SPECIAL REVIEW ISSUE
Vol. 3. No. 10
North Carolina School of the Arts
November 1, 1968
THE ELECTRC KOOL AID ACID TEST
By Tom Wolfe
^arraVg . Steiv'auSj and Gipoiix. 416 pages. $5.9S,
riev%ewed by
Out of the frenzied American
quest for ultimate happiness emerges
Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters
in The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test.
This book is an intimate, fully de
tailed account of what might be
called another statusphere which,
reacting against the chaotic post
war developments exemplified by 300
horsepower family cars, 18-foot
gleaming boats, free time, and abun
dance of money, tapes, T.V., sounds
systems - tries to use the gadgetry
of the American Neon Renaissance to
achieve a primary, religious experi
ence.
The odyssey of Ken Kesey and
the Merry Pranksters is the evolu
tion of a group of toe-the-line mid
dle class youths scrambling for
greater wealth and fame to a loose-
knit group of hippies trying to cre
ate a new religion.
The group begins as a bunch, of
acid heads who, exhilarated by the
sheer mind expanding experience of
drugs, try to turn all of society on,
beginning at the Watts Acid Test, an
orgy of lights, and rock and roll,
where unsuspecting participants,
(Wolfe included) are given Electric
Kool Aid - Punch laced with generous
doses of LSD. Under Kesey's Direc
tions, the Pranksters develop into a
cult who seek a mystical religious
experience - beyond acid, in a
strange twilight world.
Kesey is the messiah figure of
the hallucinagenic world of the
Merry Pranksters, and emerges as a
Christ figure guiding his disciples,
giving them strength, and imparting
to them his private vision which is
ultimately unobtainable.
However, Kesey's transformation
from the Golden Boy - athlete, pro
mising novelist (One Flew Over The
Cockoo's Nest), scholar - to the
leading figure in the psychedelic,
LSD movement is never fully explain
ed. Was the change a result of drug
which may have expanded or distorted
his mind, or were the drugs simply
the means to an end, a private vi
sion of mystic experience? The ans
wer remains a riddle. And in the
Prankster group everyone is supposed
ly equal - Cool Breeze, Mountain
Anthony N. Fragola
Girl, sledge-hammer seinging Cassidy,
but without Kesey there would be no
group.
KESEY'S POWER
Kesey’s magnetic power over the
Pranksters emerges from Wolfe's sty
le. In writing the book, Wolfe
tried to depict Kesey and the
Prankstersby "recreating the mental
atmosphere of subjectivity of it."
Wolfe "did not think their adventure
can be understood without that."
During one of their jaunts in
the International Harvester Bus,
they film everything within sight.
Under Kesey's quiet but firm direc
tion, the Pranksters are bringing
the whole freaking world, incorpora
ting, the straight Mamma - Daddy,
black shiny shoed world which sur
rounds them, transforming it.
Wolfe suspends moral judgment
of Kesey and the Merry Pranksters,
and this will undoubtedly both
please and annoy his readers.
Whether the Acid Test Graduation is
a failure or success may be irrele
vant. What is more important is
that Wolfe sees the Prankster move
ment as symbolic of a test to find
meaning that will become increasing
ly more crucial, perhaps desperate,
as man finds better ways to acquire
wealth and leisure and prolong human
life; and Tom Wolfe has masterfully
recreated the essence of one such
e^eriment.
MABauRADE
DANCE
S«iTllRDAY NIGHT 8;30-:i:30
IN THE DfWtt DEPARffBIT THEATFE
rat IN COSWE
CAPTAIN SPEED WILL PIWIE MJSIC
ANYONE ELSE INTERESTED IN
ENTERTAINING, CONTACT SGA MEMBERS
Your Student Government has
been making progress in the cafe
teria. Plans are underway now to
have the student lounge section
painted and decorated with table
cloths, candles, wine bottles, and
artificial plants. We are also
going to install a sound system for
music during meals, plus a wall
display of 8" x 10" photographs of
activities at NCSA. This, it is
hoped, will even make the food taste
better. Live entertainment will
be provided, on a volunteer basis,
each Friday night. Once the Lounge
is decorated, it will be an excel
lent place to take your date for
those forms of indoor recreation
requiring surroundings other than
the lobby of the girls dorm. Anyone
interested in performing during the
supper meal on Friday nights should
contact his SGA representative.
Requests are in for school
rings and a school annual. First
we need a good school shield or
design. Anyone with ideas should
submit them immediately!
Open house in the Boy's Dorm on
Sunday will begin at 7;30 and last
until 10:30. It is hoped the rooms
and the lounge will be in good
shape.
Requests are also in regarding
softer toilet tissue in the dorms.
We will see what we can do, but
scented tissue is definetely out of
the question.
Members of the SGA and the
Student Activity group along with
several other representatives of the
student body have been invited to
the home of Mr. and Mrs. James
McClure Clarke in the mountains of
Fairview, N.C. The trip will be for
the week-end during fall break (Nov.
8—10). Mr. Clarke is on the Board
of Trustees for NCSA and he hopes to
get to know the students better, at
the same time hearing suggestions
and ideas for improvements. Our
sincerest thanks to Mr. and Mrs.
Clarke for their genuine interest
and hospitality. This year the
Board of Trustees has become some
thing more than a group of pictures
in a brochure. We hope that you,
the student body, will take every
chance to get to know them.
ms IS THE UST WEK FOR ENTRIES
(
IN THE N, C. ESSAY MASTHEAD CONTEST