User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I'm going to be honest, I'm starting to become less and less impressed with Palahniuk's work in general-- and it saddens me to admit this. I've read five of his books now (one non-fiction; one too plodding to even finish), and it's becoming too obvious that
every character voice is exactly the same. They are all written the same, they all have the same delivery of speech and thought patterns, they are all perfectly one-dimensional. Blank, emotionless, cruel, somewhat hateful. Disenchanted with the world, anti- and asocial. There's no depth of feeling; even when Palahniuk attempts to create a characteristic turn-around, it falters and falls short (with the singular exception of Fight Club). The "hero" always knows a handful of miscellaneous facts that loosely relate to the content enough to serve as cynical metaphor (how to make soap, how to clean up evidence of violence, etc.); this miscellany is always interspersed with social commentary and scraps of dialogue, absolutely routine by now. It works for one book, creating such a by-the-book nihilistic protagonist through disjointed prose, but when every. single. character. is a misanthropic maggot, it gets old.
The writing is still "sharp," if you want to call it that, but completely
formulaic. Disappointing to discover this about Palahniuk's style.
That said, this one is at least holding my attention a little more than Diary, so I'll probably finish it.
Rating: really liked it
A book much better appreciated on a second reading. An early Palahniuk heavily dead-pan / dark satire on the nature of fame and worship, as well as a beautifully unnerving attack on American cults! Definitely one of the must-reads of his works. A well deserved 7 out of 12 from me, 3 points more than what I gave it when I first read it in 2003!
2018 read, 2003 read
Rating: really liked it
chuck palahniuk will mess you up. he messed me up. 'fight club' put chuck on the map, but in my opinion, 'survivor' is where he really earned his paycheck.
as others have mentioned, the book starts on page 247 or so and goes backwards to page 1. a simple, but clever gimmick that made me buy the book in the first place. and since the novel's protagonist, if we can call him that, is on a doomed airplane, the page numbering is highly appropriate.
palahniuk expertly traces one man's rise to fame. tender branson is the sole survivor of 'the creedish cult' who decide to stage their own johnstown massacre. consequently he becomes something of a media darling, everyone wanting a piece of the action. palahniuk illustrates just how really susceptible we americans are to clever marketing and the completely ridiculous idea of celebrity. what, exactly, is our fascination with 'celebrities' and hollywood types? i started thinking about the ridiculous number of tv shows dedicated to following celebrities: et, access hollywood, celebrity justice, etc, etc, etc, and not to mention an entire tv channel (E!) devoted to a shoving unrealistic hopes, dreams, and ideals down the throats of the every day, average american who has no hopes of ever achieving 'the hollywood life.' i'm pretty sure hollywood is ruining america.
i think palahniuk's masterstroke, however, is showing us tender branson's 'book of prayer.' it's a sorry commentary on the state of christianity in america. so-called 'christians' who actually try to sell prayers. unreal. (and this from a VERY christian individual) it wouldn't be as funny if it weren't true. he shows our proclivity to bandwagon, to flock to 'the new thing' simply because it's 'the new thing,' regardless of it's actual value or merit.
chuck palahniuk isn't for the faint of heart. like i said, he'll mess you up. this book stayed with me for weeks after reading it. it'll do the same for you. but i don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.
a biting commentary on contemporary american culture.
Rating: really liked it
رواية مختلفة في الفكرة وطريقة السرد.. الكاتب استطاع أن يشد الانتباه من السطور الأولى للرواية
في طائرة بدون طيار يجلس بطل الرواية وحيدا وفي هدوء يحكي عن حياته
كيف تحول من عامل بسيط يتبع تعاليم طائفته الدينية إلى شخص مشهور إعلاميا يملك قدرة التأثير في الناس
سخرية من صناعة الرموز في الإعلام ومن الشهرة المزيفة وتسويق الأوهام
رواية تكشف عن الواقع وعن الهوس بالظواهر غير الحقيقية في المجتمع
الأفكار المطروحة في الرواية مهمة وأسلوب بولانيك في التعبير عنها ممتع
لكن التفاصيل في بعض الأجزاء كانت مطولة, والترجمة ممتازة لهشام فهمي
Rating: really liked it
When you open this it soon becomes bewildering. It's impossible to find continuity between one page and another. It took me about fifteen minutes to discover the trick of reading it. You have to start at the last page and read backwards from right to left. The narrator is one of the last surviving members of a religious death cult and those few who didn't commit suicide at the appointed hour are being hunted down and murdered. He tells his story from the cockpit of a plane he has hijacked and which will crash when it runs out of fuel.
