Chuck Palahniuk

carpocrates

Can it just be me, or is it that ever since Fincher's Fight Club film every single word this guy writes now reads like it's being spoken by Edward Norton?

John

I've only read Survivor which was ok but I definitely know what you mean. It's basically the rant of Fight Club in a different situation.

voltamadan

i've only read Fightclub, which put me off reading anything else he has done-the movie blew this book out of the water IMO-i liked some of the descriptive prose, like the rant about whats happened after project mayhem, elk in the chrysler building etc, but it just got old real quick

Cheez

i think hes good,he speaks his mind and thats the way it comes out
and hes a structred writer at the same time or somethin.
i just read the new wan an its very good so fuk yee! hehe

Kodac

I disagree, I really enjoy his books, especially Survivor. I took me a while to get into some of the others but I like the way he puts a spin on a story- its certainly never lateral thinking thats for sure.

projectmayhem

it's shaping up to be that surivor will be made into a film by david fincher, again. which should be quite good.

John

and word is that Nine Inch Nails are doing the soundtrack (Palahniuk wrote a lot of his books listening to the "Fixed" ep by NIN on repeat, explains the anger I feel)

eth0_

Cheez wrote:

i think hes good,he speaks his mind and thats the way it comes out
and hes a structred writer at the same time or somethin.
i just read the new wan an its very good so fuk yee! hehe

By "new one", do you mean "Diary" which came out about a year ago? If so...wtf? I'm a big fan of Palahniuk but I got about 70 pages into this book and thought it was ****e.

Zoton

I read choke a couple of years ago. It was interesting enough for a while but ultimately disappointing, and had a really bad ending.

2040

His new book is called "non-fiction". It's a collection of personal essays and interviews and such. The book explains alot about where fight club came from, its origins etc. His introduction is very well written. I'm a big fan of his, but it is true that alot of his books are very similar, similar themes. He explores alot of interesting and important issues though. But again, reading this book explains alot.

impr0v

2040 wrote:

...but it is true that alot of his books are very similar, similar themes.

Yer, would agree with that, similar themes in a similar style. I liked 'Invisible Monsters' a lot, then bought 'Choke' and 'Survivor' together at a later date, but after finishing 'Choke' felt like I had read the same book twice. His style can be quite grating at times if you lose patience with him. I have as yet been unable to work up the enthusiasm to face 'Survivor'.

neXus9

I thought choke was disappointing, but I loved lullaby, survivor and fight club. I love the amount of information he just packs into his books and his dark sly wit that he uses to conjure some nasty situations (the superbowl incident in survivor is hilarious). I just love the epic stories that he gives you.

Crash

Invisible monsters is an extremely interesting and well written book i must say.....unique

neXus9

Yeah, I'll have to check that one out.

neXus9

John2 wrote:

I've only read Survivor which was ok but I definitely know what you mean. It's basically the rant of Fight Club in a different situation.

You should check out lullaby. It's quite different to fight club and has a more of a "what if" style of story telling. The narrator is miserable but he doesn't really go and have his "life's crap" rants that you've read in fight club and survivor.

John

I might check it out, I've a large pile of books to get through at the moment though.

Blitzkrieger

Yeah, it's weird - evey book where a man is the main character it's like it's being narrated by Edward Norton in my head.

2040 wrote:

His introduction is very well written. I'm a big fan of his, but it is true that alot of his books are very similar,

I don't know how you could say that. I suppose the main character in Lullaby and Choke are fairly similar, but you can hardly say that Invisible Monsters and Diary are similar.

neXus9

I thought that diary was going to be Chuck's personal diary. Oh well!!

Has anybody read Fugitives and Refugees : A Walk in Portland, Oregon, (which seems to be basically an underground travel handbook of Oregon)? Have only flicked through it briefly, but he seems to throw a lot in there, even giving you receipes.

Bunnyefey

I really like pretty much all of Chucks stuff. I mean yeh, they all pretty much read the same but in a way thats what I like about him. Didn't think a whole lot of Lullaby though. Im gonna read it again to see if I was just in a weird mood or something but it didn't do a whole lot for me.

Oh Nexus, yeh, I read Fugitives and Refugees. Its amusing to say the least. Like a weird travel guide to all the places you wouldn't ever think of going when visiting a place. Its a nice easy read too, you don't have to read it page to page, just flick about and stuff.

