fwd: The Prankster and the Conspiracy

[pynchonoid]

...this showed up on the MAPS list yesterday:

The Prankster and the Conspiracy:
(The Story of Kerry Thornley and How He Met Oswald and
Inspired the
Counterculture)
Book by Adam Gorightly
Review and Interview By Ronnie

Adam Gorightly sure picks interesting subject matter
for his books. Last
years' THE SHADOW OVER SANTA SUSANA: BLACK MAGIC, MIND
CONTROL AND THE
"MANSON FAMILY" MYTHOS gave us one of the best books
on Charles Manson in
well over two decades. Now Gorightly has delivered
another tantalizing
glimpse into the fringe of society, this time with the
colorful
counterculture hero (or anti-hero?) Kerry Thornley in
his book, THE
PRANKSTER AND THE CONSPIRACY (The Story of Kerry
Thornley and How He Met
Oswald and Inspired the Counterculture).

They say that there is a fine line between genius and
insanity and Kerry
Thornley is a classic example. Like a combination of
Lenny Bruce and Syd
Barrett, Thornley's genius burned out much too soon.
Was it a case of too
much acid (amongst other drugs) in the '60s? Or was he
programmed by
MK-ULTRA (which Kerry believed)? Was he the result of
a Nazi breeding
experiment (another belief of his)? Can his mental
condition be blamed on
an oppressive father (a convenient scapegoat in this
generation)? While I
don't totally believe that he was 'programmed'
(although the CIA DID
experiment with LSD and mind control), I do believe
that a simple answer
could be found in the combination of his high-strung,
energetic personality
AND his consumption of drugs, especially LSD. In the
book, Becky Glazer
recalled - "Kerry got high off of everything." While I
don't totally blame
Kerry's drug use on his later mental illnesses, you
have to look at the
other side of the coin. Would have Kerry's creative
output have been as
prolific if he HADN'T taken the drugs? Gorightly
documents Thornley's
prolific output as a writer. He was also a key player
in the history if
independent zines, printing his own one- page "wall
newspapers" in the
mid-'70s, well before the zine craze caught on in the
'80s.

One example of Kerry's brilliance was co-founding of
the Discordian Society
(along with Greg Hill)! While the Discordian Society
wasn't the only
'spoof' religion created in the '60s (another example
is the Reformed
Druids of North America founded in 1963), it was one
of the most ingenious.
Discordianism can best be described as a "revelation
of the doctrine of
chaos and the worship of the Goddess Eris. The
practice of Discordianism,
i.e. sowing the seeds of chaos as a means of achieving
a higher state of
awareness - is a perpetual game, better known in some
quarters as
'operation mindfuck'."

Kerry's kinetic attention span also covered the areas
of politics. Thornley
was renowned for changing ideas in conversation
roughly every two minutes
and over the years Kerry shifted from right-wing
politics to
libertarianism, to anarchy and finally to his own
"zenarchy" (a combination
of anarchy and Zen Buddhism- Social Order which
springs from Meditation).

Finally, the subject that became Thornley's
'albatross' was his association
with the Lee Harvey Oswald and several seemingly
random coincidental
meetings with such notorious players in the Kennedy
assassination saga such
as Guy Banister, David Ferrie and possibly even E.
Howard Hunt. Kerry
Thornley almost seems like the Forrest Gump of the
Kennedy assassination!
As for the Oswald connection, Thornley shortly served
with Lee Harvey
Oswald in the Marines and Oswald later influenced
Kerry's book IDLE
WARRIORS. While Kerry stated that he didn't see Oswald
after the Marines,
they both lived in New Orleans at the same time, even
living near each
other. Unfortunately, Kerry didn't write down his
Kennedy assassination-
associated memories. By this time, he was already
suffering from mental
problems. Kerry's paranoia grew and he once stated,
"It's hard to be an
anarchist when your head is talking to you!". Although
a practicing
psychiatrist told him that he was schizophrenic,
Thornley refused any type
of treatment.

The Kerry Thornley story is an interesting twist on
the 'tragic hero' - a
gifted and talented counterculture figure that
eventually succumbed to his
demons. Adam Gorightly has delivered a book that is
both funny (some of
Kerry's antics were inspired hilarity) and sad (his
decline in his later
years) and gives you lots of twists and turns in
between. Whether you are a
Kennedy assassination buff or simply interested in the
counterculture, THE
PRANKSTER AND THE CONSPIRACY is definitely a must
read.

INTERVIEW

What follows is an interview with the book's author,
Adam Gorightly...

...read it all at:
<http://earcandy_mag.tripod.com/thekerryprankster.htm>

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time.
http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html