It's a madcap and often very wise and funny satire of the modern world and its support system. My only reason for deducting a star was occasionally I felt Palahniuk got carried away with his searing lunatic vision. One image I'll never forget is the detailed instructions on how to eat a lobster. It's one of those most macabre horrifying things I've ever read!
Rating: really liked it
" هي رحلة مضطربة هائجة عن تقلبات الشهرة وطبيعة الإيمان " ...
هكذا قالوا عن الرواية...
هي رحلة تبدأ من نقطة الصفر من قبل أحد آخر أفراد طائفة دينية.. الرحلة الانتحارية على متن طائرة ركاب متجهة نحو غياهب الصحراء الاسترالية..
أما عن مدى إضطراب الرواية فحدث ولا حرج كأنك تقرأ على الرواية على لوحٍ خشبي في وسط البحر،، الكرديشي المجنون (الناجي الأخير) الذي تتحول حياته من طفل منبوذ الى خادم في منزل ثري ثم مستشار نفسي الى قائد ديني تتصدر كتبه قائمة المبيعات بتلك الادعية الغريبة ..
التفاصيل تغلب على الرواية دون الاحداث.. تفاصيل، تفاصيل ،سرد ،تفاصيل يقود نحو الجنون.. تفاصيل عن أي شئ يتخيله العقل وما بعد العقل..
النقطة البارزة في الرواية هي التحدث عن الجماعات الدينية الغريبة وطبيعة الايمان فيها وغرابة البشر في إختراع طرق للأيمان والعادات والتقاليد المصاحبة لها..
النقطة الثانية عن عزلة الانسان في بيئة تمارس تقاليد معينة ثم إنتقاله الى صخب الحياة في المدن..
الثالثة عن الشهرة،، الصعود نحو الى القمة ثم الهبوط نحو أسفل سافلين..
الرواية مجنونة هائجة بكل حذافيرها تضيع القارئ في متاهات التفاصيل وطرق السرد الملتوية..
~* ملاحظة *~
" عزيزي القارئ إذا أردت الحفاظ على سلامة عقلك فلا تقترب من هذه الرواية ،،رجاء "
Rating: really liked it
Palahnuik has a formula to his story-writing, and it's becoming more and more clear that every work becomes less and less impressive upon further examination. Every main character seems plagued by the same sense of nihilism and self-defeat like his Fight club protagonist, as well as the same delivery of speech, and thought patterns.
So. After reading about 3 books in a row with this consistent formula, I was about ready to abandon my faith in him.
But. Then I read this book, and what a fresh breath of air it was. Yes, it applied the formula. Yes, it had the same nihilistic, disenchanted, one-dimensional main character, but it also didn't try to surprise me with the ending like most of his books usually do. (i.e. 'Lullaby', 'Diary', and 'Choke')
I truly believe that because of this, the novel was saved from being a duplicate, boring disaster. This book was compelling, albeit slow to start. You really won't feel interested until probably half-way through. But it's well worth the wait.
If there's two books you read from this author, I would suggest 'Fight Club', and 'Survivor'. In that order.
Rating: really liked it
YouTube kanalımda
Gösteri Peygamberi kitabını önerip yeraltı edebiyatını anlattım: https://youtu.be/IvPO-pKvUPw
Bu incelemeyi beğen. Bu hesabı takip et. Bu kitabı oku.
Ahlak bekçiliği yap. Mutluluğuma ortak ol, çünkü sen de mutlu olmak istiyorsun, biliyorum.
Bu incelemede sana gösteri peygamberliği yapacağım. Sana ne yapman gerekiyorsa hepsini ben söyleyeceğim, çünkü senin aldığın kararlar bugüne kadar pek mantıklı değildi. Bunu en iyi sen biliyorsun. Ama maalesef yine en iyi sen bilmiyorsun. Kendi düşünce evrenini kendi kendine oluşturabileceğin söylenmedi, bu yüzden sen de onaylanmak, beğenilmek, tanınmak ve sıradan olmamak istedin. Çünkü mutlu olan ve sıradan olmayan insanı severlerdi, bilirdin.
Olay sadece ne kadar gözün senin üstünde olmasıyla ilgili, olay sadece bu incelemenin beğeni butonuna tıkladığın ve benim dediklerimi onayladığın kadarıyla sınırlı. Çünkü beğeni butonuna tıkladığında esas kalbinden geçen duyguyu değil sırf beğeni butonuna dokunmak için bunu yaptığın zamanlar olduğunu sen de çok iyi biliyorsun.
Gerisi benim yeraltı dünyam.Umarım şu ana kadar duymak istediklerini söylebilmişimdir, çünkü seni mutsuz edecek ve esas gerçeklerin farkına varmanı sağlayacak şeyler söylemeyi istemem. Seni yeraltındaki saklı dünyamla tanıştırmak istiyorum...
