I read On the Road as a would-be teenage bohemian: in furtive ten-page bursts, with the book carefully angled under my desk so that my head appeared to be dutifully bent over my Pre-Calc problem set to passersby. I could hardly recount plot developments to you now, or describe Marylou -- or any of the female characters -- in any detail. I do remember the insistent realness of the language -- as fast as amphetamines, but so close and vivid it was almost like hot breath on the skin. It's pretty adolescent, in retrospect, but it's a mood that The Motorcycle Diaries managed to capture pretty well. Mostly, I remember the incandescent charisma of Marylou's husband, Dean Moriarty:
(The video doesn't do the song justice; unsurprisingly, countercultural anthems pack less of a punch when you can see the performers' receding hairlines.)
You'll notice that the narrator of the song sings about Dean like he's a supernova being viewed from earth, not a travelling companion. Sal Paradise talks about him in the same way. Both of them admire the man who's dancing around far outside the bounds of convention, but they're both ultimately hemmed in themselves. Dean's the male, mid-20th-century equivalent to the character we now call the Manic Pixie Dream Girl -- just barely too quirky to be real, but irresistibly attractive to those who wish they were quirkier than they are, and who flatter themselves to think that "the only ones for me are the mad ones..."
In other words, it's a take that appeals to the alienated, wistful nerds who in the 21st century are most likely to get their counterculture fix from a novel "classic" enough to get assigned as summer reading. When I was talking to a friend of mine about this, he observed that he "was too busy taking drugs and doing road trips to read a book about taking drugs and doing road trips." The rest of us just read Kerouac to imagine ourselves cool enough to run with the Dean Moriartys of the world. We read On the Road looking for a Mary Sue. And while Sal makes a decent Mary Sue in the book -- it's easier to get into the head of a narrator -- I don't know how well that would translate to film. Marylou is the one who admits, openly, that Dean is just "too mad" for her. And we're already used to seeing Kristen Stewart as the stand-in for Regular Girls. (Admittedly, in The Runaways she really was the coolest girl in the room -- but I didn't see The Runaways, and most other people didn't either.)
Let's be honest, the mere fact that a name actress is in this movie will keep reviewers and viewers from focusing exclusively on the dudes, and that's a good thing. It would be even better if Rivera used Stewart's star power to call attention to the abusive side of Dean's authority. But I worry that that sours so much of the fantasy that makes On the Road attractive to teenagers to begin with -- it's more fun to pretend you're traveling with the Manic Pixie Dream Dude than to be reminded why you don't hang out with that sort of person in real life.
I'd really love pushback on this, especially from people with better bohemian or Twilight cred than I have. I really want to be persuaded this isn't bad for women or art! Please help!
You'll notice that the narrator of the song sings about Dean like he's a supernova being viewed from earth, not a travelling companion. Sal Paradise talks about him in the same way. Both of them admire the man who's dancing around far outside the bounds of convention, but they're both ultimately hemmed in themselves. Dean's the male, mid-20th-century equivalent to the character we now call the Manic Pixie Dream Girl -- just barely too quirky to be real, but irresistibly attractive to those who wish they were quirkier than they are, and who flatter themselves to think that "the only ones for me are the mad ones..."
In other words, it's a take that appeals to the alienated, wistful nerds who in the 21st century are most likely to get their counterculture fix from a novel "classic" enough to get assigned as summer reading. When I was talking to a friend of mine about this, he observed that he "was too busy taking drugs and doing road trips to read a book about taking drugs and doing road trips." The rest of us just read Kerouac to imagine ourselves cool enough to run with the Dean Moriartys of the world. We read On the Road looking for a Mary Sue. And while Sal makes a decent Mary Sue in the book -- it's easier to get into the head of a narrator -- I don't know how well that would translate to film. Marylou is the one who admits, openly, that Dean is just "too mad" for her. And we're already used to seeing Kristen Stewart as the stand-in for Regular Girls. (Admittedly, in The Runaways she really was the coolest girl in the room -- but I didn't see The Runaways, and most other people didn't either.)
Let's be honest, the mere fact that a name actress is in this movie will keep reviewers and viewers from focusing exclusively on the dudes, and that's a good thing. It would be even better if Rivera used Stewart's star power to call attention to the abusive side of Dean's authority. But I worry that that sours so much of the fantasy that makes On the Road attractive to teenagers to begin with -- it's more fun to pretend you're traveling with the Manic Pixie Dream Dude than to be reminded why you don't hang out with that sort of person in real life.
I'd really love pushback on this, especially from people with better bohemian or Twilight cred than I have. I really want to be persuaded this isn't bad for women or art! Please help!