2 posts tagged “cannibalism”
Finishing my second Palahniuk book, I am struck by how many people are shocked by this work. I suppose it did have scenes not usually depicted (the cannibalism springs to mind foremost) but I'd use a word like chilling over shocking.
The book largely seems like an indictment of reality TV. Let's hope that eventually people are not killing and being killed for the sake of one's 15 minutes.
The structure of the novel is interesting. It is a novel about writers who are writing short stories throughout the novel. Every other chapter is a short story "written" by one of the characters. Really, the stories are confessions from each one's past.
The short stories are far more interesting than the novel proper. No less unbelievable, but very memorable.
While Haunted is vastly different from Choke (and one of Palahniuk's more minor novels) I'd say I did draw one more conclusion about the author's style.
He has a talent for making the most far-fetched idea seem, at least, plausible.
The book largely seems like an indictment of reality TV. Let's hope that eventually people are not killing and being killed for the sake of one's 15 minutes.
The structure of the novel is interesting. It is a novel about writers who are writing short stories throughout the novel. Every other chapter is a short story "written" by one of the characters. Really, the stories are confessions from each one's past.
The short stories are far more interesting than the novel proper. No less unbelievable, but very memorable.
While Haunted is vastly different from Choke (and one of Palahniuk's more minor novels) I'd say I did draw one more conclusion about the author's style.
He has a talent for making the most far-fetched idea seem, at least, plausible.
In college I was taking a philosophy class and happened to watch the movie Trigger Effect. It's not a memorable movie but it stunned me because I was absorbed in trying to understand Hobbes's State of Nature. Suddenly it all made sense. I wonder if some student out there is having the same experience with this book. (The Road is vastly superior to Trigger Effect in case you're wondering.)
But the fact that society is based on two things: people and trust--that's the same message in all three. Of course, that led to all kinds of thoughts about how I live in a place with three main rules: never admit you're wrong, take as much as you can from everyone in every situation, and patience is a vice. And I wondered just how close Connecticut is to full on cannibalism.
OK, my personal nightmares aside, I did find this book haunting. I have been thinking about things--birds and food and aspirin and the general point of life--for days now in a new light.
But the ending...I don't think this book could have an adequate end. There's no point if the characters die, right? And if everything works out in the end it's just a cheesy cliche. I think the author did the best he could in light of this horrible corner he painted himself into, but the ending just didn't quite work for me.
But the fact that society is based on two things: people and trust--that's the same message in all three. Of course, that led to all kinds of thoughts about how I live in a place with three main rules: never admit you're wrong, take as much as you can from everyone in every situation, and patience is a vice. And I wondered just how close Connecticut is to full on cannibalism.
OK, my personal nightmares aside, I did find this book haunting. I have been thinking about things--birds and food and aspirin and the general point of life--for days now in a new light.
But the ending...I don't think this book could have an adequate end. There's no point if the characters die, right? And if everything works out in the end it's just a cheesy cliche. I think the author did the best he could in light of this horrible corner he painted himself into, but the ending just didn't quite work for me.
