Tom Wolfe blazed new directions of journalism and literature, and made the 60s more interesting and fun.
I didn't read all of it, but I actually borrowed that book once. It had a character named Ken Kesey and what I imagined must have been a Volkswagen bus with revelers who were experimenting with substances and tape recording each other... I might have even read that the people aboard the bus were shouting at pedestrians possibly to be random. I don't remember because I haven't read any of it since high school. I didn't think the book was all that consequential. But again, I didn't read all of it. Another book I didn't get was Huxley's "Doors of Perception" book. I'm starting to see a pattern. But anyway, I loved Brave New World (Huxley, not Wolfe).
It was an international Harvester school bus. Ken led the Merry Pranksters, and the acid tests were a platform for the Grateful Dead to become the improv band they made cultural history with. But to Tom Wolfe: I studied New Journalism in high school, I have always thought of it as stream of consciousness/ Gonzo, and used a lot of the form in my own reporting. Overall, Wolfe did solid research and wrote compelling and engaging pieces.
He was able to convey the thought-processes of several different social groups/movements , some pretty exclusive like the Pump House Gang. The acid tests , the people around them, Keseys thefts of acid from the lab, and the changes that those tests would bring to society ( while war was raging) were right on the money. Great reading.
