![]() Kesey bleakly suggests there is a third option – death – that is the ultimate compromise between libertarianism and collectivism between West Coast individualism and East Coast intellectualism and, most importantly, between rural and urban society. Has it made a conscious decision to pursue certain death? When confronted with the choice between brutal individualism and routine collectivism, do we react similarly? How is this choice affected by the awareness of environmental stress, of depleting resources, of the monomaniacal Ahabs – such as Hank Stamper – who drag down entire communities into the fight against nature’s “intangible malignity” with them? The reader is left to contemplate the creature’s suicidal behavior. ![]() Henry Stamper and his coworker haul the deer into their boat, but as they near the shore, the buck jumps overboard and swims, frantic, back out to sea. Please reload the page and try again.Ī haunting image in Notion is that of a solitary deer swimming perilously far off the Pacific coast. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Like this story? Get the latest from the Daily Yonder directly in your inbox, twice each week. Aquifers are drying up pipelines carve through the earth and its water sources chemical spills blanket coastlines. Agricultural policies and the rise of corporate farming have pushed the American laborer off the land, so that now less than 1% of Americans pursue farming. Fifty-five percent of America’s streams no longer support healthy levels of aquatic life. Kesey’s objective is to show the value of one inch: At what point does it cost more – environmentally, mentally, physically – to live the life of the detached yeoman, the rugged libertarian? Even if this is the ideology to which one subscribes, it is increasingly difficult to follow. Many critics consider Sometimes a Great Notion to be Kesey’s best novel, but his first, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is better known. The remainder of the story is a cascade toward doom, as Hank’s obsession with defeating the strike becomes embodied in his battle with Lee, and costs him lives, relationships and, ultimately, a place to live. ” Hank’s decision to hire his rebellious brother is the first compromise he makes, and thus the first inch he gives. The Stampers have a family motto: “Never give an inch. To satisfy production quotas – and thereby break the strike – Hank begrudgingly hires his estranged, quasi-socialist brother, Lee. The Stampers, led by patriarch Henry and his son Hank, refuse to join a union strike against a local lumber company and continue to log trees. The novel concerns a stubborn logging family in the coastal Oregon town of Wakonda. The cartoon asks a basic question: How much is one willing to surrender to maintain a lifestyle? This question is at the heart of Ken Kesey’s rural masterpiece, Sometimes a Great Notion, which turns 50 years old this year. The miner looks at the wasteland he has created and scratches his head: “Home?” With each scoop of the machine the miner pleads, “Save my job!” Once the mountain is gone his boss flies in by helicopter, fires him, and tells him to go home. Ī striking cartoon from Kentucky artist Joel Pett features a strip miner carving into a mountain with a front loader. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.A statue of Kesey stands in Portland, in his native state of Oregon. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Out of the Stamper family's rivalries and betrayals Ken Kesey has crafted a novel with the mythic impact of a Greek tragedy.įor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness are the Stampers. The magnificent second novel from the legendary author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nestįollowing the astonishing success of his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey wrote what Charles Bowden calls "one of the few essential books written by an American in the last half century." This wild-spirited tale tells of a bitter strike that rages through a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. University of Toronto Schools Technology Supplies.University of Toronto Schools Stationery.Toronto Prep School Technology Supplies.Toronto Prep School Merch & Gym Uniforms.Ontario Institute - Studies in Education.Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education.
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