Evet, bu kitaptaki
Creedish gibi bir tarikat ya da mezhebe bağlı olmayabilirim. Fakat size sadece duymak istediklerinizi söylememle ve sıradan olmadığımı kanıtlamamla bana tapma ihtimalinizin bulunduğunu biliyor musunuz? Ben, şu an bir tarikat kurup, başıma da şeyhlik yapacak bir gösteri peygamberi bulsaydım sizin mürit olmamanız için geriye hiçbir sebep kalmamış olurdu. Çünkü medyanın benim çıkarlarıma bu kadar yardım ettiği bir çağda çok rahat manipüle edilebilirsin, çok çabuk beynin yıkanabilir ve toplumun sorgulamadan onayladığı
bir insana Tanrı özellikleri atfedebilirsin.Evet atfedebilirsin, çünkü
Hitit mitolojisindeki yeraltı dünyası da böyledir. Yeraltına inmek onlar için sadece ölmekle mümkün olduğu gibi geriye canlı olarak çıkmak Tanrı bile olunsa mümkün değildi mesela. Bir kere gösteri peygamberi oldun mu, artık mürit toplamaya ve beyin yıkamaya bakmalısın. Ne kadar çok yıkanmış beyin varsa elinde de o kadar güç var demektir.
Evet güç var demektir, çünkü
Yunan mitolojisindeki yeraltı dünyası da böyledir. Zalim bir tanrı olan
Hades’in hüküm sürdüğü, gölgeler halindeki ölülere terk edilmiş, her girenin kabul edildiği ama bir daha asla dışarı bırakılmadığı acımasızlıkla yönetilen bir dünyadır yerin altı. Ben henüz o kadar acımasız olmayı başaramadım.
Sana bu kitaptaki gibi
yalancı İsalık yapmak istemem, çünkü yeraltı, hem Batı'da hem de Anadolu’da karanlık çıkar hesaplarının görüldüğü yer olarak bilinir. Eğer aramızda karanlık herhangi bir çıkar gütme olsaydı adımız okur olmazdı zaten.
Palahniuk'un kurguladığı yeraltı dünyasının aslında dini eğitim sistemlerine, klon çocuklar yetiştirmenin sebebi olan niteliksiz eğitim sistemlerine ve salt haz odaklı modernist topluma eleştiri olduğunu da anlayamazdın.
Seçim tamamen senin, bu bir metro reklamı değil. Yeraltını yanlış anlamamalısın ve bu incelemeyi beğenmelisin. Çünkü yapman gerekenler sana söylenmeden bir şey yapamıyorsun. Korkaksın. Zaten bu kitaptaki baş karakter olan Tender'ın kelime anlamı da, genç ve zayıf demek. Sen de öylesin, zayıfsın ve seni güçlü hissettirecek ego tatminleri istiyorsun.
Spiritüelizm istiyorsun.
Sevgi ve ışık istiyorsun.
Cinselliğin kapılarının kilitli olduğu bir ev istiyorsun. Mutlu görünmek ve sanal gerçeklikler uğruna kendi gerçekliğini küçük karşılıklarla değiştirmek istiyorsun. Çıkışı olmayan bu sistemde popüler kültür ve medyanın boyunduruğu altına girip sen de gösteri peygamberlerinin sıradan bir müridi haline geliyorsun.
Yoksa sen de mi bir gösteri peygamberi olmayı arzuluyorsun?
O zaman bu incelemeyi çok iyi okumalısın.Şimdilik yer üstünde yaşıyor olabilirim, karanlık çıkar hesaplarım yok, yüzümdeki mutluluk saf bir mutluluk ve mutlu görünmek için değil gerçekten mutlu olduğum için öyle gülüyorum. Ama eğer ki bir gün kendime tapılmasını istersem bu ülkede mürit bulabileceğimden de hiç şüphe yok. Çünkü çok rahat manipüle edilebilirsin, çok çabuk beynin yıkanabilir ve toplumun sorgulamadan onayladığı
bir insana Tanrı özellikleri atfedebilirsin. Bunlar senin tarih boyunca yaptığın şeyler insanoğlu.
Bu incelemeyi beğen. Bu hesabı takip et. Ahlak bekçiliği yap.
Yapman gerekenlerin hepsini ben biliyorum.
Rating: really liked it
این کتاب رو پارسال خووندم، ریویوش هم در برنامه یادداشتهای موبایلم نوشتم، تکههایی از کتاب هم برداشتم... اما گوشیم رو ریست کردم و منِ بیحواس باعث شدم که تمام یادداشتهام در مورد کتابهام بپره 😕
اما میدونم که کتاب فوقالعاده و بسیار خاصی بود و خیلی پیشنهاد میکنم این کتاب رو بخوونید و حتی بخرید 📚
البته اینم بگم که
جـلد کتاب فاجعهاس و نمیدونم بر چه اساسی، برای همچین کتابی، این جلد کودکانه رو قرار دادند :|
Rating: really liked it
”Testing, testing. One, two, three.”
