Wednesday, June 3, 2015

CUCKOO'S NEST

Rereading some favorite books and trying out some illustration ideas. This from the Sketches Introduction to the 40th anniversary edition of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: "Eight o'clock every morning I showed up at the vets' hospital in Menlo PRereading some favorite books and trying outark ready to roll. The doctor deposited me in a little room on his ward, dealt me a couple of pills or a shot or a little glass of bitter juice, then locked the door. He checked back every forty minutes to see if I was still alive, took some tests, asked some questions, left again. The rest of the time I spent studying the inside of my forehead, or looking out the one little window in the door. It was six inches wide and eight inches high, and it had heavy chicken wire inside the glass. You get your visions through whatever gate you're granted. Patients straggled by in the hall outside, their faces all ghastly confessions. Sometimes I looked at them and sometimes they looked at me, but rarely did we look at one another. It was too naked and painful. More was revealed in a human face than a human being can bear, face to face.Sometimes the nurse came by and checked on me. Her face was different. It was painful business, but not naked. This was not a person you could allow yourself to be naked in front of."


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