When Cheryl ends up in a creepy asylum, with a frightening nurse holding a giant needle in front of her face—talking about conversion therapy—Nurse Ratchett sprang to mind. That tyrant, who stood for all that's evil and corrupt in bureaucracies in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Not a pleasant thought!
Long before Angelina Jolie stirred shit up in Girl, Interrupted, Jack Nicholson, did so in Milos Forman's masterpiece. The 1975 movie is based on Ken Kesey's re-imagining of the counter-revolution, set inside a mental institution. Kesey was the founder of the Merry Pranksters, a community with members like Neal Cassady who in the sixties, traveled all over the USA to spread cheer and LSD. If I'm telling you something new, you're so lucky, go grab The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test—Tom Wolfe's non-fiction account of that memorable trip ( pun intended).
One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is the only book that ever gave me chills. I loved it, and movie, so much I named my first cat Randle McMurphy, like the main character. There's one scene where Randle gets the other patients to protests the lack of good TV in that joint—sounds lame—but it's the best description of a rallying cry I ever read.
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest still is the perfect book and movie for our times. Like the sign says: 'I can't believe I still have to protest this shit.'
Again, kids are on the street marching because adults made such a corrupt mess of it. So it's only fitting that Cheryl founds herself in similar circumstances like Randle did, many decades before.
Randle McMurphy ended up in an institution because he was an agitator. He paid the ultimate price, but he never gave up his freedom of being himself.
Cheryl is about to undergo conversion therapy, I can only hope she'll encounter someone willful and rebellious that will get her out of that horrible mess without following Randle's fate.
It doesn't end well for Randle, after losing his mind after being zapped too much, his escape is bleak but not hopeless.
Cuckoo's Nest was a reflection on the revolution that swept the country and changed everything and nothing at all. But Cuckoo's Nest is not a cynical view of the power of youth. By choosing the only way out left for him, Randle inspires his best friend, a gentle, mute, humongous Native American to set himself free.
So resist, fight and raise your voice, and while we wait to see how Cheryl copes with this mess, re-watch or watch Cuckoos Nest.
Peace.
