like so many of our lives now) were built upon experience, pleasure, mobility and self-discovery. They would also model a new approach to faith: desiring Christ, while still pursuing a laundry list of vices. Yet this dream would turn into a nightmare and the open road would lead back to an ancient half-forgotten path. This was a path trodden by millions of feet over thousands of years. It was a path that began with a single step of faith as a pilgrim named Abraham stepped away from a cynical culture. A path of devotion that would lead to a cross on a hill named Golgotha.

The Road Trip that Changed the World

The Road Trip that Changed the World

Author: Mark Sayers

Publisher: Moody Publishers

Published: 2012-05-01

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 0802479391

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Can’t find no satisfaction? There’s no shortage of prescriptions for restlessness out there: Seek adventure. Live your life. Don’t hold back. Sound familiar? The Road Trip that Changed the World is a book challenging the contemporary conviction that personal freedom and self-fulfillment are the highest good. Like the characters in a Jack Kerouac novel, we’ve dirtied the dream of white picket fences with exhaust fumes. The new dream is the open road—and freedom. Yet we still desire the solace of faith. We like the concept of the sacred, but unwittingly subscribe to secularized, westernized spirituality. We’re convinced that there is a deeper plot to this thing called life, yet watered-down, therapeutic forms of religion are all we choose to swallow, and our personal story trumps any larger narrative. This is the non-committal culture of the road. Though driving on freely, we have forgotten where we’re headed. Jesus said His road is narrow. He wasn’t some aimless nomad. He had more than just a half tank of gas—He had passion, objectives, and a destination. Do you?


Book Synopsis The Road Trip that Changed the World by : Mark Sayers

Download or read book The Road Trip that Changed the World written by Mark Sayers and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can’t find no satisfaction? There’s no shortage of prescriptions for restlessness out there: Seek adventure. Live your life. Don’t hold back. Sound familiar? The Road Trip that Changed the World is a book challenging the contemporary conviction that personal freedom and self-fulfillment are the highest good. Like the characters in a Jack Kerouac novel, we’ve dirtied the dream of white picket fences with exhaust fumes. The new dream is the open road—and freedom. Yet we still desire the solace of faith. We like the concept of the sacred, but unwittingly subscribe to secularized, westernized spirituality. We’re convinced that there is a deeper plot to this thing called life, yet watered-down, therapeutic forms of religion are all we choose to swallow, and our personal story trumps any larger narrative. This is the non-committal culture of the road. Though driving on freely, we have forgotten where we’re headed. Jesus said His road is narrow. He wasn’t some aimless nomad. He had more than just a half tank of gas—He had passion, objectives, and a destination. Do you?

Hipster Christianity

Hipster Christianity

Author: Brett McCracken

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2010-08-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9781441211934

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Insider twentysomething Christian journalist Brett McCracken has grown up in the evangelical Christian subculture and observed the recent shift away from the "stained glass and steeples" old guard of traditional Christianity to a more unorthodox, stylized 21st-century church. This change raises a big issue for the church in our postmodern world: the question of cool. The question is whether or not Christianity can be, should be, or is, in fact, cool. This probing book is about an emerging category of Christians McCracken calls "Christian hipsters"--the unlikely fusion of the American obsessions with worldly "cool" and otherworldly religion--an analysis of what they're about, why they exist, and what it all means for Christianity and the church's relevancy and hipness in today's youth-oriented culture.


Book Synopsis Hipster Christianity by : Brett McCracken

Download or read book Hipster Christianity written by Brett McCracken and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2010-08-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insider twentysomething Christian journalist Brett McCracken has grown up in the evangelical Christian subculture and observed the recent shift away from the "stained glass and steeples" old guard of traditional Christianity to a more unorthodox, stylized 21st-century church. This change raises a big issue for the church in our postmodern world: the question of cool. The question is whether or not Christianity can be, should be, or is, in fact, cool. This probing book is about an emerging category of Christians McCracken calls "Christian hipsters"--the unlikely fusion of the American obsessions with worldly "cool" and otherworldly religion--an analysis of what they're about, why they exist, and what it all means for Christianity and the church's relevancy and hipness in today's youth-oriented culture.

