By Ben Kesey Ken Kesey 19352001 Childhood split between La Junta Colorado and Springfield Oregon Star wrestler in high school and college nearly qualified for the Olympics Married high school sweet ID: 370895
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Slide1
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
By Ben
KeseySlide2
Ken
Kesey
(1935-2001)
Childhood split between
La Junta, Colorado and Springfield, OregonStar wrestler in high school and college; nearly qualified for the OlympicsMarried high school sweet-heart Norma “Faye” Haxby, and had 3 childrenFathered a fourth child, Sunshine, with fellow Prankster, Carolyn “Mountain Girl” AdamsSlide3
Ken Kesey (1935-2001)
Graduated from the University of Oregon's School of Journalism with a degree in speech and communication
Enrolled in the creative writing program at Stanford University, and developed friendships with other famous writers
Program director at Stanford "saw Kesey
...as a threat to civilization and intellectualism and sobriety" While at Stanford, Kesey began the manuscript that would become One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestSlide4
Ken
Kesey
: A link between two counterculturesSlide5
Counter to what culture?
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) continued the hunt for Communists
A culture of suspicion and silence among those with something to hide and those who feared being misunderstood
Institutional conformity and its effects on people became the subject of much fiction and popular sociology in the 1950sSlide6
Rise of Countercultures
Psychedelic drugs
Sexual revolution Second Wave Feminism Civil Rights MovementSlide7
Project MKULTRAWhile working as a night aide at Menlo Park Veterans Hospital,
Kesey
volunteered to take part in a secret CIA funded program
Experimenting with behavioural engineering of human minds (mind control)Studying the effects of psychoactive drugs (LDS, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, etc.)Kesey also used LSD recreationally and promoted its use as a way to open one’s mind to new ways of thinking and to open doors to unknown aspects of realitySlide8
Merry PrankstersA group that formed
around
Kesey
and often lived comm-unally at his homesMotto: “Never trust
a prankster”1964: travelled across the country in a psychedelic-coloured school bus called “Further”What started as a celebration of Kesey’s new book, became an experiment: what happens when hallucinogenic-fuelled spontaneity meets the banality and conformity of American society?Slide9
Acid TestsParties held by Kesey
in the
1960s where he passed
out and promoted the use of LSDRegularly featured performances by Kesey’s
favourite band, The Warlocks, aka The Grateful DeadChronicled in Tom Wolfe’s famous book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid TestSlide10
Psychiatric Institutions
Psychiatry is not
univer-
sally respectedControversial treatments:ECT: electroconvulsive therapyLobotomy
Over-prescription of drugsDeinstitutionalization: a shift from long-term inpatient to short-term outpatient care for mental health Slide11
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestWritten 1959; published 1962Set in an Oregon
psychiatric hospitalSlide12
ThemesIndividuality vs. conformity
Individuality vs. insanity
Individuality vs. deviance
Masculinity and virilityCorrupting nature of power
ManipulationSexismRacismDehumanization
Moral courage
Moral responsibility
SexualitySlide13
ControversyOne of America’s most highly challenged and banned books:
1974:
Five residents of Strongsville, Ohio sued the local Board of Education to remove the novel from classrooms. They deemed the book "pornographic" and said that it "glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles, and contains descriptions of
beastiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination.“1975: The book was removed from public schools in Randolph, New York and Alton, OklahomaSlide14
ControversyOne of America’s most highly challenged and banned books:
1977:
Removed from the required reading list in Westport, Maine
1978: Banned from the St. Anthony, Idaho Freemont High School and the teacher who assigned the novel was fired1982: Challenged at Merrimack, New Hampshire High SchoolSlide15
ControversyOne of America’s most highly challenged and banned books:
1986:
Challenged at Aberdeen Washington High school in Honors English classes. The local Board of Education voted to keep it for the "promotion of secular humanism.“
2000: Challenged at Placentie Yorbu Linda, California Unified School District. Parents say that the teachers could "choose the best books, but they keep choosing this garbage over and over again”