Merry Pranksters

When hear the name Merry Pranksters what comes to your mind? Let me guess a group of young individuals dressed in a joker costume running around throwing water balloons from roof tops or shaking hands with strangers to taze them. Merry Pranksters were not exactly known for doing that, but they were group of young adults who did pranks with LSD. For instance, they mixed LSD in a bowl of Kool-Aid in their parties to get their guests high and this was known as Electric Kool-Aid Test. “In the 1960s,

clearly seen by Ken Kesey’s urgings to use LSD to transcend reality and bring a higher state of consciousness to those individuals involved. Wolfe’s second main point was to highlight the desire to escape, which is clearly seen in many of the Merry Pranksters, especially Mountain Girl, who escapes a mundane life in New York to join Kesey and the psychedelic movement. Wolfe’s last point was to show equally the darkness and light in Kesey’s story to educate people about the good and bad sides of the

deep-seated traits. This question, as well as many others, are topics that are brought to exhibition in Tom Wolfe’s book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Set in the late 1960’s, Wolfe tells the true story Ken Kesey and his band of followers, the Merry Pranksters, who brought the psychedelic drug movement to the forefront of American culture.

Taken at face value, Norman Mailer’s Armies of the Night and Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test may seem very similar. They are both centered on a major author of the 1960s and his experiencing of historical events of the time, while set in the style of New Journalism. When examined closer, though, it becomes apparent that these novels represent two very different sides of New Journalism – Armies of the Night an autobiography with personal and political motivations, The Electric Kool-Aid

Wolfe created this documentation of the Merry Pranksters is that he attempts to re-create both the mental and physical atmosphere of their adventure and exploration across America. 4) Specific evidence in supporting the aforementioned thesis can be found in the “Author’s Note” section of the book but also in the writing style used to develop this masterpiece. Writing in a basic journal style, Wolfe documented the extraordinary life style lived by the Pranksters through personal experiences with them

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Takin' it to the Streets as Drug-influenced Literature Art influenced by drugs faces a unique challenge from the mainstream: prove its legitimacy despite its "tainted" origins. The established judges of culture tend to look down upon drug-related art and artists, as though it is the drug and not the artist that is doing the creating. This conflict, less intense but still with us today, has its foundations in the 1960s. As the Beatnik, Hippie, and psychedelic

The Merry Pranksters and the Hell’s Angels were two different American subcultures that united at Ken Kesey’s La Honda home in 1965 and it’s acid-laced activities that abrubted came to be the most popularized party of the 1960s. The two-day trip was documented in the New Journalism style by both Tom Wolfe in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Hunter S. Thompson in Hell’s Angels: A Great and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang. However, each author took different perspectives as Wolfe adopted

was an American author, who was a prominent figure in the 1960’s counter-culture movement. When brainstorming ideas for stories, Kesey often experimented with drugs, especially psychedelics like LSD. Also, he was part of the group called the “Merry Pranksters”, who traveled around on a bus putting on shows and “acid tests” around the United States. Ken Kesey’s involvement with the counter-culture and drug movement have greatly shaped who he is as a writer, exploring themes such as conformity and mental

Counterculture is defined as “a way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with the prevailing social norm”. The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment movement based in the UK and the US, which also played a huge role in the civil rights movements as it promoted experimentation of sexuality, women's rights and illicit substances. Theodore Roszak in his book ‘The Making of a Counterculture’ states that the clear difference between the counterculture and the New Left

Whissen, Thomas Reed. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Ken Kesey (1962)." Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 341, Literary Resource Center, Accessed 6 Nov. 2017. Thomas Whissen shares a deeper look into the critically acclaimed, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In Whissen’s writing, he describes how the book is a depiction of a modern morality play. Kesey’s writing gives his readers a relatable, savior of the institution, Randle McMurphy. Kesey also delights his readers with a mysterious, yet