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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

The original Merry Prankster joins the Grateful Dead

Naked Flame

18:50 / 10.11.01

Ken Kesey is dead.

Cuckoo's Nest blew me away, and the Acid Test opened my mind to all sorts of wonderful things... both on the page and later in real life. (Yes, I know he didn't write it. But he lived it, dammit.)

RIP Ken. Shine on.

The Puck

09:36 / 11.11.01

shit.

can i take this oppertunity to urge any one who hasnt read "One flew over the cuckoos nest" to go out and do so.

there will be no jokes in this post

now go away
im not crying errr i just yawned or sumthing

Saint Keggers

09:36 / 11.11.01

I had to read Cucko's Next back in High School, right at a time when I was young and impressionable. It was like a shot of acid (battery) to my reality generator. He will be missed.

The Sinister Haiku Bureau

09:36 / 11.11.01

Wurrrgh! <distraught> That sucks. He was doing his neo-magic-bus tour a year or two back and some friends of mine saw it... I missed it.... this sucks... I had only read cookoo's nest, haven't seen the film yet...
All the best Ken,good luck on the ultimate trip...
"Are you a wolf who imagine's himself to be a sheep, or a sheep who think's he's a wolf??" -R.P. McMurphy <paraphrased from 5-year old memory...>
<for those of you who care about such things, the manic's song named after his most famous character is available here: http://www.audiogalaxy.com/list/searches.php?SID=145cfec5fa62a81c4530c9cfd6c541cd&searchType=0&searchStr=R.P+McMurphy >
<Apologies for the slightly random nature of this posting, its late, I'm drunk, and I'm slightly shocked...>

Well. Blast.

Zoom.

oh no.

When I made my list of 5 heroes a while back, I think Kesey was on it.

I'm generally not a big fan of hippie culture, but the ..Kool Aid Acid Test is one of the most inspiring books I ever read, and the antics chronicled within it, from 65-67 - before it was all destroyed by the shit of the following 5 years or so - provide a perfect example of the sort of rebelious, forward thinking, positive energy that the young people of the world should be channeling..

And One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest is a fucking universal classic of a novel too.

Admittedly, I have absolutely no idea what the guy's been up to over the past 30 years, but still - respect.

Not Here Still

16:56 / 11.11.01

Yeah, I was going to post about this yesterday, but I couldn't decide where Ken went, he changed so much.

I'd also just done an obit thread in art, and was a bit worried I was becoming the Barbelith angel of death or something...

He was an author, an activist, a historian, a journalist, and one of American counter culture's most intelligent and reasoned voices - even when he was under the influence.

There are strong arguments for him being one of the most influential figures in the post-war counter culture.

BBC report on Ken's passing.

Tribute to Ken on his website by the other Ken in the acid test, Ken Babbs

Rest In Peace, Kesey.

[ 11-11-2001: Message edited by: Not Me Again ]

The Natural Way

11:16 / 12.11.01

Weird Synchronicity: I've just put Cuckoo's nest down to check out the Lith.

Very sad.

I'll go back to it now.

mondo a-go-go

13:46 / 12.11.01

not to be facetious, but this is a candidate for a roaming thread, i reckon.

i got into kesey shortly after my dad died: one flew over the cuckoo's nest was one of the few things i picked up of his, along with a billie holiday tape and some gilbert shelton comics...

Chuckling Duck

14:56 / 12.11.01

Good man. Saw him read his children’s story about the squirrel once. After reading OFOtCN and ECAT, I thought he would be a burly, surly napoleon. Was pleasantly surprised to meet such a playful and humble person.

It was his liver in the end, you know. I imagine he gave it quite a run.

Mordant Carnival

16:28 / 12.11.01

Awwwwww!!!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

05:33 / 13.11.01

That's quite definitively the end of an era, isn't it.
That's the full set... Kerouac, Leary, Ginsberg, Uncle Bill Burroughs...
and now Kesey.
Rest in motherfucking peace, man.
(Flippant though I may be, I'm kind of holding tears back right now. It doesn't show in text, though.)
FURTHER.

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