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. 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. A statue of Kesey stands in Portland, in his native state of Oregon.
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