Is there anyone else out there a fan of Chuck Palahniuk's novels? If you aren't familiar with him he's the guy who wrote the book Fight Club.

If anyone is interested it looks like they are finally getting somewhere on the movie based on his book Choke. Here is a link to some casting news. I absolutely loved this book and can't wait to see the movie. Hopefully it is done as well as Fight Club was.

I am currently reading Diary. I'm about a third of the way through and I'm already hooked. Hooked like the way you drive past a horrible accident on the highway and have to look. Then when you actually see something horrifying you still keep looking even though it makes you feel disgusted and uncomfortable. It's not like he writes scary novels but the way he doesn't hold anything back and describes stuff in way more detail than you would normally want to hear is what makes his writings so addictive. Each time I take a break from reading I can't help think to myself "What kind of mental nut do you have to be to even think of stuff like this to write... thank goodness he does!" I'm not sure if there is another author out there quite like him. If there is I have never read or heard anything like what he writes.

If there are any other fans I'd love to discuss his novels and/or movies.

I've read FIGHT CLUB and that's it. I did really enjoy it and the movie

Palahniuk has always been in a Mexican stand-off with Hunter S. Thompson for the title of my favorite writer.

Choke is probably my favorite. I remember a few years back, rumor was that Darren Aronofsky, one of my favorite directors, was set to direct it. But that pretty much fell apart when Aronofsky went on to direct The Fountain, from what I understand.

It looks like it's going to be directed by the guy who wrote the script for Choke, and he's never directed before. Clark Gregg is his name.

Thanks newbie.



Good luck to him.

Yeah, Darren A. considered making CHOKE, but its like 200 other projects of his over the years that didn't happen, nevermind BATMAN: YEAR ONE.

LLC, how many of his books have read besides Choke?

Like I said, he's something of a tossup with Thompson of my favorite writer... So I've read everything but his latest, Rant, which I haven't had the chance to pick up yet.

I'm not familiar with Hunter S. Thompson.

Phony!!!!

So, last night I'm wandering around Union Square late at night... Or "early in the morning" if you want to be technical, and I find myself in Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy of Palahniuk's new book, "Rant". I'm flipping through this gargantuan pile of hardcover copies, trying to find the best copy, and in the back of the pile, what do I find but an abandoned autographed copy that never made it's way out of the book-signing when Chuck E. Poppididdiwok (I'm never quite sure how to pronounce the bastard's name) visited New York last month, when the book was fresh to stores.

Pretty god damn cool.

And I've just noticed that I did not go to reply to this thread and accidentally quote my last post, but I actually just edited it to include the story I had meant to reply with and deleted any information if previously withheld. I am amazing.

I picked up Choke and Haunted from the library the other day. I've started Haunted, and its real fucked up. I like it.

I also picked up Better Than Sex by Hunter S. Thompson. I'm about half-way through. It's the first book of his I've read (I've been meaning to read his stuff for a while now, but getting a library card in Motown is such a hassle), and I definitely like it. Fear & Loathing is probably my favorite movie, so I'm looking forward to reading the book.

LLC, you lucky bastard.

Yeah, deffinately make it a point to read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The narrative is so out of control and self-indulgent that it'll make you either love or hate Hunter. Personally, I don't see how you can hate it unless you have a stick up your ass.

The descriptions and references he uses are hysterical.

Choke is probably my favorite Palahniuk piece, alongside Survivor. I really like all of his stuff pre-2001, but he's sort of toned it down since 9/11, and gone in something of a Horror-direction. Which is still very cool, he just can't get away with a book like Survivor anymore, where the whole narrative is written as the main character giving a first person account of the events of the story as he rides in an abandoned plane on auto-pilot, waiting for the fuel to run out so he will plummet to his death.

Although, as far as Riot is concerned, it's about a serial killer, from what I understand, so it looks like it's going to be back on track with his older material, mixed with the weird narrative style of Haunted, in that the narrative is told by several characters, all of whom tell stories that contradict one another.

SURVIVOR rocks, but you know what?

I actually would prefer to script INVISIBLE MONSTERS if I could. It would be my f*cked up road trip movie from hell.

I still need to read both of these, I can't wait!

Bogey, have you ever read any of his books before?



Let me know how you like Better Than Sex because I'm also new to Hunter S. Thompson. I'm reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas right now, and like LLC said, you should definitely read it. I am finally almost done with it and I think I might have to go back and read it two or three more times just because it's such an easy read and it is so funny in a twisted disturbing way. Similar to Chuck Palahniuk novels, but in more of a "Let's screw with this guys head for the sake of our own amusement" way.

Does anyone know of any other authors that write like Palahniuk and Thompson? I've been a big fan of Elmore Leonard over the years and he is the closest that I have read. But he is almost like the guy that read what was popular way back when (he's old), and took the next step into race relations and funny violent situations (As seen in movies adapted from his books like Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, etc...). Whether you like the movies or not, he is a very good crime writer where you are rooting for the bad guys to succeed. Palahniuk and Thompson seem to have taken his style and went disturbingly further with it. I would love to find more authors who write like them. There has to be more.

