Kesey and Plath: a new American myth A mutual friend sets up a blind date with Ken Kesey and Sylvia Plath. They meet in a restaurant in Boston and discover that they are both writers. Describe the conversation that followed.Sept. 3, 1955 (from Sylvia's diary) It must have been a terrible mistake. My mother put me in touch with a Ken Kesey, a friend of a family friend. Terrible! We met at a restaurant in Harvard Square and it went downhill from there. I made it home fine, but barely. I think I can start from the beginning... Ken is large and very open in his body and gestures. He's from California, which might explain it. He dressed very casually and when he saw me he had a crazy look in his eyes. I don't even know if he was happy to be there. Apparently he goes to Stanford and studies creative writing. I asked him about his writings and he started a whole speech about psychiatric wards and drugs. I didn't want to hear a word about psychiatric wards, but it certainly piqued my interest. He volunteers to do experiments in exchange for money. I can't imagine going through what I went through voluntarily... I ventured to ask him why he wrote about hospitals and he looked at me very carefully and said, "You've been there. I know." And he did it. He looked deep inside me, and it was the most uncomfortable silence I'd ever had. I mumbled an accusation and as soon as it came out I knew my mother hadn't told him all this. Dinner went well, apart from the conversation about hospitals. We walked around the square and the river for a while and then he invited me to his hotel room and I said no, but I really wanted to leave with him. I was so bottled up for days… I wanted to do something different. We sat across from Cambridge and he looked at me again, intently, and laughed... "It's all black, isn't it? Then everything goes out." Ken looked towards the river. He started laughing again. "I don't know what you're talking about." Sylvia brought her knees together. Uncomfortable. "When they throw the switch. When everything shakes and then you lose consciousness. Then you can't think for days.