Chuck Palahniuk - news, reviews, discussion, recommendations etc
09-24-03, 06:05 PM
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Rubix, that is interesting to hear if it turns out to be true. I'll check out the website.
I have been reading a lot on the subway since moving to NYC a few weeks ago. Just finished Invisible Monsters, I will begin Diary next. So far, I rank them:
1) Fight Club (read it after seeing the film)
2) Survivor
3) Choke
4) Invisible Monsters
the first three are pretty much neck and neck. Invisible monsters, although I enjoyed it, is a distant fourth. Am I missing anything besides Lullaby?
I have been reading a lot on the subway since moving to NYC a few weeks ago. Just finished Invisible Monsters, I will begin Diary next. So far, I rank them:
1) Fight Club (read it after seeing the film)
2) Survivor
3) Choke
4) Invisible Monsters
the first three are pretty much neck and neck. Invisible monsters, although I enjoyed it, is a distant fourth. Am I missing anything besides Lullaby?
09-24-03, 10:08 PM
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Rubix, there's an update from ChuckPalahnuik.net's webmaster here.
"But unfortunately, this coming out was tainted by some words Chuck said about the Entertainment Weekly reporter, Karen Velby. And so I was asked by both Doubleday and Chuck to remove the audioblog as well as the News post.
Let me make this clear: I don't take orders from Doubleday and Chuck on anything. But when the guy who you do this site for personally requests that you remove something he said at a very volatile moment in his life... you listen to his request.
I would hope that you all understand that the removal of the audioblog has nothing to do with Chuck's recanting that he came out of the closet. Chuck is on tour right now in London, England for three Diary readings. But he will be leaving a new audioblog tonight at midnight, London time."
Let me make this clear: I don't take orders from Doubleday and Chuck on anything. But when the guy who you do this site for personally requests that you remove something he said at a very volatile moment in his life... you listen to his request.
I would hope that you all understand that the removal of the audioblog has nothing to do with Chuck's recanting that he came out of the closet. Chuck is on tour right now in London, England for three Diary readings. But he will be leaving a new audioblog tonight at midnight, London time."
Last edited by Damage; 09-24-03 at 10:21 PM.
09-28-03, 11:05 AM
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There is certainly an insinuation in the EW article that he wasn't exactly forthcomming about his preferences, but who cares! The EW article was a real mess. They came out to Portland and followed him up to the castle he's considering buying and turning into a writers retreat and then they wrote and article about how fringe his fans are. Real poor reporting!
I can't imagine what it would have been like for him to let the press into his otherwise private world and then be forced to talk about his personal life for fear that a reporter would talk about it first.
I've met Chuck several times, he's a great guy and extremely reserved, He isn't the kind if guy who would go off on someone would unless there was a pretty bad situation surrounding it (like w/ the EW writer) - I'm sure the back story on this isn't pretty.
Either way Diary is a really well written book, I enjoyed it a lot better than Lulaby and I'm sure it'll make a great movie.
I can't imagine what it would have been like for him to let the press into his otherwise private world and then be forced to talk about his personal life for fear that a reporter would talk about it first.
I've met Chuck several times, he's a great guy and extremely reserved, He isn't the kind if guy who would go off on someone would unless there was a pretty bad situation surrounding it (like w/ the EW writer) - I'm sure the back story on this isn't pretty.
Either way Diary is a really well written book, I enjoyed it a lot better than Lulaby and I'm sure it'll make a great movie.
09-28-03, 01:49 PM
#55
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Whoa thats somewhat of a shock, though i guess if i read his books a little closer i probably would have seen it. Well whether i disagree with his lifestyle or not, thats irrelevent. he's a great writer, i didn't even know he had a new book out. Didn't Lullaby just come out the end of last year.
10-01-03, 09:02 AM
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I've read Survivor and Choke and thought they were pretty good. I'll probably give Diary a read sometime. The reviewer over at salon.com really hated it though. Heres a quote from the review: "It's execrable on a sentence-by-sentence basis as well as in overall form and theme".
The critic has some points I agree with but seems overly harsh on the novel as a whole. I won't let one bad review put me off. Plenty of others have liked the book.
The critic has some points I agree with but seems overly harsh on the novel as a whole. I won't let one bad review put me off. Plenty of others have liked the book.