Firstly, check out Thompson's Hells Angels next. It's not as insane as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but it's his break through piece, a great piece of writing with some sick humor, and I think you'd appreciate it, coming from the Bay area. Ideally, I would recommend Curse of Lono to you, on the basis that it is very similar to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. However, the book was out of print for many years, and it just recently became available to the public once again, only it has been released in a gigantic hardcover edition that is about two feel tall (no exaggeration) and you could quite easily kill a bear with... Resultingly, it is currently $50 dollars. A lot of money for the casual fan. Although, it's a great read, so if you can find it in a library or a second hand book shop, go for it. Or if you want to be crazy like me, buy the $50 edition, and use it to skin animals with, that's cool too.

The Rum Diary is excellent as well, and set to be adapted into a film starring Col. Depp. It's Thompson's first attempt at a novel, so it has this great, raw energy... And, at this point he is still sort of testing the water to see what he can realistically get away with, as far as shock goes. So, there are random spurts of humor that seem really warped and almost irrelevant, which will make you laugh and ask "what the fuck is this?" I remember one chapter where he is sitting in a house, and he looks out the window and sees a three-legged dog whimpering on the sidewalk below the window. Then the chapter ends really abruptly. It's rather humorous.

As for other authors... Check out Irvine Welsh and Kurt Vonnegut. They're both favorites of mine. Read Vonnegut's Slaughter House Five and Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Palahniuk is basically the younger, hipper Welsh. He was widely inspired by him. And Vonnegut is brilliant... He has that "what the fuck" sense of humor that is widely present in Thompson and Palahniuk.

I find it amusing just to imagine the use of a hardcover book to kill a bear

I picked up a copy of Survivor today. I just started reading it and it's interesting how the pages are numbered backwards ending with page one I assume.

Yeah, and after you read it, I'll explain to you the book's "secret ending" that Chuck Palahnuik revealed to that fansite of his.

Wicka-whaaaaaaaa? PM me. I've never heard of such a thing.

Go ahead and post it in a spoiler tag so I can read it when I'm finished with the book.

Okay, RRA. I just finished Survivor. What is the secret ending you are talking about?

This book was awesome. I had a hard time getting through the first third of the book then I couldn't put it down. There was one part that made me laugh out loud which had my girlfriend asking me "What? WHAT?! What's so funny? C'mon tell me!". So I had to to explain it and it wasn't really funny after trying to explian the dysfunctional writings of Palahniuk to her. She just thought I was crazy. The part was:

Glad you liked it. Read Choke next.

I'm about two-thirds of the way done with 'Rant', and what seemed semi-normal in the first half got really fucking weird in the last 50 pages or so. I can't even explain it. Even for Palahniuk's standards, it got really fucking weird. I love it.

From Chuck's own words as told to his fansite THE WRITER'S CULT....



You gotta admit, if someone could work that ending into the possible film-adaptation.........groovy.

Excellent. I hadn't heard that before. I like it.

Yeah, that is awesome RRA, thanks for bringing that to our attention.

Could Survivor really be a book that could be made into a movie, post 9/11? I would personally love to see it made, but I'm probably in the minority (with you guys).

LLC, I've actually already read Choke. I bought Invisible Monsters to read, but first I'm reading one of you're other suggestions, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Great! Palahniuk wouldn't be as he is without Vonnegut.

As for Survivor, I don't see what the deal is. The fact that 9/11 occurred really serves no relevance, because they're two very different insights on plane crashes that really have nothing in common other than the fact that they are crashes. In one, several people died, and the plane was hijacked in the name of political and religious differences. The other depicts a crash in which all potential-victims were evacuated, and the pilots bailed... No one was hurt, nothing--other than the plane--was destroyed.

It's quite stupid. It's just as stupid as mandatory censorship of the image of the towers in many post-9/11 films and television shows. It's just completely illogical. I'd personally LOVE to see Survivor adapted into a film. Besides, after 9/11, I think 1999's Fight Club adaptation leaves us with a much more haunting ending, one which isn't really all that frightening to begin with.

I just don't see why it should be a problem, before or after 9/11.

Yeah, I agree the movie should definitely be made. I'm glad Choke is being made first, but Survivor should be next, at least of the books I've read so far. I would love to see his physical transformation on screen once the agent gets a hold of him.

By the way. I have never read the book Fight Club. Is it just me, or does anyone else have trouble reading a book after they have already seen the movie? I never get more than half way through before I give up because everything that is described doesn't matter because I picture in my head what I saw in the movie. For example, if Brad Pitts character in the movie were described in the book as having a receding hairline with a long gray mullet, I would still see Brad Pitt in my head. It throws me off. I'm sure I'm missing out on one of his best books, but I just don't know if I could get through it without seeing David Finchers idea of the book, rather than Palahniuk's descriptive idea.

Well, I saw Fight Club first and loved it to pieces, so I was actually rather eager to get through. Same thing with Fear and Loathing.