I vaguely remember that in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test there was much made about the Bus's name being Furthur. In this film it's Furthur about 5% of the time, Further the rest. We wondered if someone simply misspelled it, then realized the mistake and corrected it. Anyone know?
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Wikipedia:
"The correct name of both of Ken Kesey's buses is Further. The original bus had Furthur written in the destination sign for a brief period and Tom Wolfe called the bus Furthur in his book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test."
Yes, I read that, too, and wondered on what basis the writer deemed Further "correct." Perhaps time of possession; but it's the final score we're interested in(Super Bowl weekend). The whole Furthur story added some extra interest to the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, enough so that Furthur is what Weir and Lesh named their post-Dead band. My guess is still that it was first a misspelling that ultimately seemed much more interesting than Further, but I'd really like an inside running play's bit of info on whom and why, and any struggles over the decision.
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I guess until some insider gives us the truth, we're left to speculate.
The idea that 'Furthur' was just a misspelling, nothing more, certainly fits into the Merry Prankster aura, and even ties it to Kerouac and the Beats with its immediate and haphazard approach. First word best word, I guess it would be.
I never really got into Kesey that much, though I worship Ginsberg, Kerouac, Cassady the way others worship Jehova or Allah. Kesey always seemed a little bit sad to me, like Corso, never really tapping into his true potential. Drugs, money, and just poor judgement got in the way, and there a bitter aura over his last years. He wrote one huge hit, followed it up with one of the greater american novels (Sometimes a Great Notion) and then just drifted into obscurity, living like a recluse on his farm, writing so-so pieces here and there, and, let's be honest, cashing in on the Beat-Hippie mythology. Like Corso he was just there, accidentally recording a great time in history, just good timing.
Looking at it now, I really feel there was something eery and malignant about the entire Merry Prankster Tim Leary history. Like evil clowns speeding down the highway and lacing candy with acid, forcing people to see things their way. They got it wrong, and refused to accept fault. Yes, acid has given meaning to many people, myself included, but Kesey's and Leary's refusal to understand that acid was for many, permanent insanity. People did jump out of ten story windows, wanting to fly. I can't help viewing Kesey and Leary as the Child Trapper in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, or the pied piper, luring young people to join their insane circus with drugs and sex...
Sorry, don't know why I wrote that, but once I wrote it, I didn't feel like deleting it. The first paragraph was the message, the rest, just a prank, a merry one.
As I watched the movie, the pranksters didn't seem at all merry, nor even particularly prankish. In fact, forced and uninteresting are the words that come to mind, along with "We blew it." And the latter makes me wonder whether Easy Rider has a connection to the prankster's trip.
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