10-02-03, 06:48 PM
#58
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A bit Off-Topic maybe, but apparently Chuck "outed" himself (sort of) recently...
Doesn't really matter much to me, but I wonder how some of his fans will feel?
http://www.willametteweek.com/flatfiles/News4373.lasso
NEWS STORY
A Hazardous Outing
For years, Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk managed to keep his personal life under wraps. Whoops.
BY ZACH DUNDAS
The best-kept open secret of Portland's literary scene is history. Last week, Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk made public his 11-year relationship with another man.
The revelation, in a now-deleted "audio blog" on www.chuckpalahniuk.net (a.k.a. "The Cult") ends a long-running media cat-and-mouse game. Since his electrifying debut novel, Fight Club, became a publishing sensation and celebrated movie in the late '90s, Palahniuk has maintained a shroud of privacy over his personal life, even while amassing a rabid fan base.
The juggling act survived dozens of stories written about the 41-year-old author. (Over the years, at least two publications have mistakenly reported that he is married to a woman.) Ironically, Palahniuk's unveiling of his romantic life seems the result of fears that a reporter was about to kick him out of the closet--worries ultimately proved groundless.
Early last week, the author, touring Europe to promote his new novel, Diary, phoned in one of his frequent MP3 reports to The Cult. The post, which was soon deleted, was in response to an upcoming article in Entertainment Weekly. According to subsequent online chatter, Palahniuk believed EW staff writer Karen Valby intended to out him--so he tried beating the magazine to the punch. He also seems to have talked a little trash about Valby, stirring fans' ire.
In fact, the five-page feature story in the Sept. 26 issue of EW story makes no mention of Palahniuk's relationship. Valby does describe the author's amusement at erroneous reports regarding his spouse. "Palahniuk has no wife," Valby writes, "and declines to discuss his personal life on the record...."
Dennis Widmyer, the 26-year-old Palahniuk fan who runs The Cult from his Hicksville, N.Y., home on Long Island, declined to comment directly on the initial audio post. He says he deleted it at the joint request of Palahniuk and Doubleday, his publisher. (Doubleday declined to comment on the situation.)
On Tuesday, Palahniuk called in again.
"Hey, this is Chuck, calling from England, where it's been...a day of misgivings," Palahniuk said. "I've never done this writer thing before, and I have no idea how to manage any of it. I just thought I could do it without being the center of attention.... Let's just back off, relax, not kill anybody and call it good." An EW spokeswoman says that, in fact, the magazine received no threats or other harassment from Palahniuk fans.
With the cat thus out of the bag, Palahniuk posted yet another cell-phone call on Thursday.
"Hey, this is me again," Palahniuk said. "I wanted to make it very clear that I misrepresented, because I mis-remembered, some of the details about Karen's private life. I deeply regret doing that. It was something I did out of anger and fear, and it was something I did inaccurately, and something I wish I had not done."
Palahniuk, who moved to Portland from Washington state 20 years ago, remains in Europe this week. He did not return messages left at his Portland number. During his current tour, Palahniuk's been reading a short story called "Guts," which has reportedly caused fans to vomit and faint. Such tales add another layer to the mystique surrounding a writer who has nurtured an intense, persona-driven relationship with his readers.
Both before and after Brad Pitt immortalized Fight Club antihero Tyler Durden on the big screen, Palahniuk's pugilistic prose galvanized a fan base unlike any in contemporary literature. He diligently answers fan mail and turns reading gigs into borderline performance art that draws huge crowds, including fans so devoted they scar themselves to match Fight Club's ravaged characters.
According to Widmyer, The Cult currently receives about 5,500 visitors a day. The site includes a writers' workshop and features on other authors.
"Chuck's getting people who never read before to read," Widmyer says. "People analyze his popularity on a very superficial level, but really what he's doing is no different than what Oprah's doing. It's just for different people."
Palahniuk's romantic orientation is widely known in Portland's literary community, but some have speculated that he resisted going public for fear of alienating fans, or seeing his books banished to the gay/lesbian lit niche.
"I don't know if this is a real issue for someone like him," says Robert Bade, who manages the gay/lesbian section at Powell's City of Books. "But even knowing that it might be might cause him to hesitate. It just shows how insidious homophobia is, that a vital author has to worry about what should be a non-issue."
