SMBC Comics Forum

Sahan wrote:I finished Rant. I actually closed the book out of disgust more than a few times, but had to go back for more. The end was where it got really interesting for me with all the social commentary and time travel business. A good read.

You aren't the first person to have said they were disgusted by the book. That kind of surprises me, I guess. Maybe because I found Choke to be way more over the top than Rant.

Well I haven't read Choke, so maybe, but it was often the case where imagining the events unfolding made me uneasy enough to stop reading. Bear in mind I was mainly reading this on the bus on the way to uni, and it's always easy for me to not feel like reading anymore unless I'm completely absorbed in the book.

Don't ever read Snuff then. I tried to go through it a second time. I couldn't. I just don't enjoy it, it's really gross.

What is the basis of this "snuff" you speak of?

Porn and parenthood.

I am interested in one of those things. Guess which?

Parenthood?

Also knowing Chuck Palahnuik, I a little horrified at the possible ways he could combine those things

I think I've stated this before on the forum, even this thread, but I'll restate. I love Chuck Palahniuk's work, but I can't stand his "sex" scenes. That said my tolerance for his sex heavy books seems skewed, Rant didn't bother me at all(Indeed its by far my favorite), but I couldn't even make it halfway through Lullaby. Choke I think I made it a solid third or half way before I just gave up on it. Fight Club and Survivor were both great, and didn't bother me at all.

The idea of the man dealing with parenthood(esp. considering his take on it in Lullaby) and porn in the same book is well.. unsurprising. He seems to enjoy taking the most dark and twisted side of both, only seems natural to do both at once. Snuff is still not one I've attempted or plan to attempt unless I feel like punishing myself for some transgression.

What is with good writers and cringe-inducing sex scenes? Haruki Murakami does the same thing. Especially in Kafka on the Shore where the main character has sex with his mother and sister.

Honestly the creepiest sex scene I've ever read was in Grunts by Mary Gentle. An aged halfling hooker and an orc getting it on. And by aged I mean she's two of the other main character's mother. I literally put down the book and even with Promises no such thing was again written(other than apparently the birth of the litter of half-orc halflings) I refused on principal to read further.

Compared to that Palahniuk sex is normal, clean, and healthy. God I need to scrub my brain out.

I finished reading Doomed and my second-through of Damned.

Disappointing. Nevermind that it has a very Survivor-esque vague ending. He also changed formats from book to book, which was disappointing. Well, I guess, kind of changed formats. The first was more of a diary, the second more of a blog. The more I think of it, it wasn't that vast a departure. However what irritated me is that he didn't really seem to write this series at the same time. It was almost as if he didn't know where the story was going after he finished the first book. It felt like there were some large inconsistencies in character. Probably done so that there was something of a slow reveal, but still. I felt like several characters, including the main one, probably wouldn't have done things quite the same way in the first book, knowing their history better thanks to the second.

The sad part is that while I've realized I've been less and less satisfied with Palahniuk, I'm still tempted to buy his newly released novella. I've felt that the gross-out parts of his book have become a horrible crutch, as have the format-heavy aspects.* I just love Survivor, Fight Club and Diary so much that I wish he'd return to something like that.

* Tell-all as a pulp gossip rag. Pygmy as a double-translated report. Doomed/Damned as their aforementioned format. And even Rant, which is one of my favourite books all-time, as an oral biography.