(Constantly Under Construction)
Essay/really
long review of Chuck
Palahniuk's new book: Choke
By Greg
Douglass
“For sure, even the worst blow job is better than,
say, sniffing the best rose... watching the greatest sunset. Hearing children
laugh. I think I shall never see a poem as lovely as a hotgushing,
butt-cramping, gut-hosing orgasm.” Chuck Palahniuk is at it again. Assuming the
man keeps at this whole writing thing, it will be interesting to see what will
become of his “fans” in another twenty years. Can this young and angry
generation of fans handle a lifetime of Palnhuck’s exquisitely morbid
fictional design? Well, yeah, if all his novels are as upbeat as this one.
Previously, Chuck has written such supremely outré works as Invisible Monsters,
Survivor (my
favorite), and of course, Fight Club.
His books are taxing, but in a good way. Anyone a firm believer in the fact that
we should do one thing a day to scare ourselves, should read this novelist.
Palahniuk provides a unique and disconnected narrative to a consumer-based society. He stands as the preemptive iconoclastic/comic author of the new millennium, “This generations Don DeLillo” as Bret Easton Ellis calls him. Palahniuk is the unsung, unassuming voice of a malcontent generation, and what’s most interesting is the fact that the novelist is growing, and exploring new avenues. With Choke, the man makes some good points as to why we shouldn't conform and become one of those spacemonkeys, while at the exact same time laughing at how silly the system and his own style is. There is a method at work though, he's not Jackson Pollock. His work avoids stagnation--unlike so many popular authors out there-- because the narratives are strong and original each every time out. As expected from this novelist, every facet of American life is lampooned here; from parenthood to theme parks, group therapy to sexual inhibitions... no one is safe from Palahniuk’s sardonic wrath.
If Fight Club and Survivor were about
tearing something down, then Choke is literally about creating something.
A major theme in this novel is rocks. Yup, rocks. As one of the supporting characters, a
portly man named Denny, has this obsessive habit; instead of having chronic sex or using
drugs, he collects rocks non-stop, for real. The grand ending involves those
rocks being used to make some sort of clandestine sanctuary that meets with an act of
god. You’re probably thinking, “Huh?" So if you not a fan of Palahniuk's work, stop reading. And if
you are a fan, well, I guess you can stop reading too because you already know
how stirring Palahniuk’s vision is.
In
Choke, Palahniuk takes
a topic on the topic of pretending to choke on food as a way of finding self-actualization and love.
The main character had some mother issues,
so now he shoves food down his throat in high classy restaurants to to make people
feel good, “People need someone they feel superior to.” The paychecks
he's sent by all his saviors don't hurt either. At
its gray heart this is a book about a son letting go of his dying mother, and it gives one of the
most clandestinely absorbing relationships since Hamlet, or at the very
least since Tony and his mom Livia went head to wounded head in HBO’s "The
Sopranos." Victor laments, “If god is dead, then mothers are the new god…” Now compare
that to Palahniuk quote in "Fight Club" "We're a
generation of men raised by women. The last thing we need is another
woman." (I was too lazy to
thumb through my copy of Fight Club for the real quote) And that's proof positive, to me, that his
voice is more upbeat this
time around.
The first hint of this guys
mother issues comes as he thinks out loud, "Every son raised by a single
mother is pretty much born married. I don't know, but until your mom dies it
seems like all the other women in your life can never be more than just your
mistress." As for Victor's father, well, all I'm saying is Jesus'
foreskin plays a small role in the book.
Aside
from all the creepy mother stuff, Choke
is also about sex addicts and how they cope with the chemical addiction. Victor
ponders, "Sex addicts are really addicted to the endorphin, not
the sex." With so many themes and manic sweeps, this
novel is just as much an experience as
his Survivor was, but sadly, it doesn’t find the same kind of closure.
Choke is 250 pages of exquisite setup, and 43 pages of anticlimactic (but still
weighty) payoff.
As usual, Chuck writes in a non-linear tableau-esq manner. The main character is a man who "Never contributed anything worthwhile to the world." Victor Santori thinks, ponders, spills verbal bile, and makes observations, and the readers gladly follow his unique narrative through the mazes of bitter angst and forlorn gestures. My favorite kind of characters are the lost kind, and the style of the novel (like in most Palahniuk books) follows the characters imbalanced thought process. As a bonus, for the first time in a Chuck Palahniuk book, he manages to write about sex in an effective manner (It would do Dave Matthews some good to read this book). It seems as though the man took care and pride in his descriptions of mindless sexual acts and compulsions. Palahniuk sees sex to be a funny and a necessary drug of sorts. The best chapter in the book involves Victor sneaking into a woman’s house to rape her… we soon find out that the so-called victim and aggressor meet at a sexaholics meeting and the rape was actually planned. When Victor dimly asks asks "now what?" the girl directs him: “Use me! Degrade me, you stupid idiot! Demean me, you jerk-off! Debase me!,” and that’s Palahniuk sense of humor. Also included is the obligatory Chuck “Ah-ha!!!” moment. I recently went to Mr. Palahniuk's book signing in Westwood, and Palahniuk said he throws in incredible revelations because people remember things better if they discover something in them for themselves. Choke has surprises, but they don’t hold the novel together, the style and mentality does. The few “Ah-ha!” moments in Choke seem to be more of an afterthought, but hey, at least he’s trying.