Judging by the initial response on The Cult, Palahniuk--outsider voice par excellence--may not have anything to worry about.
"Chuck's involved with a male partner?" one fan writes on a site bulletin board. "More power to him."
Doesn't really matter much to me, but I wonder how some of his fans will feel?
http://www.willametteweek.com/flatfiles/News4373.lasso
NEWS STORY
A Hazardous Outing
For years, Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk managed to keep his personal life under wraps. Whoops.
BY ZACH DUNDAS
The best-kept open secret of Portland's literary scene is history. Last week, Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk made public his 11-year relationship with another man.
The revelation, in a now-deleted "audio blog" on www.chuckpalahniuk.net (a.k.a. "The Cult") ends a long-running media cat-and-mouse game. Since his electrifying debut novel, Fight Club, became a publishing sensation and celebrated movie in the late '90s, Palahniuk has maintained a shroud of privacy over his personal life, even while amassing a rabid fan base.
The juggling act survived dozens of stories written about the 41-year-old author. (Over the years, at least two publications have mistakenly reported that he is married to a woman.) Ironically, Palahniuk's unveiling of his romantic life seems the result of fears that a reporter was about to kick him out of the closet--worries ultimately proved groundless.
Early last week, the author, touring Europe to promote his new novel, Diary, phoned in one of his frequent MP3 reports to The Cult. The post, which was soon deleted, was in response to an upcoming article in Entertainment Weekly. According to subsequent online chatter, Palahniuk believed EW staff writer Karen Valby intended to out him--so he tried beating the magazine to the punch. He also seems to have talked a little trash about Valby, stirring fans' ire.
In fact, the five-page feature story in the Sept. 26 issue of EW story makes no mention of Palahniuk's relationship. Valby does describe the author's amusement at erroneous reports regarding his spouse. "Palahniuk has no wife," Valby writes, "and declines to discuss his personal life on the record...."
Dennis Widmyer, the 26-year-old Palahniuk fan who runs The Cult from his Hicksville, N.Y., home on Long Island, declined to comment directly on the initial audio post. He says he deleted it at the joint request of Palahniuk and Doubleday, his publisher. (Doubleday declined to comment on the situation.)
On Tuesday, Palahniuk called in again.
"Hey, this is Chuck, calling from England, where it's been...a day of misgivings," Palahniuk said. "I've never done this writer thing before, and I have no idea how to manage any of it. I just thought I could do it without being the center of attention.... Let's just back off, relax, not kill anybody and call it good." An EW spokeswoman says that, in fact, the magazine received no threats or other harassment from Palahniuk fans.
With the cat thus out of the bag, Palahniuk posted yet another cell-phone call on Thursday.
"Hey, this is me again," Palahniuk said. "I wanted to make it very clear that I misrepresented, because I mis-remembered, some of the details about Karen's private life. I deeply regret doing that. It was something I did out of anger and fear, and it was something I did inaccurately, and something I wish I had not done."
Palahniuk, who moved to Portland from Washington state 20 years ago, remains in Europe this week. He did not return messages left at his Portland number. During his current tour, Palahniuk's been reading a short story called "Guts," which has reportedly caused fans to vomit and faint. Such tales add another layer to the mystique surrounding a writer who has nurtured an intense, persona-driven relationship with his readers.
Both before and after Brad Pitt immortalized Fight Club antihero Tyler Durden on the big screen, Palahniuk's pugilistic prose galvanized a fan base unlike any in contemporary literature. He diligently answers fan mail and turns reading gigs into borderline performance art that draws huge crowds, including fans so devoted they scar themselves to match Fight Club's ravaged characters.
According to Widmyer, The Cult currently receives about 5,500 visitors a day. The site includes a writers' workshop and features on other authors.
"Chuck's getting people who never read before to read," Widmyer says. "People analyze his popularity on a very superficial level, but really what he's doing is no different than what Oprah's doing. It's just for different people."
Palahniuk's romantic orientation is widely known in Portland's literary community, but some have speculated that he resisted going public for fear of alienating fans, or seeing his books banished to the gay/lesbian lit niche.
"I don't know if this is a real issue for someone like him," says Robert Bade, who manages the gay/lesbian section at Powell's City of Books. "But even knowing that it might be might cause him to hesitate. It just shows how insidious homophobia is, that a vital author has to worry about what should be a non-issue."
