Presented by the Council for Theater and Performance Studies with the departments of Theatre Arts and English with the support of the College of
Arts and Sciences.

This is a scholarly examination of the works of Ken Kesey including the literary, the bus trips, the relationship with the Grateful Dead, the Merry Pranksters, and the man himself. This is real heady stuff presented by real heady people who spend their time conjuring what it all means and how it relates to previously conjured thoughts, writings and experiences.

The symposium presenters studiously recite their dissertations with great emphasis on points relating to the themes of their discourse. Their enthusiasm is infectious, thought-provoking and fascinating. They are professors, writers, and deep thinkers possessed of inquisitive minds. In plain view of the tree lined serene ivory tower atmosphere, the people in this symposium have embarked upon the fascination with Kesey, the Pranksters, the Grateful Dead and how it all fits into archetypes, culture, Jungian psychology, Huckleberry Finn and so much, much, more.

The Kesey symposium
continued over three days comprised of panels with three to five people who have spent recent months and years studying and analyzing Ken's writings, relationships, actions and videos. The audience of like-minded thinkers, friends of Ken's, family, students, Pranksters, and Eugene hippies listen attentively to each participant present their paper. References to other writers' books flow back and forth throughout the formal essays providing arguments about the why's and what's. Occassionally, the huh and what eminates from the audience many of whom are as equally studious as the presenters. Questions are posed, retorts are commented, answers to the questions and retorts are replied, all in a very dignified, civil manner.

During one Saturday session panel titled Electric Art for the Mind and Body, Katie Mills, Phd. from Occidental College in South California, presented her paper The Merry Pranksters Search for the Kool Place': The World's First Acid Road Movie. Her analysis presented similiarities between the Pranksters' fabled 1964 road trip effort to film the bus trip, and the Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper film Easy Rider. A discussion about the symbolism of the American flag evident in both films ensued with great red, white and blue vigor, including the stars and stripes. Members of the audience added more than two cents on the subject offering other films of the genre for consideration and discussion. This symposium was fascinating. After the panel concluded, Zane suggested to give Professor Katie the film roles to edit her version of the movie.

During the panel discussion, Kesey the Writer, Bennett Huffman presented a spirited essay about Ken as the writer focused on the book Last Go Round, co-written with Ken Babbs. Bennett was an O.U. Levon collaborator on Caverns, the book Kesey wrote during a semester with students at the UofO. Bennett Huffman is now a literature professor at the University of Oregon. His presentation surrounded the three racially diverse characters in the novel and their actions to get it right. It being the inequality of the situations in the Pendleton Rodeo in which they found themselves participating for a four hundred dollar saddle. Poker games that used cowboy boots with symbols embossed into the leather as ante provided the fodder for this presentation along with the racial make up of the novel's subjects. The heavily referenced paper provided intrigueing fodder throughout the room. The ensuing discussion cut short only because other panelists required time for their thoughts to be presented and discussed.

There were so many interesting ideas set forth by many fascinating minds that it really blew our minds! Like Martin Blank from Indiana State University whose paper Singing the Body Electric: Technology and the Psychedelic Muse discussed the electronic gadgets used to record and present sounds from the Bus, and Kesey and Babbs embracing the internet. Timothy Ray from West Chester University who talked about Raising the Dead: 'Furthuring' the Merry Pranksters' Ideal of Collective Concsiousness and Group Mind through the Music and Legacy of the Grateful Dead, and the effervescent presentation by Stephen Potts from the University of California, San Diego, who talked about the Rebel, Superman, Bull Goose Loony: The Hero as Adolescent. There was so much information, so many concepts to consider... so much more to be discussed and considered. But it was time for lunch!

Following thereafter was another performance of the Six Kesey Sketches presented by Cap'n Skypilot the Intrepid Traveler and His Band of Merry Pranksters with further readings from the SpitFurther JailJournal BookVenture from Ed McClanahan, David Stanford, Genie Murphy, Pat Mackey and Eileen Babbs.

Click HERE to review the Intrepid Traveler and His Band of Merry Pranksters.