Chucks
novels are not for people with good healthy self esteems. They are not for
confident people who think they're beautiful, there for the alienated and hidden
masses out there, a literal Fight Club of sorts. “A male chauvinistic pig
isn’t born he’s made.” “Parenthood is the opiate of the
masses.” These are some of the philosophical gems Palahniuk peppers
his novel which, and he does this, I think, to weed out those readers without a
darker sense of humor (older EW critics, I’m talking to you). To me, part of
the fun of reading a book by Palahniuk, is knowing that most people will be
offended by the books disposition. The author is a polar Betty Ferdan if you will. A possible Palahniuk
motto could very well be: don’t
be beautiful, be real, break something, laugh at social conventions, and let go
of that ego by shitting your pants in public (if you read Choke, you'll know
what I mean). This author can be dismissed, or laughed at, but the effect it has
on some people cant be denied. Dismissing this authors ideas outright is the
equivalent of dismissing where the American culture is heading. Chuck’s
literature isn’t so much underground but its certainly not John Fucking
Gresham. Hopefully this is where fiction is heading. When
finished with Choke, the
sound you will hear by the last page (293) is a little bit of your ego being
chipped away. I had a near life experience with Choke.
Choke:
A-
Survivor:
A+
Invisible
Monsters: A-
I couldn't help it; here's two more quotes from Choke.
"Ask any guy about his mom during sex, and you can delay the big blast forever."
"My first time I jacked of, I thought I'd invented it. I looked down at my sloppy handful of junk and thought, 'This is going to make me rich.'"
Why
listen to Tool's Laterlaus? 5/26/01 (does anyone have a Latin
dictionary on hand?)
Tool's third album resides somewhere close to that dark place
in all of us where we’re afraid to visit via the music forum. Laterlaus is a
spiraling epic of an album that’s unrelenting, yes, but most importantly
complex and confusing. Listening to this 70+ minute maze for the first time is
wildly intimidating. But oh so worth it after a five year Tool drought.
I
don’t pretend to know much about music, but I was flabbergasted when I read
that Laterlaus debuted at the top of the charts. Is this the album that belongs
in the same category as Missy Elliot, Uncle Kracker, and Weezer? There’s no
bankable sing-along single, and the majority of songs flow with no concept for
time or sound bytes. The best track on the album The Grudge informs us in
a Bad Religion manner: “Wear the grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what we will or will not tolerate." Huh? Other
choice (mp3 unfriendly) tracks include Laterlaus, Schism and
of course their obligatory secret track Faaip De Oiad, but the last thing
I would call any of these songs is catchy. At
no less than seven minutes a pop, Tool pulls the feat of defying conventions
while still remaining conventional to their loyal fans. I got the feeling that
Laterlaus does not exist to make a profit, dare I call it art?
"Laterlaus" is so rhythmically challenging and mechanically abrasive that its affect is more of a successful musical vestige than a modern hit. The days of Nirvana, the early Trent Reznor, and even Tool themselves are long gone; in its place is prepackaged choreographed Barbey dolls, with routine mouths (for which signing is not the only thing they’re used for.) Even "harder" bands like "Limp Bizkit" are so engulfed in sales and image that it feels like there feeding us the same K-Mart shit their pretending to rebel against. Maynard James Keenan REALLY doesn't want us to know he's there, he's a ghost in the machine. "I'm sick of all you boy groups, all you do is annoy me..." Maynard croons... wait a minute, that was Eminem, sorry.
This
Tool album proves that while fads weave in and out of our collective consciences
(hopefully this Spears/N’sinc era will go extent, like soon) this endangered
band (Keenan, Jones, Chancellor, and Carey) aren’t afraid to take us into the
heart of darkness and back.
Laterlaus:
A
Salival
(DVD box set): B+
Anima: A
Undertow: A+
Opiate: A-
For
Lyrics go HERE, but remember "TRY
LISTENING TO IT INSTEAD OF READING ALONG WITH IT."
For Rollingstone's spot on review go HERE
Top Ten Favorite Modern Musicians, and their
best records.
(Inspired by my friends site, but a lot better. This one is Tonic Free)
NIN
Beck
U2
Oingo Boingo
Tool
Radiohead
Robbie Williams
Sheryl Crow
Marilyn Manson
Blur
(New) Dave Matthews Band (I'm a new fan, so sue me)
(New) Depeche Mode