Ken Kesey, endearing author
of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) passed Saturday (11/10/01) in
Eugene, Oregon, two weeks after cancer surgery. In 1964, he rode cross-country in an old
school bus driven by Neal
Cassady, hero of Jack
Kerouac's beat generation classic, On The Road. They were the "Merry
Pranksters" dropping acid and pretty much wreaking havoc-- exerting that 60's brand
of "independent thinking" documented in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid
Test.
Kesey is best known for Cuckoo's Nest, though Sometimes a Great Notion
considered by many his best book, was also made into a movie starring Henry Fonda and Paul Newman. Cuckoo's Nest became
controversial however, as a film
adaptation Kesey hated--
McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) fakes insanity to
get off a prison farm, is lobotomized after challenging the authority, personified by
Nurse Ratched (Louise
Fletcher) 
of the mental hospital; "netting" in 1974
Academy Awards for best picture, best director (Milos Forman), best actor and best
actress: the first film since It Happened One Night to win an Oscar in all major
categories. Kirk Douglas had rights to Kesey's novel for a time before his son, Michael
Douglas, started the project.
Kesey sued the producers because it took the viewpoint away from the schizophrenic
Indian, Chief Bromden, as in Kesey's POV. Further, Kesey was barely mentioned during the
award ceremonies, and indicated he did not like Jack Nicholson, or the script. Ironically,
Kesey was sued soon after the 1962 publishing of the novel, too closely resembling a Red Cross nurse he
knew from a VA hospice. Incidentally, Kesey's title came from a children's counting
rhyme:
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
All good children go to heaven,
Some fly east, Some fly west,
Some fly over the cuckoo's nest.
And even more coincidentally, you'll note that the first
two lines of the counting song, are repeated in a familiar Beatles' song; Abbey Road
- "You Never Give Me Your Money". We personally, feel a little guilty that for
us, Cuckoo is one choice all-time film, with many of our fave supporting performances,
too: [William Redfield (Harding) Brad Dourif (Billy Bibbit) Will Sampson (Chief Bromden)
Danny DeVito (Martini) Christopher Lloyd (Taber) Scatman Crothers (Orderly)]. We hope Mr.
Kesey hasn't had to resent a lifetime knowing how revered the film is.
We can all emphatically empathize that writers should get to mean what
they say & what they mean. Usually, they just take your sh*t and trash it. Of course, Paul McCartney is kicking himself in
the asterisk (*) that the "gloved one" (no, not OJ) owns the rights to Beatles
songs. Just wait 'till Michael J. does a Beatles tribute album throwing a few
"ew-w-ws" and other unintelligible phrasings into "Here Comes The
Sun". Ah, but such is art. It's mostly derivative, so let's don't talk $.
In Virginia, we
fondly recall Kesey, featured at the Fifth Annual Literary Art Festival in 1982. That was the hey-hey day of
fests for ODU, oft-directed by Bruce Weigl and/or Tony Ardizzone--when Allen Ginsberg
(Tues/10/5/82) after speaking, took a seat with us (Jerry Brannin,
myself and Teresa Nash) in Webb Center, while Gordon Ball took
his turn at the podium.
The next day, Mr. Kesey at his "fiction reading" (Wed 10/6/82)
in Room 102 of ODU's Mills Godwin Life Sciences Building, strode to the podium with
something resembling Santa's bag. He indicated the sack contained hemp
as he flung it to the floor, and began campaigning for the 
restoration and regulation of the substance, for uh, industrial use-- yeah that's the
ticket-- (obviously, a topic near and dear to his heart when Woody
Harrelson was only 21, and had yet to become a proponent). Later that night, we
purchased our only copy of Spit in the Ocean which had been autographed on the
title page by Kesey, a valued possession. And gee-- that was way before Dollar
Tree Books!
"Famous isn't good for a writer.
You don't observe well when you're being observed."
--
©2003 R K Puma rk@rkpuma.com
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