<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_reply@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Wanna hear a great Tom Wolfe story? :-)
> >
> > I wasn't there for this one personally, but I know
> > a couple of people who were and they vouch for its
> > accuracy. Well, Tom decided he wanted to write a
> > book on all these crazy hippies, so he managed to
> > meet Kesey and get invited to the farm in Springfield,
> > and then on the bus and to some of the other wacky
> > places they went. But the whole time Tom is doing
> > his New York number, which means that every day, in
> > the midst of these stoned hippies, wearing everything
> > from tie-dye to naked, he's walking around in his
> > white suit, the one he's famous for.
> >
> > This goes on for some time, with Tom recording all
> > the stuff he sees around him but not really being
> > part of it. Finally, the guys on the farm had to
> > move this enormous, wood-burning, pot-bellied stove
> > from the barn into one of the houses. It was heavy.
> > So heavy that the guys who lived there on the farm
> > couldn't lift it, so they called to Tom for help.
> > He pitched in, and between them they got the cast-
> > iron stove to its new location.
> >
> > Then Tom looks down at his white New York suit and
> > it's *covered* with black soot. Covered. He's stand-
> > ing there, shocked, and Kesey notices and says,
> > "Well...y'know Tom...you can't mess with it without
> > gettin' some of it on ya."
> >
> > Everyone cracks up, including Tom Wolfe. He fit in
> > better after that.
> >
> > > We had a similar scene in England
> > > in the 80's with some really heavy psychedelic bands, magic
> > > mushrooms and free festivals every weekend, much fun.
> >
> > Indeed. T'was a magical time...
>
>
> I wasn't there, so I wouldn't know.
>
> But I tend to believe what Robert Crumb says about the Sixties and
> it is something to the effect: the only good appeal of the Sixties
> was all the free love they were promising but when I showed up I
> didn't get any anyway.
I did, so I have no complaints. :-)
> He hated the Sixties and he hated Rock and Roll.
You should see Robert's collection of records -- he has
literally thousands of 78s. He hasn't liked much of
any music produced after 1930. :-)
> For all the talk of free love and the counterculure and the
> breaking
> down of barriers and all that, I found that Hippies were more into
> their appearances and cliques than any staid conservative-looking
> guy like Tom Wolfe. The counterculture was supposed to be about
> what's in your heart and not materialistic things but it was the
> Hippies who were very, very tribal when it came to what you looked
> like...and if you didn't look like them, they would shun you.
>
> Indeed, your anecdote above, Barry, speaks to that. Just because
> Wolfe wore a white suit and tie, he wasn't fully accepted; he had
> to get it dirty before he was.
Naaah. It was Tom who held back and refused to be
part of things; that was the whole point of the
story and of Kesey's comment, and as far as I can
tell, the reality of the situation. Tom Wolfe
wanted to be an "impartial observer" for the purposes
of his book, but the nature of the subject matter
*required* partiality, *required* gettin' in there
and doin' the things (and the drugs) you were writing
about. As a result, his book (as much as I like parts
of it) was to some extent a superficial look at the
surface of that period, not a real picture of what
it was like.
The only chapter in the book (Kesey down in Mexico)
that rings completely true for me wasn't written by
Wolfe; Kesey wrote that one.
But it was still a neat book, and captured a little
of that strange time.
> As well, I think the drug culture of the Sixties created alot of
> misery and, basically, just a bunch of fucked-up dope addicts.
It's your right to think that. Me, I think it was
a period of hope. And I tend to value hope more than
I value cynicism. Your mileage may vary.
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