The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
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The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a literary journalism novel written by Tom Wolfe early in his career. Using techniques from the genre of hysterical realism and pioneering new journalism, he tells the story of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters as they drive across the country in a DayGlo painted school bus dubbed Furthur, reaching personal and collective revelations through use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs. It covers their cross country road trip, as well as the acid tests, early performances by The Grateful Dead, and Kesey's exile to Mexico. Wolfe is primarily concerned not with narrative, but with relating the Pranksters' intellectual and quasi-religious breakthroughs.
Tom Wolfe's influences
Though Wolfe did not indulge in the same frequent drug use as the subjects in his work, he was intrigued by their experience and attempted to capture their state of mind and frequent revelations. To do so, he used extensive interviews and primary texts including many interviews, letters, and recordings from Ken Kesey, Norman Hartweg, Hunter S. Thompson and Robert Stone (among many others) to re-create not only the story of the Merry Pranksters, but the "subjective reality" of their experience. He seems to write just as maniacally as someone who would have been “on the bus", although he was often far removed from the collective experiences of the Pranksters' and their shared "trip". His shifts between first and third person, between restricted and omniscient narratives are reflective of the way in which the experience of the collective existed on both individual and group levels.
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 parallels 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 acquaintances 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 marijuana. He is arrested, and while out on bail, tries to fake his own suicide and flee to Mexico. 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, he became more and more paranoid much of the time, alternating with periods when he felt invincible against law enforcement. During his paranoid periods, he would disappear into the jungle for days at a time, so as to elude the “cops” that were right on his tail. This pattern of paranoia followed by periods of complete indifference to the police and law enforcement would continue though the next several months, both in Mexico and the USA. Eventually, the Merry Pranksters drive the bus down to Mexico, to visit Kesey, and he decides to make his triumphant return, slipping through the US-Mexico border as a drunken country/western singer on horseback.
After returning to the US, he spent some time taunting the US police and FBI. After a number of months, US law enforcement eventually caught up to him, but not before he and his Merry Pranksters 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, the FBI in their "shiny black shoes" 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 they 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.