'd rather be a lightning rod rather than a seismograph. Ken Kesey
This is the founding myth of the hippies, the story of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. When radical creativity meant to be an altered and not simply an aesthetic model, Onder and trivial, like today.
the early 60's, Kesey volunteered as guinea pigs for the CIA experiments with LSD. Following those experiences, the conventional world seemed caught useless games that were not even aware . LSD allowed to shed complex, and make everyone did their thing .
Soon after people came from different places, attracted by a force synchronous with Kesey to embark on a journey, geographic and psychedelic, through the United States. Iban in an old school bus painted in all colors and called Further (Past) . Iban filming and recording every sound you made and produced, as if life was an uninterrupted work of art. Iban loaded with LSD, marijuana and amphetamines. And Kesey, the No-captain, had only one purpose:
This is what I hope will happen on this trip. We are beginning to each his own, and we will continue to do so as openly as possible, and none of us will oppose what others do. Neil Cassady (the beatnik of On the road Kerouac) behind the wheel, stuck with this new family in which there were no rules not know the fear and sleep was unthinkable. The trip becomes an allegory of life. Or were on the bus or off the bus were . Back in California, and non-stop, conceived the Acid Tests. Had to raise everyone to the bus.
While Europeans viewed the LSD como una llave sólo para los elegidos; y mientras Timothy Leary, en Nueva York estimaba que la exploración de la conciencia debía llevarse a cabo de manera científica hasta alcanzar la iluminación espiritual; Ken Kesey y sus Alegres Bromistas, consideraban imprescindible conceder la experiencia al mayor número de personas posibles, en una enorme y desinhibida fiesta. Para ello organizaron las Pruebas del Ácido, ¿Eres capaz de pasar la Prueba del Ácido? Juntaban a más de dos mil personas en un galpón lleno de parlantes diseminados, luces estroboscópicas, imágenes proyectadas en paredes y techos, los Greatful Dead inventando el acid-rock, los Alegres Bromistas diseñando catalytic environment of the trip, seeking sync, repeating their voices at intervals, like an echo, to achieve tune with the All ... were the first trance parties.
Tom Wolfe met with the protagonists of this history, and great journalistic work, set up this novel by using various literary devices. Altered consciousness monologues, narratives, euphoric, psychedelic, amphetamine, paranoid. Getting closer, not only the facts but also the mental states that Kesey and the Merry traveled Pranksters. Who, seeking to reach beyond were pursued by a system that imposes a unique game, egotistical and boring.
Lysergic Acid Punch, Tom Wolfe, Anagram, 1968, 455 pp.