Doctor Sax

Doctor Sax

Author: Jack Kerouac

Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Published: 2007-12-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0802195725

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“Kerouac’s best book.”—TIME Dr. Sax is a haunting novel of deeply felt adolescence, Jack Kerouac tells the story of Jack Duluoz, a French-Canadian boy growing up in Kerouac’s own birthplace, the dingy factory town of Lowell, Massachusetts. There, Dr. Sax, with his flowing cape, slouched hat, and insinuating leer, is chief among the many ghosts and demons that populate Jack’s fantasy world. Deftly mingling memory and dream, Kerouac captures the accents and textures of his boyhood in Lowell in this novel of a cryptic, apocalyptic hipster phantom that he once described as “the greatest book I ever wrote, or that I will write.”


Book Synopsis Doctor Sax by : Jack Kerouac

Download or read book Doctor Sax written by Jack Kerouac and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Kerouac’s best book.”—TIME Dr. Sax is a haunting novel of deeply felt adolescence, Jack Kerouac tells the story of Jack Duluoz, a French-Canadian boy growing up in Kerouac’s own birthplace, the dingy factory town of Lowell, Massachusetts. There, Dr. Sax, with his flowing cape, slouched hat, and insinuating leer, is chief among the many ghosts and demons that populate Jack’s fantasy world. Deftly mingling memory and dream, Kerouac captures the accents and textures of his boyhood in Lowell in this novel of a cryptic, apocalyptic hipster phantom that he once described as “the greatest book I ever wrote, or that I will write.”

Door Wide Open

Door Wide Open

Author: Jack Kerouac

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2001-06-01

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0141001879

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On a blind date in Greenwich Village set up by Allen Ginsberg, Joyce Johnson (then Joyce Glassman) met Jack Kerouac in January 1957, nine months before he became famous overnight with the publication of On the Road. She was an adventurous, independent-minded twenty-one-year-old; Kerouac was already running on empty at thirty-five. This unique book, containing the many letters the two of them wrote to each other, reveals a surprisingly tender side of Kerouac. It also shares the vivid and unusual perspective of what it meant to be young, Beat, and a woman in the Cold War fifties. Reflecting on those tumultuous years, Johnson seamlessly interweaves letters and commentary, bringing to life her love affair with one of American letters' most fascinating and enigmatic figures.


Book Synopsis Door Wide Open by : Jack Kerouac

Download or read book Door Wide Open written by Jack Kerouac and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-06-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a blind date in Greenwich Village set up by Allen Ginsberg, Joyce Johnson (then Joyce Glassman) met Jack Kerouac in January 1957, nine months before he became famous overnight with the publication of On the Road. She was an adventurous, independent-minded twenty-one-year-old; Kerouac was already running on empty at thirty-five. This unique book, containing the many letters the two of them wrote to each other, reveals a surprisingly tender side of Kerouac. It also shares the vivid and unusual perspective of what it meant to be young, Beat, and a woman in the Cold War fifties. Reflecting on those tumultuous years, Johnson seamlessly interweaves letters and commentary, bringing to life her love affair with one of American letters' most fascinating and enigmatic figures.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Author: Tom Wolfe

Publisher: Picador USA

Published: 2024-08-27

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1250321700

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"Tom Wolfe's seminal portrait of Ken Kesey, one of the most magnetic figures of the counterculture movement of the 1960s, and his band of Merry Pranksters"--


Book Synopsis The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by : Tom Wolfe

Download or read book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test written by Tom Wolfe and published by Picador USA. This book was released on 2024-08-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Tom Wolfe's seminal portrait of Ken Kesey, one of the most magnetic figures of the counterculture movement of the 1960s, and his band of Merry Pranksters"--

Maggie Cassidy

Maggie Cassidy

Author: Jack Kerouac

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1993-08-01

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1101548797

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From the bard of the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac's Maggie Cassidy is a profoundly moving, autobiographical novel of adolescence and first love One of the dozen books written by Jack Kerouac in the early and mid-1950s, Maggie Cassidy was not published until 1959, after the appearance of On the Road had made its author famous overnight. Long out of print, this touching novel of adolescent love in a New England mill town, with its straight-forward narrative structure, is one of Kerouac's most accesible works. It is a remarkable, bittersweet evocation of the awkwardness and the joy of growing up in America.


