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Oct. 22nd, 2008 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressThe first time I ever encountered any of Chuck Palahniuk's work was when I first read the short story 'Guts'.
I forget how I found it --![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
bad_sex, probably, and I was far too young for it at the time. Sweet fifteen -maybe sixteen- and drawn into the trainwreck of the story, forced to read through each disgusting detail, even while knowing desperately that I really, really didn't want to do so. I've always been piss-poor at keeping myself from reading, and so I've all manner of faint echos still in my mind, of deeply disturbing things I never wanted to imagine.
It's good though. The opening line, the closing line, the whole thing is really quite good. It's effective. It's supposed to make you squirm, it's supposed to break your heart and set your mind on edge. He's a good writer. Deeply disturbing, but good.
And then, at the end of my senior year, my farewell from Mrs. Johnston was books, like she gave every student who ever worked on her lit mag. "The paranoid's pocket guide to mental disorders you can just feel coming on", George Carlin's "Napalm and Silly Putty" and Chuck Palahniuk's "Haunted".
Several months later, I decided to read Haunted. I was at college, I was bored, I had only just seen Fight Club in the prior few months, and had decided he was a good writer. And oh yes, he was. I hesitate to say that I enjoyed the book, but I certainly devoured it.
My copy was lent and lost, but I've recently had the good fortune to pick up a second copy at a good price. In these past few days, I've reread it.
So. The book is a framed story, with these...people causing themselves misery and pain and gorging themselves on their own tragedy and depression.
I really don't care for the story. It's the same cynical outlook I see cast upon humanity again and again, and while on the one hand, I believe in it, on the other, I tire quickly of it, and start to ignore it. Maybe I'm just better than that. Maybe I just see myself as better than that.
But the short stories...ah, the stories. 23 stories, to hold this frame intact. All of them sad and depressing and disturbing in their own ways. A few stand out, however, and always stand out to me.
***
'Guts' may be the traditional one, the disturbing story that has caused literally dozens of people to faint when hearing it read aloud, but the single most chilling story in the volume to me is 'Exodus'.
It's a story of child abuse and sex and pain. Of turning objects into people and people into objects. Sexual abuse is one of my big triggers --nothing makes me quietly shift to dark fury faster than hearing of that level of objectification. And with children...well, yeah. You're all decent people, you understand.
'Exodus' scares the crap out of me, not in the least because I can see myself in Cora Reynolds. And that scares the utter crap out of me, the fact that I probably would be the one trying to defend these poor innocent pieces of plastic. Trying to save a sex toy from it's fate. The world is a strange and disturbing place.
***
'Speaking Bitterness' is probably the story that makes me feel the most uncomfortable, because it hits another trigger, this one my main fascination, that of gender and sexuality.
Who decides a female, hm? And who decides a feminist? I've long since realized that one of my biggest problems with traditional feminism is that it does not take into account the idea that perhaps there is a little girl out there who wants to grow up to have a house and a husband and a kitchen. Who wants to cook dinner in the evenings and breakfast in the mornings. A white picket fence, and daytime soaps.
And there's nothing wrong with wanting that, as long as you're not being forced into your want.
But I digress. 'Speaking Bitterness' looks at that little girl and brings her into adulthood. And at how she'd be accepted, or not, by her peers. It ends on a questioning note, no confirmation as to whether this poor lost doll really is or really isn't. But regardless, she's now been hurt and raped and used by those who are meant to protect her. The world does that. We are hurt and so hurt in turn.
***
Of every story, there is only one that I consider hopeful, optimistic. Happy. Fitting, that it's the last one. End the novel on a happy note.
'Obsolete'. What happens if we stop the wheel of reincarnation, all these souls being cleaned and polished through every tiny hurt and good and bad. What if we stop giving them the option of coming back, trapped in a world without birth.
Heaven scares me, because perfection scares me. Because boredom scares me.
So the idea that, even with everyone going back to the most perfect place on earth, these two dumb little kids, named Adam and Eve can throw everything off, keep humans stuck with this misery, this pain, this LIFE...
It's an awesome idea. I love fuckers like that, ruining everything. But more so, I love life, with all its pain and terror. It's nice to know that someone out there will keep it going.
***
That's about all that needs to be talked about. 'Product Placement' is hilariously written. Evil Spirits and Foot Work and Swan Song and Punch Drunk and The Nightmare Box are all good or sad or dark or noticiable. The whole book is...well...good.
