Acid Dreams

[Christopher Klausmeier]

Howdyfoax!  I recently came across a fun book with some relevance to
multiple Pynchon novels.  It's "Acid Dreams - The Complete Social History of
LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond" by Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain.  Like
the title implies, it traces the path of LSD through history from its role
in the CIA's bag of dirty tricks to the 1960's with Tim Leary, Ken Kesey and
the Merry Pranksters, the Weathermen (if I were really motivated I could
work the Unabomber in here...), and other radicals.

Some of it's shocking and a lot is just hilarious.  One internal CIA memo
"noted that acid could 'produce serious insanity for periods of 8 to 18
hours and possibly for longer.' The writer of this memo concluded
indignantly and unequivocally that he did 'not recommend testing in the
Christmas punch bowls usually present at the Christmas office parties.'"

So where are the Pynchon connections?  Well, GR is cited in the bibliography
though I didn't catch it referenced in the text.  But the 1960's section
helped me understand the PR^3 scenes in Vineland better and the material on
the fringes of the CIA recalled the White Visitation.  The whole book seemed
as Pychonesque as nonfiction can get.  And speaking as a youngster who
wasn't alive in the 1960's, it gave me a better idea of what Pynchon lived
though in his 20's  and 30's.

Anyone else read it and have thoughts?

-- Chris