third time's the charm RE: col49 2 pt2

[Tim Strzechowski]

Doug Millison wrote:

> Tim Ware's web site confirms my initial post that put COL49's publication in
> 1966, March to be precise. The first paperback edition came out in May 1967.
> So, I'm guessing that P is working on COL49 at least as early as 1965, if
> not sooner.

Interestingly, 1966 is the year LSD was officially made illegal.

>  (It's been a long time since I read Cuckoo's Nest, and I
> don't recall if K specifically mentions LSD, or if it's just that he uses
> the LSD experience to inform his creation of the mental states of characters
> therein; that's also the case in Sometimes a Great Notion, which was
> published in 1964, I believe.)

Kesey doesn't mention LSD per se in _Cuckoo's Nest_, but it did serve as the
basic source of inspiration for many of the scenes involving Chief Broom's
"fogs."  In fact, correspondence between Kesey and fellow Prankster Ken Babbs
reveals that it was actually peyote that fueled his composition of the earliest
drafts of the novel.  It was in the thoes of a peyote vision that he realized
the novel would work best if told from the point-of-view of Chief Broom rather
than McMurphy or a third-person omniscient narrator --- a key factor in making
the narrative "work." (This can all be found in the Viking Critical Edition of
_Cuckoo_).

> Some folks believe Pynchon also may have known about the CIA's research with
> LSD, looking for possible military and counter-intelligence uses, and that
> this is reflected in his work, especially GR.

It has undoubtedly been brought up on this List already, but perhaps the two
best sources on the CIA and its LSD studies can be found in the following two
volumes.

Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of Lsd : The Cia, the Sixties, and
Beyond
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802130623/qid=997208728/sr=1-1/ref=sc_b_1/002-6129597-2082465

Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802135870/ref=sim_books/002-6129597-2082465

And, of course, anything Kesey-related can be found at
http://www.intrepidtrips.com/