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Comment by ktallett | Hacker News Reader

Jack Kerouac has always felt like a gateway for early 20 year old guys looking to be seen as literary explorers. Similar to how Orwell seems to be commonly found around your mid teens (15-17) and many are seem reading 1984. I guess it's almost a right of passage.

I know many will say those are stereotypes or tropes but having worked with people from 15-28 over the course of many years in a range of roles, it's very much an observation at this point. Orwell especially I suspect comes from required reading.

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Orwell is an absolute master of both fiction and non-fiction. This dude lived and got dirty on purpose just to be able to report about it: far-away colonies, lower-class slums, foreign wars against fascists; in the end it even cost him his life.

I am SO happy he is an obligatory lecture in many schools and countries; it's probably the best thing kids could be reading. He's been my hero ever since I've read him, and still is now even as I am approaching 40. And I've read many other good things too, but rarely something comes close to Orwell's dedication and authenticity. The man speaks universal truths in a way that sticks. If you only know 1984 and Animal Farm, do yourself a favor and check out The Road to Wigan Pier, for example.

Yes!

"Of the five pay-checks I mentioned above, no less than three are rubber-stamped with the words 'death stoppage'. When a miner is killed at work it is usual for the other miners to make up a subscription, generally of a shilling each, for his widow, and this is collected by the colliery company and automatically deducted from their wages. The significant detail here is the rubber stamp."

I've read all his works and I was a big fan. But I do still believe it does attract a specific age. Orwell had some excellent work, and I didn't insult him. However I am wary of romanticising a way of life. His early works were based on his real experiences but I can't promote essays or books based on a brief entrance into that life for research as it's not quite the same. I believe all forms of media are best when they are based on your real lived experience and not roleplayed. Especially music and literature. Oasis are a particularly great example of this; you can't really write songs about a life of poverty and hope when you no longer live that.

In Down and Out in Paris and London he is very clear that he comes from some privilege and also that he actually lived the experiences he wrote about. He can't write it from the pov of somebody doing it for decades with no other option but he is explicit that he can't do that.

1984 in particular is well worth a read right now. I read it at age 47 and it's not in the same vein as On the Road.

OTR is also required reading in the US. I remember a lot of my peers being very inspired by living that sort of beat life, although none of them actualized on that

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