The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
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The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was the defining work of the young author Tom Wolfe. Using the intense genre of hysterical realism, he tells the epic story of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters, as they rocket across the country in a dayglow 1939 International Harvester school bus, rapping away on the best soundsystem anywhere, and filming everything they could.
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Tom Wolfe's Influences
Tom Wolfe’s life greatly influenced this book, despite the fact that he only witnessed a very small portion of it himself. He was not a hippie by any stretch, nor did he even do drugs very often, but he was intrigued enough by the legendary bus trip, that he traveled halfway across the country to witness The Merry Pranksters in action. He interviewed numerous people in order to get all of the facts right. This helped to really give a good representation of what the trip must have been like to those who were there. The author’s unique interpretation of their adventures obviously came from his everyday life, but one might wonder from where. It could not have come from rampant drug use, as most characters’ interpretations might have, for he did not take drugs on a regular basis. Despite this, he seems to write as manically as someone who would have been “on the bus” This points to the possibility that he may have gotten his inspiration for parts of the story directly from letters or first hand experience of Pranksters. This would greatly explain how portions of the story are written in a first person manner or in screen written style.
Summary
The story goes back to Kesey’s first experiences with drugs, when he volunteered to take part in a study at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital on the effects of psychoactive drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and IT-290 (AMT). It follows him to Perry Lane, where he introduces the surprised intellectuals to the mind altering powers of drugs. After that it follows him to La Honda with a few of his Perry Lane friends, where they set up their new base of operations. Throughout the course of the story more and more people join into their small group, and one can see parrallels between the forming of their group and the forming of a new religion. As they hurtle across the continental United States, adopting nicknames as a symbol of their inclusion into this mystic brotherhood, they slowly segregate those who are “on the bus”, people who synch with everything they do, from those who are “off the bus”.
As the group gains an almost psychic connection, they decide to try to bring their message to the masses, and set up the first of many “Acid Tests”. These tests were giant parties with blacklights, dayglow paint, colorful costumes, and massive amounts of LSD. It was at one of these that The Grateful Dead (then called the Warlocks) got their start in what slowly became known as Acid Rock. It was also at one of these tests that the Pranksters met Owsley Stanley, who would soon become the preeminent producer of acid in both the U.S. and U.K. They slowly build up aquantinces with many other groups, such as the Hells Angels.
As the pranksters become more and more famous with the hip community, they also become more and more infamous with the FBI. Eventually, Kesey is captured on a roof with Mountain Girl, another prankster, with a small stash of marajuana. He is arrested, and while out on bail, tries to fake his own suicide and flee to Mexico. Unfortunately the truck that was supposed to be crashed into the tree broke down, and thus didn’t go right with the suicide note, and the boots that were supposed to land at the bottom of the cliff were taken away by the sea. The feds were not fooled.
The longer he lived in Mexico away from the other pranksters, the more paranoid he got, to the point that he would disappear into the jungle for weeks at a time, so as to elude the “cops” that were right on his tail. Eventually, the Merry Pranksters drive the bus down to Mexico, to visit Kesey, and he decides to make his triumphant return.
They plan out a number of pranks, all leading up to the “Graduation from Acid”, where Kesey planned to get people to try to get the LSD experience without the LSD. While a few of these pranks went smoothly, with him slipping away from the feds and their black shiny FBI shoes, they eventually caught him, less than a week before his “graduation”. As part of a plea bargain, Kesey agreed to tell people of the evils of LSD, and why they shouldn’t use it. He knew that since the feds had caught him, it was of no use trying his original plan, so instead, he planned the biggest prank ever, a huge LSDfest right under the feds’ noses. When the place the were going to hold it fell through, they slowed their plans a bit.
They did indeed have one of the largest Acid Tests ever, but the goal of the Test was not to get swanked out of their minds. After the first few hours, Kesey told everyone that it was almost over, and that anyone who wanted to could leave. He gathered everyone else around him, and linked hands. He tried to get everyone to see things as he did, to open their minds as if on LSD, but without it. He almost accomplished his goal, he could feel the barrier closing in, but he realized he had missed his chance. There wasn’t the same energy there as had been in the past, as there would’ve been if his plan had worked the right way. At this point in the story, the reader can see Kesey’s loss of control at its worst as his movement abandons him and he is left to put on the show alone in his warehouse dressed in one of his many elaborate costumes. The confused mass of fans and press drift off, leaving him with just his fellow Pranksters, who eventually leave themselves. And he is left, alone in his warehouse, rapping along to his own voice as it’s transmitted through his variable lag to his own headset.
Final Thoughts
Whether they were using a movie as a metaphor for life, or a bus whose only destination was Furthur, Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters were perfectly captured and chronicled in this book. Regardless of its slight difficulty with the writing style, it perfectly demonstrates that an LSD experience can indeed be captured in a book.