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jimmyrich t1_iyeibui wrote

Reply to comment by davewashere in As a non-American, reading On The Road, felt like a snapshot of postwar youthful Boomer mentality. by [deleted]

Neal Cassidy (on whom Dean Moriarty was based) shows up in Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, driving Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters around. He seemed pretty cracked by then and the hippies seem to revere him as a cultural object, but also sort of fear him (as I recall. Its been a minute since I read it).

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davewashere t1_iyeopf4 wrote

I remember a scene with him tossing a sledgehammer around. I'd imagine that would freak out a lot of hippies.

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jimmyrich t1_iyepzma wrote

Also, he's obviously pretty awful to women even through Kerouac's admiring lens, and I seem to recall him coming off as pretty creepy too.

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