I would like to start out with a quote from Chuck Palahniuk’s book, Survivor, “Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justified?” Chuck Palahniuk is an amazing author who is best known for his book Fight Club that was made into a cult classic movie in 1999 starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. The first book that I read by Palahniuk was Survivor, and since then I have been a huge fan and completely addicted to his somewhat twisted style of writing. Today I would like to tell you about Chuck Palahniuk, his writing style, overcoming hardships, and the ultimate form of flattery-his influences on popular culture. Now that I have introduced you to Chuck, I would like to tell you a little about his work.
Chuck Palahniuk is a diamond in the rough. I am not sure if any of you have read any of his books before, but they are quite bizarre and at the same time, almost impossible to put down. What is really shocking is that even though his stories sound like they are completely from the earth to the moon, they actually come from true stories that his friends and fans have told him. One of his short stories, entitled Guts was said to be so bothersome that multiple audience members on his book tour were said to have passed out in their seats when he read it. For those of you who are interested in seeing what all that fuss is about, Guts can be found in his book Haunted which is a collection of his short stories. His subject matter ranges from a Creedish death cult member hijacking a plane in Survivor to a newspaper reporter who travels around trying to destroy all copies of a children’s book containing a culling spell that kills people when it is read aloud in Lullaby. His writing style is as bold as brass. Now that you are better acquainted with his writing style, I would like to move on to a little more about the man himself.
Chuck Palahniuk was not born into money by any means. He has survived a lot of hardship in his life. When he was young, he lived in a mobile home park with his parents and siblings until his parents split up and he moved in with his grandparents. In 1999, Palahniuk’s father passed away at the hand of his girlfriend’s former lover. Afterwards, Palahniuk was involved in the decision on whether or not his father’s killer would be given the death sentence. It was at this time that he wrote a novel titled Lullaby to help him cope with his decision. He then decided that he wanted to stand behind the death sentence. Another hardship that he had to deal with was coming out of closet when he didn’t really want to. He mentioned his homosexuality to a journalist and insulted her for outing him before her piece was even published. Once the interview came out he realized that she did not reveal his secret. He felt bad and revealed his homosexuality and apologized. Now that you know about his personal life, I would like to tell you how he has influenced others.
The amount of an impact that Chuck Palahniuk has made in his writing is very clear when you think about how much of an influence he has had on other areas of our culture. Many bands have either named their entire band after characters in Palahniuk’s books or have many references to quotes from his books in their lyrics and song titles. The band Panic! at the Disco’s album, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” has at least five song with references to five different books by Chuck Palahniuk including Choke, Survivor, and Invisible Monsters. There are even a few books out there whose titles are derived directly from quotes from Palahniuk’s books. Now that I have told you about his impact on pop culture, I would like to sum everything up.
In conclusion, Chuck Palahniuk is an awfully good writer. Despite the hardships that he has faced in his lifetime, he is still able to produce one breathtaking book after another. I find his writing style to be entertaining to the masses despite their shocking subject matter. Even though he has only been a well known author for about 10 years now, there are already many pop culture references to him which reinforces just how great his writing is and I am sure that there is plenty more to come.
