|
 American
writer, who gained world fame with his iconoclastic novel ONE FLEW
OVER CUCKOO'S NEST (1962, filmed 1975). Kesey became in the 1960s
a counterculture hero and a guru of psychedelic drugs with Timothy
Leary. Kesey has been called the man who changed the beat generation
into the hippie movement.
"I think McMurphy knew better than we did that our tough looks
were all show, because he still wasn't able to get a real laugh
out of anybody. Maybe he couldn't understand why we weren't able
to laugh yet, but he knew you can't really be strong until you
see a funny side to things. In fact, he worked so hard at pointing
out the funny side of things that I was wondering a little if
maybe he was blind to the other side, if maybe he wasn't able
to see what it was that parched laughter deep inside your stomach."
(from One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest)
Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, and brought up in Eugene,
Oregon, where his father had a creamery business. He studied at
the University of Oregon and on graduating he won a scholarship
to Stanford University. Kesey soon dropped out and joined the counterculture
movement. In 1956 he married his high school sweetheart, Faye Haxby.
He began experimenting with drugs and wrote an unpublished novel,
ZOO. Tom Wolfe described in his book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid
Test (1968) Kesey's and his friends, called the Merry Pranksters,
journeys in their Day-Glo-painted bus and tripping on hallucinogenic
drugs.
At a Veterans Administration hospital in Menlo Park, California,
Kesey was a paid volunteer experimental subject, taking mind-altering
drugs and reporting their effects. These experiences as an aide
at a psychiatric hospital and LSD sessions formed the background
for One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest, which was set in a mental
hospital. The story is narrated by an American Indian chief, called
Big Chief. He lets people think he is a deaf mute. Into his world
enters the petty criminal and prankster McMurphy with his efforts
to change the bureaucratic system of a mental hospital. The mental
ward is ruled by Big Nurse Ratched. McMurphy is an involuntary and
anarchic patient and he encourages the others to rebel against the
rules. He realizes that he is only a projection of all the inmates's
expectations and becomes a victim of the oppressive system. The
book reveals the dehumanising effects of the social conformity of
the 1950s, suggesting that the really dangerous mental cases are
those in positions of authority.
'My name is McMurphy, buddies. R.P. McMurphy, and I'm gambling
fool.' He winks and sings a little piece of song: '"...and whenever
I meet with a deck a cards I lays... my money... down."' and laughs
again.
(from One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest)
The film adaptation of the book gained a huge success. Kirk Douglas
had bought the rights to Kesey's novel; he played the role of McMurphy
on Broadway. When he failed to interest a studio in the project,
he finally turned the package over to his son Michael. Marlon Brando
and Gene Hackman refused the role of McMurphy before it was taken
by Jack Nicholson. The film was made in one wing of the Oregon State
Hospital. Several actual patients of the hospital played extras.
The film won five Academy Awards, including best actor for Nicholson.
Kesey was barely mentioned during the award ceremonies, and he made
known his unhappiness with the film.
"This guy's a scamp who knows he's irresistible to women and,
in reality, he expects Nurse Ratched to be seduced by him... This
is his tragic flaw. This is why he ultimately fails. I discussed
this with Louise - I discussed it only with her. That's what I
felt was actually happening with that character. It was one long,
unsuccessful seduction which the guy was so pathologically sure
of."
(Jack Nicholson about McMurphy in Jack Nicholson, the Unauthorised
Biography by Barbara & Scott Siegel, 1990)
Kesey's next novel, SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION appeared two years
later and was also adapted to the screen. The story was set in a
logging community and centred on two brothers and their bitter rivalry
in the family. Hank Stamper is a raw and aggressive man, and his
nemesis is Draeger, a union official attempting to force local loggers
into conformity. Hank's half-brother, the introspective Lee, chooses
to retreat into intellectualism instead of action. After the work,
Kesey gave up publishing novels. He formed a band of 'Merrie Pranksters',
set up a commune in La Honda, California, bought an old school bus,
and toured America and Mexico with his friends, among them Neal
Cassidy, Kerouac's buddy and muse. Their weird exploits were later
chronicled in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
(1973).
 In
1965 Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana. He fled to
Mexico, where he faked an unconvincing suicide and then returned
to the United States, serving a five-month prison sentence at the
San Mateo County Jail. In the early 1970s Kesey returned to writing
and published KESEY'S GARAGE SALE (1973). His later works include
children's book LITTLE TRICKER THE SQUIRREL MEETS BIG DOUBLE THE
BEAR (19990) and SAILOR SONG (1992), a futuristic tale about an
Alaskan fishing village and Hollywood film crew.
For further reading: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by
Tom Wolfe (1968); "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest": The Text
and Criticism, ed. by C.J. Pratt (1977); Kesey, ed. by M. Strelow
(1977); Ken Kesey by Barry H. Leeds (1981); The Art of Grit by
M. Gilbert Porter (1982); Ken Kesey by Stephen L. Tanner (1983);
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Gilbert Porter (1989); On the
Bus by Ken Babbs (1989); St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers,
ed. by Tom Pendergast and Sara Pendergast (1999)
|