Just haunting.
~Sor
MOOP!
I forget how I found it --
bad_sex, probably, and I was far too young for it at the time. Sweet fifteen -maybe sixteen- and drawn into the trainwreck of the story, forced to read through each disgusting detail, even while knowing desperately that I really, really didn't want to do so. I've always been piss-poor at keeping myself from reading, and so I've all manner of faint echos still in my mind, of deeply disturbing things I never wanted to imagine. It's good though. The opening line, the closing line, the whole thing is really quite good. It's effective. It's supposed to make you squirm, it's supposed to break your heart and set your mind on edge. He's a good writer. Deeply disturbing, but good.
And then, at the end of my senior year, my farewell from Mrs. Johnston was books, like she gave every student who ever worked on her lit mag. "The paranoid's pocket guide to mental disorders you can just feel coming on", George Carlin's "Napalm and Silly Putty" and Chuck Palahniuk's "Haunted".
Several months later, I decided to read Haunted. I was at college, I was bored, I had only just seen Fight Club in the prior few months, and had decided he was a good writer. And oh yes, he was. I hesitate to say that I enjoyed the book, but I certainly devoured it.
My copy was lent and lost, but I've recently had the good fortune to pick up a second copy at a good price. In these past few days, I've reread it.
So. The book is a framed story, with these...people causing themselves misery and pain and gorging themselves on their own tragedy and depression.
I really don't care for the story. It's the same cynical outlook I see cast upon humanity again and again, and while on the one hand, I believe in it, on the other, I tire quickly of it, and start to ignore it. Maybe I'm just better than that. Maybe I just see myself as better than that.
But the short stories...ah, the stories. 23 stories, to hold this frame intact. All of them sad and depressing and disturbing in their own ways. A few stand out, however, and always stand out to me.
***
'Guts' may be the traditional one, the disturbing story that has caused literally dozens of people to faint when hearing it read aloud, but the single most chilling story in the volume to me is 'Exodus'.
It's a story of child abuse and sex and pain. Of turning objects into people and people into objects. Sexual abuse is one of my big triggers --nothing makes me quietly shift to dark fury faster than hearing of that level of objectification. And with children...well, yeah. You're all decent people, you understand.
'Exodus' scares the crap out of me, not in the least because I can see myself in Cora Reynolds. And that scares the utter crap out of me, the fact that I probably would be the one trying to defend these poor innocent pieces of plastic. Trying to save a sex toy from it's fate. The world is a strange and disturbing place.
***
'Speaking Bitterness' is probably the story that makes me feel the most uncomfortable, because it hits another trigger, this one my main fascination, that of gender and sexuality.
Who decides a female, hm? And who decides a feminist? I've long since realized that one of my biggest problems with traditional feminism is that it does not take into account the idea that perhaps there is a little girl out there who wants to grow up to have a house and a husband and a kitchen. Who wants to cook dinner in the evenings and breakfast in the mornings. A white picket fence, and daytime soaps.
And there's nothing wrong with wanting that, as long as you're not being forced into your want.
But I digress. 'Speaking Bitterness' looks at that little girl and brings her into adulthood. And at how she'd be accepted, or not, by her peers. It ends on a questioning note, no confirmation as to whether this poor lost doll really is or really isn't. But regardless, she's now been hurt and raped and used by those who are meant to protect her. The world does that. We are hurt and so hurt in turn.
***
Of every story, there is only one that I consider hopeful, optimistic. Happy. Fitting, that it's the last one. End the novel on a happy note.
'Obsolete'. What happens if we stop the wheel of reincarnation, all these souls being cleaned and polished through every tiny hurt and good and bad. What if we stop giving them the option of coming back, trapped in a world without birth.
Heaven scares me, because perfection scares me. Because boredom scares me.
So the idea that, even with everyone going back to the most perfect place on earth, these two dumb little kids, named Adam and Eve can throw everything off, keep humans stuck with this misery, this pain, this LIFE...
It's an awesome idea. I love fuckers like that, ruining everything. But more so, I love life, with all its pain and terror. It's nice to know that someone out there will keep it going.
***
That's about all that needs to be talked about. 'Product Placement' is hilariously written. Evil Spirits and Foot Work and Swan Song and Punch Drunk and The Nightmare Box are all good or sad or dark or noticiable. The whole book is...well...good.
Just haunting.
~Sor
MOOP!