The Strange & Terrible Saga of The Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs: HELL'S ANGELS

[flipjargendy]

Just curious if anyone has read this book. If you haven't it is a book i recommend. i've read the first two pages and it's already got me in a torrential reading frenzy!

The first few sentences copied exactly from the book:

Californial Labor Day weekend . . . early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur . . . The Menace is loose again, the Hell's Angels, the hundred-carat headline, running fast and loud on early morning freeway, low in the saddle, nobody smiles, jamming crazy through traffic and ninety miles an hour down the center stripe, missing by inches . . . like Genghis Khan on an iron horse, a monster steed with a fiery anus, flat out through the eye of a beer can and...

[likwid]

HST's Hells' Angels! Yea it's good.

[fingal]

Is there just a hint of Kerouac in there? Perhaps it's the Big Sur reference which made me think so. There's a big biker community around where I live, and a lot of them do charity work these days, so it's a good thing.

[flipjargendy]

i think since they were both beatniks they both had a similar feel to their writing.. because of the similar lifestyles. But i've never really like Kerouac's writing. So i'd have to say no.

Maybe i'll give his writing another shot though.

[fingal]

i think since they were both beatniks they both had a similar feel to their writing.. because of the similar lifestyles. But i've never really like Kerouac's writing. So i'd have to say no.

Maybe i'll give his writing another shot though.

So who wrote this book flip? I know what you mean about Kerouac, but it's possible to enjoy at least some of his writing.

I think I responded to your thread because not long ago I downloaded a complete version of Alan Ginsberg's reading of his epic poem, 'Howl'.

I know not everyone likes poetry, but what often gets overlooked in the work of Kerouac and other 'beats' is their sense of humour ... It's about self expression and fun as much as anything. At least ... I think so.

[likwid]

Hunter Thompson wrote it. Much better writer than Kerouac.

[fingal]

Hunter Thompson wrote it. Much better writer than Kerouac.

Thanks likwid - I'll see if I can find a copy.

[flipjargendy]

lidwig said:
Hunter Thompson wrote it. Much better writer than Kerouac.

i was going to say that but i've only read one of Kerouac's books and i didn't even finish thing. Kerouac seems to be the kind of guy who just tried to be cool, whereas Thompson seems to be the kind of guy who was just very strange... not very, cool but kind of. He's pretty interesting. He wrote for Rolling Stone (he wrote for a lot of magazines & published books) regularly. So that's one strike against Thompson in my eyes.. but as a full-time journalist you need to get published to eat, i guess. He traveled with Nixon during his campaign.

i would say if you like Kerouac you'd like Thompson. i say this because Thompson has a somewhat poetic way of writing in some of his books. He has a different way of speaking, he describes things in a humorous way at times... in a sort of unconventional way.

But like i a said i don't know enough about Kerouac. i'm just going based off of what i've read about him.

[fingal]

But like i a said i don't know enough about Kerouac. i'm just going based off of what i've read about him.

Cool. Well, you might enjoy listening to his voice?

[flipjargendy]

i think if i could hear him reading his book i'd be more interested in it. He'd read it how it was meant to be read and i like his voice.