Railroad Earth

Like what seems to be the rest of the class’s opinion, I also did not care for Railroad Earth. I was confused as to what was happening, and I kept getting frustrated when Kerouac would go off on tangents that had nothing to do with anything. Reading it out loud helped a little bit, but I still had a difficult time with the piece.

The section I chose to read out loud for class, but did not get to, was one another classmate chose, where Kerouac talks about the food he eats for breakfast and the prices of each item. I was really fascinated about how meticulous he was about naming each item and how much it cost (a grand total of 21-26 depending on whether he wanted two or three eggs). He was extremely pleased with how cheap it was, despite that he could afford much better. The food was also disgusting: it had “the smell of soured old shirts lingering above the cookpot steams” and described as being made near rats. His breakfast is also really simple to make (eggs, toast, coffee, and oatmeal), which further puts into perspective how badly the meal was prepared for it to be notable.

When discussing On the Road we talked about how everything Kerouac did or experienced was described as either the greatest event that could ever happen to him and his friends, or the worst thing ever that could happen to anyone. I feel like this passage in particular exemplifies that with how he describes the food. The food he gets at this restaurant is so bad that he has to tell you about it, so you too can experience on some level what he is going through. There’s also the description of the stew: “…one time I had the beef-stew and it was absolutely the worst beefstew I ever et, it was incredible I tell you-.” It is so appalling and “the most intensest regret” that the experience has to be shared, even though the events of Railroad Earth are basically Kerouac’s day to day routine.  

However, sharing the mundane is the point of Railroad Earth. For the beats, everything should be considered holy and everything deserved to be felt. Kerouac writes like you were listening to him talk to an extent: there are many tangents in the middle of a story and words are purposely misspelled so you are forced to say it out loud, so you hear it like someone was saying it. We even discussed in class that you had to read Railroad Earth aloud, because you were meant to feel the piece rather than merely read it. Kerouac’s stream of consciousness style of writing takes you on a journey through his mind, where you’re taken through every single aspect of his day, and made to experience everything that you normally take for granted. I still don’t know if I like Railroad Earth, but I can at least respect Kerouac’s use of language and the thought put behind the story.