The answer should be obvious: the influential author of 'On The Road' suffered from an overdose of self-absorption and became a martyr for untalented imitators everywhere. Few of his acolytes would ever dare to acknowledge what the Beat Generation might have actually represented: an elite minority of conceited misfits, calling attention to themselves and insisting (with no small arrogance) that by displaying their own inadequacies they were somehow expressing the angst of post-war America's disillusioned youth. Respect for an iconoclastic (if self-destructive) literary rebel is one thing, but this ongoing elevation of Kerouac to divinity is quite another.
Review of What Happened to Kerouac?
