The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
I've been having this obsession with the second half of the past century for about one year now. It fascinates me how different it was "back then" even though the similarities are endless. Most of the teens from our generation think that all of the our modern trends are trends because they are new, but the truth is what goes around comes back around. With this book I learned the real meaning of being “hip” and the specific meaning that it had in the 60’s-70’s. The style the book is written with is a bit independant: there are no rules or structures to follow. The reason I mention this is because I thought this "independant" way of writing was new, and I've been using it lately, but it has actually been here for quite a while.
Tom Wolfe, the author of the book, creates this piece based on the experience of Ken Kesey and his band the Merry Pranksters, who traveled across the country on a school bus named "Furthur" painted with a great variety of neon colors, promoting the use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs. Kesey and the Merry Pranksters believed that these drugs could open a new door inside our minds, a door that led to a new unknown universe, which they found beautiful and fascinating enough to show to the rest of the world. The book is basically about the experience of two types of trips: a physical trip around the country and the trip around the universe inside our own mind through the use of LSD.
I honestly learned so much with this book and it covered all my expectations I had from the very first moment I saw the cover of the book. It is a long piece, but it is very enjoyable and it definitely transports you to the real-life experience, even to the undescriptible trips that caused the LSD.
I've been having this obsession with the second half of the past century for about one year now. It fascinates me how different it was "back then" even though the similarities are endless. Most of the teens from our generation think that all of the our modern trends are trends because they are new, but the truth is what goes around comes back around. With this book I learned the real meaning of being “hip” and the specific meaning that it had in the 60’s-70’s. The style the book is written with is a bit independant: there are no rules or structures to follow. The reason I mention this is because I thought this "independant" way of writing was new, and I've been using it lately, but it has actually been here for quite a while.
Tom Wolfe, the author of the book, creates this piece based on the experience of Ken Kesey and his band the Merry Pranksters, who traveled across the country on a school bus named "Furthur" painted with a great variety of neon colors, promoting the use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs. Kesey and the Merry Pranksters believed that these drugs could open a new door inside our minds, a door that led to a new unknown universe, which they found beautiful and fascinating enough to show to the rest of the world. The book is basically about the experience of two types of trips: a physical trip around the country and the trip around the universe inside our own mind through the use of LSD.
I honestly learned so much with this book and it covered all my expectations I had from the very first moment I saw the cover of the book. It is a long piece, but it is very enjoyable and it definitely transports you to the real-life experience, even to the undescriptible trips that caused the LSD.