Talk:The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Changes noted
I changed a couple of passages to remove the assertion that Wolfe traveled with the Pranksters on their trip across the country because I have seen no evidence that he did this. I also at first thought that was the case because of how it is written, but I think he must have interviewed them and may have watched their footage and met up with them at some point, probably after they returned. So he may have been present at some of the Acid Test functions, but I have seen no verifiable, published sources that confirm that he was actually on the bus, and he doesn't appear in any of the footage I have seen, which he should if he was actually there. For example, he doesn't appear anywhere in the recent Magic Trip documentary. And I may have missed some spots in this article that mention him being on the bus.--70.174.41.41 (talk) 02:44, 16 July 2013 (UTC)

Early on in the book Wolfe mentions that he 1st met Kesey when he came out of jail at a point after the bus trip, just as he was beginning to talk about passing the test and graduating.--86.191.19.209 (talk) 23:03, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

I felt like I had to clarify some of the language in the "influences" section. honestly, i'm not even sure "influences" is the correct title for it. regardless, i think i edited it in such a way that it no longer reads like an 8th grade book report. no disrespect, it was just reduntant and circular. I redid the intro for clarity as well... someone needs to tackle the summary, but i dont have the energy. it's not as confused as the other sections, so it would really just be simple proofreading and editing.


 * Much better! Thank you very much Monkey Tennis 11:40, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

What is this? A film, a novel, a story, a what? --Menchi 08:49, Aug 21, 2003 (UTC)


 * Its a book. Don't know much more than that, though. - David Stewart 09:03, 21 Aug 2003 (UTC)

It's a non-fiction book, written in the "new-journalism" style by Tom Wolfe in the 1960s. It records the activities of Ken Kesey, Hunter Thompson, the Hell's Angels, and other major figures from that time, especially in relation to the use of LSD.

Kesey later compared Wolfe and Thompson as "Shit floats and cream rises. Hunter Thompson is cream." Thompson himself described Wolfe as "a crusty old fart". Wolfe's generally conservative views and distain for the hippies comes across in his book, and this is cleary what fueled Kesey's and Thompson's dislike of him.

I have read the book and didn't immediately feel Wolfe's disdain for the hippies. It seemed to me that he was very ambililant to the whole "hippie" movement in general and Ken Kesey in particular, but any thing deeper than that I didn't pick up on. 207.157.121.50 04:04, 11 October 2005 (UTC)mightyafrowhitey

The entry would benefit from a rewrite into a more neutral point of view with some clean up some of the people mentioned (Tom Wolfe vs Thomas Wolfe). I know, I know, I should do it. Just pointing out the need so that others don't wonder if it's just them. --Zippy 02:09, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * I had a go at NPOVing the intro and deleted the final thoughts, which seemed particularly POV. The summary section isn't so bad, but the influences bit doesn't seem to make much sense. It basically says: "In writing this book Tom Wolfe was obviously influenced by his life. But he didn't travel on the bus much and rarely took drugs. He did some interviews for this book." I'm not sure what to do about it. Thoughts anyone? Monkey Tennis 14:10, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

Christ figure
It's a long time since I've read the book, so I perhaps am mis-remembering, but I don't believe this characterization is accurate. I will add a tag. I welcome input. Dlabtot (talk) 01:35, 10 November 2017 (UTC)