The Basketball Diaries: The Classic about Growing Up Hip on New York's Mean Streets

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Critics argue that such provocative literature glamorizes negative behaviors and does not provide a constructive lesson for young people. I don't think of Jim Carroll when I consider those two writers. Because I don't think of Jim Carroll as a writer. Carroll became sober in the 1970s. [3] After moving to California, he met Rosemary Klemfuss; the couple married in 1978. [4] The marriage ended in divorce, but the two remained friends. [3] Death [ edit ] On the other hand, supporters argue that the book presents a realistic depiction of the horrors associated with addiction and the destructive path it potentially leads to, thus serving as a stark deterrent.

O'Hehir, Andrew (April 12, 1995). "A Poet Half-Devoured – Jim Carroll Feature Articles". CatholicBoy.com . Retrieved December 18, 2012. The book’s frank depiction of adolescent drug abuse, sexual content, and criminal activity has made it a point of contention, leading to its banishment from many educational institutions that deem it inappropriate for younger readers.While he thought the performances were really good—particularly DiCaprio and Wahlberg's—Carroll took issue with the movie's ending. "If they just ended with him staring out the window I think it would've worked. It would've been very literary. The way they re-shot it was kinda corny, so clean and everything." He also didn't agree with Kalvert's direction. "But the director was just a techno freak. He didn't have any literary sense at all."

However, it also during this time that I have to question the veracity of some of Carrol’s adventures. I’m not going to say they never happened. But, I will be skeptical of how they happened. You see, to me, a diary is only the rebirth of previous memories. Sometimes these memories are shrouded in the fog of time; sometimes these memories have been tinkered with and are no longer a memory of what happened as they are a memory of what has been reconstructed. Regardless, Carrol’s memories of this time evoke a sense of innocence that is about to be corrupted in a manner that can never be uncorrupted. When they first told me it was gonna be Leo, I didn't know who he was," Carroll told The Los Angeles Times. "If they'd said the kid from Growing Pains, I would have known, because when I first saw that kid, I said, 'This kid has a lot of presence.' I said, 'That kid is very pretty. He's gonna do well.'" 5. MARK WAHLBERG HAD TO READ FOR THE PART SIX TIMES BECAUSE DICAPRIO DIDN'T WANT HIM IN IT. At its core, The Basketball Diaries is an important piece of literature that shines a light on the unforgiving world of drug abuse, the realities of life on the streets, and the challenges a struggling teenager faces. It is a cautionary tale, reminding readers of the perils of addiction and the long-lasting consequences it can have on one’s life. MacAdams, Lewis (September 16, 2009). "Remembering Jim Carroll". The Los Angeles Times . Retrieved December 18, 2012. The Dicaprio movie isn't bad. But the true spiritual film adaption of this book for me is "Kids". Now that might seem strange. Because "Kids" is not about heroin at all. But it has the same sense of kids acting like adults in an urban world with no boundaries.Carroll, Jim (1987). Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries 1971-1973. New York City: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0140085020. People Who Died" was most recently used in the 2021 film The Suicide Squad, directed by James Gunn, and the end credits of the Season 4 The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel episode "Everything Is Bellmore", paying tribute to late cast member Brian Tarantina. I don't really remember a thing about this book except that I really did like it at the time that I read it, around age fourteen. When the movie came out I cut school and drank some cough syrup or something and went to go see the matinee by myself. This was in Leonardo DiCaprio's fleeting, long-past early-nineties moment of hotness, and in the movie -- which was bad -- he looked gorgeous and lanky leaping around on the basketball court in his Catholic schoolboy uniform -- dammmmmmn. Whew! Leo, oh, Leo.... where did you go wrong? But I do remember his junkie scenes being really corny and dumb. And that's about all I remember, oh and then something about swimming in the East River, which is gross.... well in retrospect, maybe it's the Hudson? I also remember that when they want to get codeine cough syrup, they have to sign for it at the pharmacy, but they don't need a prescription or anything like that, they write fake names and the guy just gives it to them, even though they're only like thirteen or whatever. Young Jessica was like, "GOD, was I born too late....!"

Goldman, Marlene (January 8, 1999). "Mercury Rising (1999) – Jim Carroll Interviews". CatholicBoy.com . Retrieved December 18, 2012. While still in high school, Carroll published his first collection of poems, Organic Trains. Already attracting the attention of the local literati, his work began appearing in the Poetry Project's magazine The World in 1967. Soon his work was being published in elite literary magazines like Paris Review in 1968, [2] and Poetry the following year. In 1970, his second collection of poems, 4 Ups and 1 Down was published, and he started working for Andy Warhol. At first, he was writing film dialogue and inventing character names; later on, Carroll worked as the co-manager of Warhol's Theater. Carroll's first publication by a mainstream publisher (Grossman Publishers), the poetry collection Living at the Movies, was published in 1973. [8] Is there such a thing as public good? That's all I'm asking. I mean, is your good the same as my good? I doubt that seriously. So, if we do not agree on a common sense of good, then how can there be any larger public good? Carroll identified Rainer Maria Rilke, Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, James Schuyler, [6] Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs as influences on his artistic career. [7] Writing [ edit ]

Carroll has trouble adjusting to the strict etiquette at the new private school that he is attending on a basketball scholarship, but he impresses his classmates with his confidence and athletic ability. During a routine trip with his gym class to Central Park, Carroll almost gets caught smoking marijuana. He notes the futility of the school’s symbolic Thanksgiving fast for hunger. He describes a sexual encounter with a communist girl. Jim's best friend, Bobby, is dying of leukemia. Jim frequently visits him in the hospital. Later, after a trip to a strip show cut short by an annoyed Bobby, he dies, and Jim and his friends attend his funeral days later. Following the funeral, Jim and his friends go to the basketball court and reminisce about Bobby's life. Depressed over Bobby's death, Jim begins to use heroin. Jim Carroll's early teens growing up in nineteen-sixties' Manhattan were W-A-Y different from mine spent in suburbia a decade later. While I was reading crappy movie-tie-in novels and wondering why boys didn't like me, he was hustling gay sailors, and robbing stores and elderly women, all while nursing a heroin habit. a b c d e Williams, Alex (September 25, 2009). "The Last Days of Jim Carroll". The New York Times. New York City . Retrieved April 9, 2018.