New Chuck Palahniuk Story - Writers Forum

strangedaze · 12-28-2006, 11:49 AM

i keep giving the bastard chance after chance to impress me with something post-Fight Club. sadly, hes failed ONCE AGAIN.

Don’t ask how I know this, but the next time you think you’re fat, there’s a whole lot worse way you can look.

Something to picture, when you’re at the gym counting stomach crunches or hanging knee raises to flatten your ab muscles, just know that some people have a whole other person growing out of that spot on their body. That fleshy, jiggly area under the bottom of your rib cage, where to you is just a “love handle,” those other people have arms and legs, most of a whole other person hanging over their belt.

i was tempted to post that in the workshop section and watch it get trashed, but im too lazy. i dont want this to turn into a debate over how much i think he blows. i just thought id share the story. if you want to lynch me over PM, feel free.

heres the link (apparently only the first part of the piece is online):

http://www.viceland.com/int/v13n12/h...php?country=us

strangedaze · 12-28-2006, 11:50 AM

whoops, double post. please delete this one.

rboy27 · 12-28-2006, 12:17 PM

I love this story! He read it at the Skokie, Illinois book signing on his most recent tour for Haunted. I love it, I love Chuck; his stories essentially mean absolutely nothing, like listening to your grandfathers old stories, but Chuck will make you walk away with a tingling sense of horror and awe. His work is quite brilliant really. His ability to sound so well-read about the most ridiculous, absurd, and otherwise taboo subjects never ceases to amaze me.

PS - I'm not trying to turn this into a debate. I am merely stating my opinion of Chuck just as you have.

strangedaze · 12-28-2006, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rboy27

PS - I'm not trying to turn this into a debate. I am merely stating my opinion of Chuck just as you have.

no worries

one thing i admire about chuck is how creative he is.

MrTamborineMan · 12-28-2006, 12:49 PM

His last really good book was Choke, but Haunted did have its moments.

rboy27 · 12-28-2006, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrTamborineMan

His last really good book was Choke, but Haunted did have its moments.

People always give me the weirdest look when I tell them Choke was my least favorite Palahniuk novel while Diary remains my favorite. Haunted is a close second, but thats primarily because of "Guts".

mwd · 12-28-2006, 03:00 PM

Yeah ... I am less than impressed with this story as well. Maybe it's just because I haven't read the ending. It just seems to me that Palahniuk, early in his career, had an actual reason for the research and the nastiness and so on, but now it seems he just does them because he "can", because it's expected of him. I wouldn't argue that his prose is bad, just that it's difficult to care about his work these days ... it feels exactly like what I've seen from him before.

(Although I should note that out of all the other stories in that issue, I liked his the best. Also, I never knew Flannery O'Connor drew cartoons! That was interesting.)

rboy27 · 12-28-2006, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by burnitdown

he fooled enough people to retire to a comfortable life of drugs and sodomy. Sounds fun.

Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it.

strangedaze · 12-28-2006, 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by burnitdown

Fight Club was a re-write/ripoff of Tom Wolfe's "The Pump-House Gang." Palahiniuk has never been a talented writer, but he fooled enough people to retire to a comfortable life of drugs and sodomy. Sounds fun.

if you think im going to defend chuck, youve got another thing coming

i WILL, however, condone a life of drugs and sodomy.

Crazy_dude6662 · 12-31-2006, 09:24 PM

i dunno why, but i just never liked his stories at all...
the above exerpt seems kinda interesting (but thats only cos i know people (well a person) like that, and no, its not me)

kenewbie · 01-01-2007, 04:43 AM

I enjoyed survivor a great deal. I was tempted to stop reading half-way through invisible monsters.

I was about to add some more, but I think that sums him up for me.

k

playstation60 · 01-02-2007, 12:29 PM

One word sums up Fight Club, weird. I didn't care for it. I really didn't. I have no intention at all to go and read anything more by him.

Corwin · 01-03-2007, 02:23 PM

I really liked Choke, but I could never get too excited about Fight Club, and I gave up Haunted within the first few chapters. I have never thought of myself as a queasy person, but Haunted was too much for me. I dunno, maybe it was just the part where the boy's intestines were ripped out via his anus but I can't really say. All I know is that there is no reason for that kind of gross material in any book.

rboy27 · 01-03-2007, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corwin

I really liked Choke, but I could never get too excited about Fight Club, and I gave up Haunted within the first few chapters. I have never thought of myself as a queasy person, but Haunted was too much for me. I dunno, maybe it was just the part where the boy's intestines were ripped out via his anus but I can't really say. All I know is that there is no reason for that kind of gross material in any book.

That's what I love about Palahniuk's work, its so intensely disturbing and yet laughable. I myself had to read that story, "Guts", in three seperate sittings. I honestly felt like throwing up the first time. Now that it's done though, I read it to my friends every chance I get and the cylce continues.

Yamato145 · 01-04-2007, 01:02 AM

Palahniuk is my favorite author. lol, apparently I don't have a lot of company. Especially Lullaby, that's my fav (thumbs up to Rboy for the avatar)
His books remind me of modern day "Catcher In The Rye"s. Which was the most influential book EVER in my own writing.
Except maybe the Bible.
-YAMZ