Pre-NAHM reading

When I was writing up the 2013 Native American Heritage Month reading, I mentioned that there were three books I wanted to read before, because I felt like they might relate. I have read them all now. They did not relate the way I thought they might, but that doesn't make it a loss.

Two of the books were Ken Kesey novels: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Sometimes A Great Notion.

I have mixed feelings about Kesey. There are strong ties between him and the University of Oregon. I have seen him speak there, and I felt very warmly to him. I never met him, but I have met people who knew him and loved him, and they are people I love, so I guess there is a transitive property there. I also disagree with him about things.

I know you're thinking it's the drugs, but it's not only that. That part doesn't come up in the books that I have read so far.

One thing that frustrates me is a sort of naivete about sex. I remember thinking about this earlier looking in one of the volumes of Spit In The Ocean, but it came up in both books. Prostitution and statutory rape are treated as relatively innocent, when they can be very damaging. That bothers me.

The language use bothers me. There is some racist language in Cuckoo's Nest, but there is also an understanding that if the orderlies are brutal, there are reasons for it. However, in Notion, the white characters are constantly calling each other the N-word and "coon". It is insulting, but playful, the way that a lot of contemporary men use "fag" and "gay".

They will tell you that they don't mean it that way, but I think we have enough celebrities who have lashed out at paparazzi using that as an insult to indicate that at least on one level those words are used as insults. Does that mean that the users really do have contempt for those who actually are homosexual? Are they comfortable with that? If not, that's probably a good reason to quit using those words as casual insults.

Jonah Hill's apology for when he did it was pretty good - more focus on apologizing than on proving that he wasn't a bad person (which is actually more effective) - and I want to reiterate something he said in it"

"Words have weight and meaning..."

They do.

I don't doubt that the language that Kesey replicates was common for the time. If you want to convey that time and place accurately, that might be a reason to use it, but I also understand there was a problem with it. It was built on lies that were harmful, and it perpetuated that. That really bothers me.

So I am reading those things, and bothered by them, and yet I don't believe that Kesey was particularly racist. I also know that while there was this idea of "free love", a lot of the people who were around then ended up having pretty conventional families with long-lasting marriages and children and a structure that probably looked a lot like the families of those who hated the dirty hippies.

It leaves me always wanting to read more. That's not necessarily because I like the writing so much. Both stories moved me, and the writing in Cuckoo's Nest worked pretty well for me. Yes, things are weird at times, since you are viewing it through the eyes of a mental patient, but I thought it worked.

Notion was hard to get into. The present tense is used, and there are jumps between viewpoints and times. There was about a thirty-page adjustment period that was really hard, and then I got into it, but I would never choose that for pleasure reading. I like more clarity.

And I guess that's why I want to read more. My relationship to Kesey is reader-author, but I think of him as a person, and so I want to know, did he believe that? Did he really think that? Did he see various nuances? Maybe the next book will tell me.

There is one thing that I really appreciate about him though. Many novelists think that literature needs to end with the often miserable death of the character. I can see why they do. Everyone dies, and so a traditional happy ending might feel like you are ignoring mortality, and the fact that the happiest ending is only temporary.

As much as I get that, there can be really good times before that. There are arcs in your life where something is achieved and resolved and you are still alive at the end. Then more things happen, but still, there are positive conclusions. So while ignoring mortality is dishonest in one way, morbidity isn't honest either.

Therefore I appreciate that the protagonists are left with a chance. You don't know what will happen to Chief Bromden as he leaves the hospital. You don't know if the river run will be successful, but in that case knowing would kind of ruin it, either way. There have been deaths, grueling ones, but there is still life too.

I did appreciate that.