E-mail:   [email protected] for info about this document.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the WELL's gopher server - for info e-mail [email protected]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Book review from the Whole Earth Review magazine.  E-mail to
([email protected]) for more info about the magazine.


Sailor Song
Ken Kesey, 1992 (Viking Penguin); 528 pp.
$23.50 ($25.50 postpaid) from Penguin USA/Cash Sales, 120 Woodbine Street

Ken Kesey tells us how things went about thirty years from now, in a remote Alaskan fishing village under attack by worldwide environmental and social degradation, and invaded by a Hollywood film company. He unfolds his fabulous and arcane legend a little at a time, tantalizing and full of tricks. The individualistic, desperate and often hilariously rambunctious characters may seem a tad exaggerated to readers who have never lived in boondock Alaska, but I (who have) would not be surprised to find out that Mr. Kesey has hoisted a beer with most of them. Its a cautionary tale. Its a love story. Its good. And its true.
--J. Baldwin


Excerpts from the book follow:

----
Thy voyage through folly and filth is almost finished. The harbor light
beckons, the good light of the cleansing flame beckons, just over the bar, the
good, sweet, promised light of the Fire Next Time -- Ice Next Time,
interrupted the voice from the cot. Ice Next Time, slimebrain. I can prove it
mathematically! Still the man gave no indication that he had heard Billys
slurring contradictions. He remained motionless on his folding chair, coolly
smiling into Greers agitated face. Ike could feel the heat building despite
that cool smile, like the orange sun on his cheek. The soft voice continued.
But thou knowest, Brother Emil, how the sick dog is like to return to its
vomit? How the bathed sow is like to go rolling in the mire? Thou knowest this
to be so, aint I correct? Greer nodded emphatic agreement; hed seen his share
of dogs and sows. Then I beg you, Blood, leave the company of them beasts.
Rise up. Rise up with us here in Beulahland. Leave them. Come to us. We have
been shown the way. The route to salvation is charted in simple tradition --
sweat of the brow . . . fruit of the fields. Doesnt thou believe in tradition,
little brother? You bet, said Greer. Look about you. We have raised ourselves
a home above that filth down there. Join us. The choice is yours. You can till
this clean land here in the sanctuary of the clouds or you can perish below in
the flaming filth, in the final terrible, horrible, inescapable fire fire
fire! Ice, said the voice from the cot. Ice ice ice -- ! FIRE! Greener
suddenly thundered, standing. Fire, you blaspheming peace-o-shit faggot! Fire
and tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the motherfucking
world! I know your kind -- the Spirit of the Antichrist is the mystery of
iniquity -- all of you asshole faggots know the world is looking for a man! to
show them the way out! of these difficulties of your own iniquitous brewing!
And one day in the future it cannot be fucking much further off the diseased
Spirit of the Antichrist shall fill the houses of God and make in them such
dins of iniquity that every babes heart shall be infected with the poisons of
the Babylon! He began to stamp about the plank porch, pounding his fists
together. Troubled water? Shit, man, you kidding? Its a sewer -- a fucking
flaming sewer! And for a bridge over it where shall you look? Into the
churches? Nay, for they are filled with blasphemy and blackjack tables. Into
the human heart? It has become a cesspool, a swamp, the mire that leadeth to
madness. Into Heaven then? Through the almighty mystery of the gates into
sweet Heaven above? Shit a mother brick no! We cant hardly get through the air
plution let alone the mystery of the gates. Nay, there wont be no place to
look! No place to turn. The seasll be boiling, the rocks burning, the moon
bleeding like a ho ripped up by some cheap abortionist. The heat be on! Credit
cards canceled, real estate deals going up in smoke. Bank accounts on fire! On
fire fire fire!
----

----
Carmodys girth was the result of a lifetime of hard labor and good appetite,
laced liberally with drink and dance whenever possible. The belly he had
produced was the accomplishment of nearly three-quarters of a centurys
dedicated effort; he was famous for it and proud of it. He used it like a sumo
wrestler uses his kee, or center. It was his workbench, his fulcrum on the
booms, his block and tackle on the ropes. Now, as they hummed along, he had it
bellied up against the round cedar table that occupied the center of the
galley, leaning on it while he chopped a ten-pound halibut into steaks. A fish
dont really object to being caught and consumed, Carmody was explaining, long
as it happens fresh. The fish was truly fresh; the glimmer of life had not yet
completely left the animals freakish eyes, and the body was still quivering
there on the table, though big slabs of him were already hissing in butter and
chopped parsley in the wavepan. Fish understand the fishy facks of life. They
get et. Its their destiny from the get-go, from the least to the largest, to
get et. What a fish objects to is being wasted. If you need me, catch me; if
you dont, let me be. Back in the days we really needed whale oil you never
heard any whales complaining, did ye? They knew they was greasing the wheels
of progress. They didnt commence complaining about it until they found out
their oil had become obsolete, progress-wise, and all we wanted them for was
food for cats. Thats when they organized Greenpeace. Because fish got pride.
Oiling a gyroscope in a battleship is one thing, feeding the family kitty-cat
is another.
----

----
About all he was able to conclude was
that all the authors agreed the End of the World was just around the corner and that it was Somebodys fault. Somebody elses, of course. The Greens blamed the Burners and the Burners blamed the Breeders -- The bellies just kept doubling and doubling and so did the Protein Producing Acreage -- and the Breeders blamed the Pro-Choicers. They interfered with Gods Natural Law. Go forth and multiply, He commanded. Things would have evened out. The Great White Tooth of Famine would have eventually gnawed the problem clean. But the Choicers interfered. And now Hes pissed, and everybody is condemned to reap the fiery whirlwind that those faithless freeloaders have sown.
----


------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail   [email protected] for more info about this document.

This document was provided by the Whole Earth Review magazine.  Whole Earth
Review (WER) is published 4 times each year by the Point Foundation, a
non-profit US corporation. Trial subscriptions to WER are available for
US $20 per year for individuals. $35 per year for institutions; single
copies $7.  Add $8 per year for Canadian and $6 for foreign surface mail;
add $12 per year for airmail anywhere.

Most articles in Whole Earth Review are available on-line via
Dialog, Mead & BRS.  Whole Earth Review is indexed by "Access: The
supplementary Index to Periodicals", Alternative Press Index, Magazine Index,
Consumers Index, HumantitiesIndex, Book Review Index, Academic Index, and
General Periodical Index.

For copyright or other information please contact:

Whole Earth Review
27 Gate Five Road
Sausalito, CA,94965
USA
Voice Phone: (415) 332-1716  Fax: (415) 332-3110
-------------------------------------------------------------------------