bad fiction

Is it wrong to dislike something so intensely that it starts to color the way you looked at your past experiences? I remember reading Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters in 2000.

It was amazing, full of vibrant demented people with a real investigation of beauty, age, gender, and the lengths to which people will go to achieve the ideal. It's about a disfigured fashion model who teams up with a pre-op transgender woman named Brandy Alexander to steal drugs from the rich at real estate open houses. It led me to Fight Club, which totally won me over. How intelligent was that story? After that, I bought and/or read every one of his novels. I still think Lullaby, a story about having the power to kill people by reciting a poem, is one of the more interesting discussions of capital punishment in fiction. It was written during the murder trial of the man who killed Palahniuk's father, when he was dealing with the issue firsthand.


I started to suspect something was wrong when I couldn't finish Haunted. Brande, my friend and fellow Palahniuk fan simultaneously threw down the book around the same time. It was gross, but not seemingly for any reason. Choke was gross, Survivor was gross, and Diary even had some moments, but this was just dumb to me. He makes a big deal about how 73 people have fainted during his book tour when he read the grossest part of the book ("Guts"). It seemed like he was just being shocking and gross for the sake of getting to people, not for the story. The other parts of the story weren't even that interesting--a writer's camp that devolves into a desperate plea for literary celebrity via murder. Snooze. After that, I borrowed the books or waited for paperback versions. Rant came out last year and I actually liked it. It's bizarre bleak future was heavy. I dug it. I debated with Brande over whether an author with a distinct style should be criticized for repeating the style. I mean, was he a hack for using plot twists at the end of each book? For his tendency to have protagonists that are outcasts who destroy themselves and those around them? Or is this what's genius about him; what will make people read him for years to come? Rant is supposedly being optioned for a film right now.

His latest work, Snuff makes me sad. Here is Publisher's Weekly's description of the novel:

"Cassie Wright, an aging porn queen who intends to put an exclamation point on her career by having sex with 600 men in one day on film. The story begins with Mr. 600—the pornosaur who introduced Cassie to the business—as he describes the other 599 actors awaiting their moment on screen. The perspective then shifts to Mr. 72, an adopted Midwestern 20-something who is one of the many young men claiming to be Cassie's long-lost son. Mr. 137, a has-been television star hoping to revive his career, wants to ask Cassie's hand in marriage so that the two can star in a reality TV show."

Here's an excerpt from the back cover that alludes to the title:

"Six hundred dudes. One porn queen. A world record for the ages. A must-have movie for every discerning collector of things erotic. Didn't one of us on purpose set out to make a snuff movie."

Really? A story about a porn star in which she isn't even given the narrative voice for most of the book. In which she dies trying to win at something in the porn industry now that she is "aging" and therefore useless. If it's a lesson about the pornification of America, I don't think we need it. It's fucking old news, Chuck. Why not a nihilistic porn star who serial kills the directors of her film? (should I trademark that now or has it already been done, by the way?) Or a hundred other books where a woman doesn't end up tortured to death. It sucks to judge something you haven't read, and if you are a fan, I wouldn't say don't read it, but I'm not going to. I just don't need a story like that in my life right now. Disturbing I like, degrading not so much.

Interested in some disturbing stories (sans porno)? Try these films:

Oldboy is a Korean fil about a man who is kidnapped and locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing why. Upon his abrupt release, he searches for his captor and tries to figure out his role in a large and crazy conspiracy.

If you like it, rent Lady Vengeance, by the same director.



My second choice is a short film called Dumplings from a three film series entitled Three Extremes. It's a Hong Kong horror film about a woman who eats special dumplings to stay young. I won't spoil it, but the stuff in those dumplings is disturbing!!!