Chapter XI The Unspoken Thing Summary and Analysis

Just what Kesey and crew experience from the trip on the bus and the ongoing use of drugs is the unspoken thing. Nobody wants to talk about it as that would destroy the experience. Instead, the Pranksters work on putting together a film from the bus trip footage, much of it out of focus or jumpy from being taken on the moving bus.

Wolfe attempts to bring the unspoken thing into focus by using Eastern religious ideas like Zen, the thoughts of great religious leaders and those of more contemporary writers, such as Max Weber and Herman Hesse. The author gives a long quote from Joachim Wach regarding the establishment of religions that speaks of charismatic leaders, followers and how a particular group breaks away from the rest of society. Kesey is the...