Book Synopsis Maggie Cassidy by : Jack Kerouac

Download or read book Maggie Cassidy written by Jack Kerouac and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1993-08-01 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bard of the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac's Maggie Cassidy is a profoundly moving, autobiographical novel of adolescence and first love One of the dozen books written by Jack Kerouac in the early and mid-1950s, Maggie Cassidy was not published until 1959, after the appearance of On the Road had made its author famous overnight. Long out of print, this touching novel of adolescent love in a New England mill town, with its straight-forward narrative structure, is one of Kerouac's most accesible works. It is a remarkable, bittersweet evocation of the awkwardness and the joy of growing up in America.

Of Grunge and Government

Of Grunge and Government

Author: Krist Novoselic

Publisher: Akashic Books

Published: 2017-11-14

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 1617752231

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The Nirvana bassist “offers specific platforms for electoral reform . . . as well as charming anecdotes about rock ‘n’ roll as a pursuit of happiness” (Sarah Vowell, The New York Times Book Review). A memoir of both music and politics, Of Grunge and Government tells Krist Novoselic’s story of how during his years with Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, the band made a point of playing benefits—the Rock for Choice show, a concert for gay rights, a fundraising gig for the Balkan Women’s Aid Fund—and how in the ensuing years he has dedicated himself to being a good citizen and participating in American democracy. In this book he shares stories about making music and making a statement—as well as inspiring ideas for anyone who wants to advance progressive causes, to become a more active part of the community, and to make sure our votes count and our voices are heard.


Book Synopsis Of Grunge and Government by : Krist Novoselic

Download or read book Of Grunge and Government written by Krist Novoselic and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nirvana bassist “offers specific platforms for electoral reform . . . as well as charming anecdotes about rock ‘n’ roll as a pursuit of happiness” (Sarah Vowell, The New York Times Book Review). A memoir of both music and politics, Of Grunge and Government tells Krist Novoselic’s story of how during his years with Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, the band made a point of playing benefits—the Rock for Choice show, a concert for gay rights, a fundraising gig for the Balkan Women’s Aid Fund—and how in the ensuing years he has dedicated himself to being a good citizen and participating in American democracy. In this book he shares stories about making music and making a statement—as well as inspiring ideas for anyone who wants to advance progressive causes, to become a more active part of the community, and to make sure our votes count and our voices are heard.

You Shall Know Our Velocity

You Shall Know Our Velocity

Author: Dave Eggers

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2009-11-04

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 0307426084

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An “entertaining and profoundly original” (San Francisco Chronicle) moving and hilarious tale of two friends who fly around the world trying to give away a lot of money and free themselves from a profound loss. • From the bestselling author of The Circle. “Nobody writes better than Dave Eggers about young men who aspire to be, at the same time, authentic and sincere.” —The New York Times Book Review "You Shall Know Our Velocity! is the work of a wildly talented writer.... Like Kerouac's book, Eggers's could inspire a generation as much as it documents it." —LA Weekly


Book Synopsis You Shall Know Our Velocity by : Dave Eggers

Download or read book You Shall Know Our Velocity written by Dave Eggers and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-11-04 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “entertaining and profoundly original” (San Francisco Chronicle) moving and hilarious tale of two friends who fly around the world trying to give away a lot of money and free themselves from a profound loss. • From the bestselling author of The Circle. “Nobody writes better than Dave Eggers about young men who aspire to be, at the same time, authentic and sincere.” —The New York Times Book Review "You Shall Know Our Velocity! is the work of a wildly talented writer.... Like Kerouac's book, Eggers's could inspire a generation as much as it documents it." —LA Weekly