Chuck Palahniuk

[tazber]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 3:42pm

5 pieces of life advise from my favorite nihilist

 

And how did I not know he's openly gay?

 

 

Link

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 3:54pm

How did you not know, woman???

I've only ever read SNUFF...but I thought it would make a fascinatingly f*cked up musical/song cycle. 

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 3:58pm

Fewer people know about this than about the gay marriage vote in Ireland, though.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 4:09pm

 

Palahniuk's always been a little like Stephen King to me -- he has a great imagination and invents nifty characters and interesting/clever storylines to toss them into, but he has no execution.  He just can't write very well.  My college boyfriend was a big fan, and he gave me three Palahniuk books to read.  I dutifully read them all and, after we broke up, never picked up another one.  And like Stephen King, I really want to like him.  I like the idea of liking him.  But he makes it so hard.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 4:41pm

I think both Chuck and Stephen have examples where they show they *can* write extremely well.  Of course I can't think of clear examples to illustrate that right now... 

As for him being out, SonofRobbie, for a long time he kept very very vague about his sexuality (though it seems it was something everyone basically knew--I wonder if he didn't want to scare off the Fight Club cultists who didn't seem to catch onto the homo-eroticism even though it can't even be called a subtext)

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 4:52pm

I feel like it was had a rather public coming out around the time SNUFF was released...that may have been the thing to cause me to pick up the book.

I've only loved one Stephen King book in my life...11/22/63.  

[Fantod]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 5:07pm

I'm a huge Stephen King fan (especially the Dark Tower series, which I consider to be my favorite book series) and I'm decidedly not a fan of Palahniuk. I've read Choke, Fight Club, and Snuff and I found them all really similar and difficult to read. I guess if you like his writing style, you would be a fan of his work. The stories are interesting. 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 5:07pm

Yep, around the time of Snuff sounds right to me.  Actually I think that was the last book from Palahniuk I read...

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 5:33pm

Palahniuk is one of the prime examples of writer as stylist- immensely gifted at ideas and crafting a unique voice, but not quite as gifted in the execution of such. I happen to enjoy him immensely, along with other stylists like Stephen King and J. K. Rowling, while admitting that they have a tendency to not quite "stick the landing" when it comes to climax and denouement. 

You can tell a stylist from a craftsman when their writing tone and style is easier to pastiche than their actual content.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 6:17pm

Interesting take...  I'm not sure if I agree though.  I would assume all three of those authors would be fairly easy to do an obvious pastiche of... 

[tazber]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 6:44pm

The only book I really couldn't get through was Pygmy.

Did anyone else try that? The entire thing is narrated by an exchange student who can barely speak English.

Conversely, my favorite is Invisible Monsters.

[Fantod]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 7:16pm

I would totally disagree about J.K. Rowling. That is a woman who can tell a pretty fantastic story from beginning to end, but her writing isn't amazing. Either way, who doesn't love Harry Potter?

[tazber]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 8:54pm

I do totally agree that Stephen King has a problem with his endings.

Many of his novels have very anti-climactic denouements.

The Stand is a modern classic. But after 1,150 pages the leading to an epic confrontation, the ending almost like an afterthought.

 

 

 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/22/15 at 10:48pm

I haven't thought about it too much, but I always assumed that's a common problem with the horror genre?  But maybe it's just King.  But it's a problem in lots of horror films too because often when the "evil" is revealed--and people often feel it has to be revealed--it quits being scary.

I've only read a dozen or so King books (including short story collections which often are more satisfying) over my life time and mostly the famous older titles.  But I did pick up just the other month Revival which is about a year old I think--I was at a friend's cabin and it was there--which...  I think I liked though it's very muddled.  But it's an extreme situation because it's largely a realistic-ish novel for 400 pages and then the ending is (without spoiling too much) a full on HP Lovecraft out-of-nowhere thing which laves no one with any chance of optimism or happiness, if they remain alive. 

(Not to threadjack, but I was trying to think which King books I've read, and I realized one isn't even a King book though a friend of mine who recommended it did call it the greatest Stephen King novel he never wrote--Dan Simmons Summer of Night.  It shares a lot with It--though I think it's earlier--as well as, actually Something Wicked this way Comes but still sticks strongly in my memory.)