Quatre Mains

..I'm surprised at the mixed views on Palahniuk, I think his books for the most part make for a great read. Invisible Monsters I found hard going, but Lullaby and Choke were great(am currently reading Diary so can't comment on that). All the books have a large anti-hero emphasis on them a la Fight Club which is maybe why people subconciously draw parallels between characters and start hearing Norton's voice . It doesn't affect me cos whenever I read the words Ed Norton I hear the **** you speech from 25th Hour!

I'm off to Portland for 7 months in January so at least I know what guide book to buy - didn't see any of that stuff last time I was there!!!

Bunnyefey

Let us know how it goes in Portland.........

mycroft

I've read diary, lulaby, Invisible Monsters, Choke and Survivor and of course Fight Club.

While I understand he's working on a specific theme the sense of alienation, the corruption in modern society, revenge on the world, I've found them structurally to just be dire.

The plot essentially works out the same every time. Character (may or may not have experienced some trauma) realises that they are tied up in a bigger and weirder plot than the realise, which relates to the major issue in there life. They are then introduced to a (or several) larger than life character(s) who know more about whats going on, and gradually although the author feels liberated and changed by the meeting, they realise that this person is driving past the limits that he central character can accept and may have incredibly serious consequences, which the hero realieses too late.

I enjoy the turns of phrase, his use of language, his world view, but essentially I'm tired of reading the same book every time.

Scratch Acid

I think this is one of the stories from Palahniuk's new short story thing.

http://www.seizureandy.com/stuff/guts.html

Intense, huh?
It's pretty messed up, so avoid this if you're squeamish...

neXus9

mycroft wrote:

The plot essentially works out the same every time. Character (may or may not have experienced some trauma) realises that they are tied up in a bigger and weirder plot than the realise, which relates to the major issue in there life. They are then introduced to a (or several) larger than life character(s) who know more about whats going on, and gradually although the author feels liberated and changed by the meeting, they realise that this person is driving past the limits that he central character can accept and may have incredibly serious consequences, which the hero realieses too late.

I don't think choke necessarily goes through that structure, it's a bit more off beat than the other books as well. Having said that, I'm not crazy over it.

In survivor, the media really are trying to give people the false impression that he basically is the new messiah. I suppose the media would be larger than life as a whole, relating to the crazy over the top ways they use to expliot the public's cash. The main character wanted to raise his relgion to the public's awareness, but his agent totally uses him as a doll. I suppose also he feels liberated in a sense, as he mentions using his agents to basically charge him into self destruction, which, since he has a suicidal philosophy brought on by his cult religion, makes sense.

Remember that part in choke (just came across the link a few minutes ago)...

Bunnyefey

Scratch Acid wrote:

I think this is one of the stories from Palahniuk's new short story thing.

http://www.seizureandy.com/stuff/guts.html

Intense, huh?
It's pretty messed up, so avoid this if you're squeamish...

I remember reading that in work and the other girls reading it were nearly puking where as I was sniggering for the rest of the day.

Guess that makes me pretty messed up too right?

Blitzkrieger

Rofl - that story reminds of "The Aristocrats" in South Park.........only funny.

"That dog........."

Sick tho

Bunnyefey

haha, yeh that darn dog!

flogen

I liked Survivor, and have Invisible Monsters, but I'm yet to read it.

I enjoy his writing style (and applaude anything that gets Trent Reznor to make soundtracks..:D), but all the stuff I've read of his has the same layout.. start at the very end, go back to the start and then explain the story thus giving a new slant on the end we already know.. its a brilliant technique, and I imagine hard enough to pull off well, but are all his books like that? I'd like to see him try something new if they are.

flogen

neXus9

Yeah, fight club, survivor, and lullaby have the beginning at the end thing, but choke starts from the start (however that book isn't as good as the other ones mentioned).

krattapopov

ive read choke, lullaby, survivor, invisible monsters and have just finished non fiction. yeah do think all of his books follow a very similar pattern, stereotypical anti hero, going against the grain of moder society. i would recommend non fiction if you want to know where he 'came up' with alot of the stuff in choke and some of the other books, i still think that he is kinda refreshing to read although will have to come up with something different soon.

sixpack's little hat

Blitzkrieger wrote:

Rofl - that story reminds of "The Aristocrats" in South Park.........only funny.

"That dog........."

Sick tho

Jesus Christ that clip is funny!

Haven't laughed like that in a while, their were tears streaming down my face.