With the help of University of Oregon professors, as well as professors from CU Boulder and University of Cincinnati, this book ties together the author's personal experiences and interviews of members of the New Hollywood and those that influenced them, such as the Merry Pranksters and their film crew, Poetic Cinema Filmmakers, still living members of the Beat Generation, and through academic articles and books, from Plato to Yeats and the time's literary theory deconstructionists, answers the question of what created them.