Jack Kerouac

I am (finally) reading _On the Road_, at Pattie's insistence. Here's a passage I thought worth reposting here.

[Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk -- real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious. ]

Indeed, and now, fifty years later, any attempt at "real straight talk about souls" is regarded as the antithesis of sophistication, a sure sign of a hick or, worse, a person trying to cover for not having been born independently wealthy. Or is my assessment of "America" overly clouded by living in a suburb of Los Angeles?

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