Judging by the initial response on The Cult, Palahniuk--outsider voice par excellence--may not have anything to worry about.
"Chuck's involved with a male partner?" one fan writes on a site bulletin board. "More power to him."
10-03-03, 07:54 AM
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People need to stop worrying about who is gay or who isnt. Why does anyone care who someone else chooses to go to bed with? How does it affect your life one way or another what sexual preference somebody else has?
In this day and age, people should be tolerant of others with viewpoints different from their own.
And in a thread about an author's books I dont see how it is relevant to discuss his sexuality. Who cares. He writes good books, period.
In this day and age, people should be tolerant of others with viewpoints different from their own.
And in a thread about an author's books I dont see how it is relevant to discuss his sexuality. Who cares. He writes good books, period.
02-14-04, 09:18 PM
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Chuck Palahniuk spills his Guts in Playboy this month...
Thought some of ya might like to know, Palahniuk's short story, Guts, is in the March edition of Playboy. Just received my copy in the mail today - no idea when it hits the stands though.
Cover here
Cover here
Last edited by Mutley Hyde; 02-14-04 at 10:49 PM.
02-15-04, 05:00 AM
#65
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Saw this today. Haven't got around to reading it yet.
He's written for Playboy before, hasn't he?
He's written for Playboy before, hasn't he?
02-15-04, 07:40 AM
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I don't know if he has or not. I've never read any of his work before, but have been meaning to (my brother is nuts about it). I just knew he was big around here, so I thought I'd mention it. 
02-17-04, 06:48 PM
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Originally posted by Blaster1
Anyone have the transcript of this? I've seen the mp3 of it, but I don't have sound capabilities.
Anyone have the transcript of this? I've seen the mp3 of it, but I don't have sound capabilities.
02-18-04, 02:04 PM
#69
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Originally posted by TeeSeeJay
yes, the transcript is apparently in the new issue of Playboy. Go buy it. Otherwise, wait until his short-story collection is released in a year or two.
yes, the transcript is apparently in the new issue of Playboy. Go buy it. Otherwise, wait until his short-story collection is released in a year or two.
02-19-04, 08:04 AM
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Originally posted by RoyalTea
man, this could be the first case in recorded history of someone really buying playboy "for the articles."
man, this could be the first case in recorded history of someone really buying playboy "for the articles."
02-23-04, 11:12 AM
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I just read Diary and I liked it. It seems like it will be made into a movie based on the way that it is paced.
I try not to read about books before I read them (I'll try to see if people like it but I don't want to know about the plot until I read it) so this book took about a third of the book to get into because it was mostly depressing and I didn't see a purpose but it is definitely worth it to keep reading.
I try not to read about books before I read them (I'll try to see if people like it but I don't want to know about the plot until I read it) so this book took about a third of the book to get into because it was mostly depressing and I didn't see a purpose but it is definitely worth it to keep reading.
02-23-04, 11:44 AM
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Wow! Tnx for resurrecting this thread, didn't know Chuck has some new books out, I'm trying to lay low on dvds and pick up reading again, and his stuff always spark my interests on reading. I loved the 1st 3.
Also tnx for all the recommendations on other authors, I know his style is unique and all but anybody else recommend some other authors not yet mentioned ?
Also tnx for all the recommendations on other authors, I know his style is unique and all but anybody else recommend some other authors not yet mentioned ?
02-24-04, 09:05 AM
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What is with the utter shame and indignation of buying a Playboy all about? Geeze, buy the magazine if you want the story. I can understand it coming from those with wives, but seriously, it's like y'all think theres some grand social stigma attached to buying Playboy.
Playboy.
People, it's not like it's Barely Legal, or Swank. Sheesh. Or maybe it's considered "the gateway mag"?
Playboy.
People, it's not like it's Barely Legal, or Swank. Sheesh. Or maybe it's considered "the gateway mag"?
03-01-04, 10:23 PM
#75
I loved Fight Club. Read Choke, it was good, but I wasn't too impressed.
I did especially like the regression therapist/madame angle, though.
He has probably the best writing style I've ever seen, though. I really click with it.
I did especially like the regression therapist/madame angle, though.
He has probably the best writing style I've ever seen, though. I really click with it.