The Eden express
by Mark Vonnegut · first published 1975
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"The Eden Express describes from the inside Mark Vonnegut's experience in the late '60s and early '70s - a recent college grad; in love; living communally on a farm, with a famous and doting father, cherished dog, and prized jalopy - and then the nervous breakdowns in all their slow-motion intimacy, the taste of mortality and opportunity for humor they provided, and the grim despair they afforded as well. That he emerged to write this funny and true book and then moved on to find the meaningful life that for a while had seemed beyond reach is what ultimately happens in The Eden Express. But t
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Check out _The Eden Express_ by Mark Vonnegut (son of Kurt Vonnegut). It is a memoir documenting the author's own psychotic breakdown. Reading this gave me insight into the human mind and what it's like when it goes off the rails.…
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗Anecdotal evidence: Kurt Vonnegut's son Mark wrote a fascinating book ("The Eden Express", 1975) about his experience being schizophrenic and a prolonged psychotic episode triggered by marijuana consumption: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eden_Express
on “Marijuana use and schizophrenia: New evidence suggests link” ↗>This quote is comically misused. It is! I suppose because of its dubious origin. First attribution seems to be from Mark Vonnegut in The Eden Express. Did you read the book, or where did you learn what it _actually_ refers to?
on “Two recent books by historians explore the crisis in biological psychiatry” ↗…Khvatayka the Jackdaw is continually asking him "kto tam?" (both a fairly corvidesque sound and "who's there?" in russian) despite his efforts to explain that he's the postman bringing a magazine. [2] in The Eden Express (1975), Mark Vonnegut points out that maybe he could've figured out he was going schizophrenic, if only he'd stopped to notice that everything had suddenly become meaningful.
on “Meaningful Nonsense: How I generate sentences” ↗…that if one played it to the point of seeing everything connected to everything else might lead to institutionalisation about as often as to enlightenment? (Mark Vonnegut's experience as detailed in The Eden Express (1975) suggest that mixing psychedelics with stress is an insanity-inducing game)
on “Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows” ↗Reminds me of the book "The Eden Express" -- one bad medical situation can ruin a commune.
on “The Economics of a Commune in the Ozarks” ↗