Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I knew Kerry Thornley for more than 40 years, although I hadn't seen him for the last ten before he died. We had talked on the phone and wrote letters during that time, though.
Kerry was unique, and that's one of the reasons why I liked him. You could seldom predict his response. When I got the book (THE PRANKSTER AND THE CONSPIRACY), I was afraid to open it, afraid that his uniqueness would be misinterpreted by the author, afraid that his madness, particularly, would be misunderstood.
But I had nothing to fear. The author, Adam Gorightly, apparently had excellent sources, and he characterized them accurately. Most importantly, he let them tell the story themselves.
The story is about an extremely brilliant and funny man, who had a lot of friends, and who get involved with "the authorities" over the assassination of JFK. I will let you read the book to find out how that all came out, but the important thing was that at that same time, his personality disintegrated into paranoid schizophrenia. He was never institutionalize.
The people who were his friends, many of whom are described in the book, are quite interesting people, too. I knew and warmly liked many of them. Even when he was at his most paranoid, he could laugh with friends, even make new friends -- unlike most paranoids, who often spend most of their time alone. And usually he unconsciously chose them for their kindness.
Along the way, you can read about what to do with 100 naked bananas (for the Mellow Yellow con), what happened at the first LA Human Be-in when a sociologist's theory about LSD was proved all wet, and why a (perhaps imaginary) group of helicopters in Tampa brought everything to a head.
It is a good story, and it is told truthfully.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Prankster and the Conspiracy: The Story of Kerry Thornley and How He Met Oswald and Inspired the Counterculture
One of the 1960s counterculture's most fascinating characters was Kerry Wendell Thornley -- a writer, philosopher, Zen dishwasher, enlightened prankster, and, possibly, an Oswald double with disturbing ties to the Kennedy assassination. A lifelong provocateur, Thornley was linked to many of the fringe elements of the time. He helped create the spoof religion called the Discordian Society and its tract, the Principia Discordia. He coined the term "paganism" to describe various nature religions. And he befriended Robert Anton Wilson, inspired the Illuminatus, and gave his anarchic support to the Bavarian Illuminati, a brilliant prank.
0 comments:
Post a Comment