This plane is going down, but before it does Tender Branson is going to tell you his tale. He will lay it all out and explain, if he can, just how he ended up here alone to die like the fellow Creedish brethren before him, though in far bigger fashion. The how is pretty out there. The why is more so. Who he is may make you hate him, but probably not.
While reading this Palahniuk story, I happened to think of Philip K. Dick. They don't write in the same voice, or even about the same topics, but both have spin (spun) plots as imagined and fantastical as I've read, with each being grounded in social questions and reasoning. I cannot claim to explain every detail within their stories, and you know, maybe that's just the way of it. I will tell you that Survivor is a dark, often funny, satiric comedy about those fifteen minutes of fame people often seek, or create. Palahniuk doesn't seem to write a book that doesn't use satire. The vice here is ultra commercialism (in this world, don't we know all about it?), and the excess we find in just about anything these days. It's all explained by way of Tender Branson's rise from nothing-to-something, him being the last remaining member of a fanatical religious sect, whether it's his idea or not, whether he wants it or not. Sound unusual? It is.
PS. People say that the ending may not be what you think. I didn't see it that way. Then I read that I was wrong.
Rating: really liked it
Chuck Palahniuk is my guilty pleasure. His books aren’t good or anything but I just like reading them ironically. They’re palate cleansers y’know. This one is basically Chuck trying to write Fight Club again but it isn’t really working. It’s handy that the page numbers are backwards because then you know how many pages are left. Ugh. It’s fine.
Rating: really liked it
Ο τελευταίος νεκρός επιζών. Ο επιζών της αίρεσης των πιστών μιας αυτοεκπληρούμενης προφητείας μαζικής αυτοχειρίας και απελευθέρωσης.
Το σύνδρομο απόσυρσης προσοχής πλημμυρίζει τον μοναδικό επιζώντα, ο οποίος βρίσκεται να ταξιδεύει
με την πτήση 2039 ενός Μπόινγκ 747-400
στον αυτόματο πιλότο, κατευθυνόμενος προς την Αυστραλία, προς το τέλος του βίου και της πολιτείας του, σε μια ευθεία γραμμή με νοτιοδυτικό προσανατολισμό μέχρι να σταματήσουν απο έλλειψη καυσίμων και οι τέσσερις μηχανές του αεροσκάφους.
Απο τον καταγραφέα της πτήσης 2039 ακούμε
σε πρώτο πρόσωπο όλη την ιστορία της ζωής του Φροντιστή Μπράνσον, μέλους της μυστηριώδους αίρεσης των πιστών αναχωρητών, της βίας, της σκλαβιάς, της ατίμωσης, της καταπίεσης φυσικών ενορμήσεων ψυχικών ή σωματικών και της σεξουαλικής παράλυσης μέσω φιλήδονων κανίβαλων παιδικής σάρκας.
Μια θρησκευτική αίρεση απόλυτης εγκράτειας για ζωή και λοβοτομημένης κυριαρχίας αυτόκλητου θανάτου.
Από το μαύρο κιβώτιο της εσχατιάς θα αποκαλυφθεί
με κάθε λεπτομέρεια η ιστορία του τελευταίου επιζώντα που πήρε απροσδόκητη φήμη και δόξα,
που αναγνωρίστηκε ως θρησκευτικός ηγέτης, προφήτης, μάγος, μεσίας, ιεροεξεταστής και δικαστής μέσα απο μια μαύρη καυστική σάτιρα για την ανθρώπινη, ανίατη, παραισθησιογόνα, ματαιόδοξη και πανδημική ασθένεια της φήμης, της θρησκοληπτικής δουλείας και της υπεροχής.
Αυτό το μυθιστόρημα κάνει έγχυση αναισθητικού και αντοχής σε κάθε λέξη, ανοχής και κατανόησης σε κάθε παραγράφο, χαρμολύπης και αυτοπροσδιορισμού σε κάθε σελίδα,καθώς εξελίσσεται απο το τέλος της φυλλομέτρησης προς την αρχή
και απο την αρχή μέχρι το τέλος της ιστορίας,
είναι σχεδόν αδύνατο να επιτραπεί
απόσπαση προσοχής μέχρι να φτάσουμε στην τελευταία του φράση.
Πρωτοποριακή και πρωτότυπη γραφή απο ένα αξιολάτρευτο συγγραφικό ταλέντο.
Υπάρχουν ελάχιστοι συγγραφείς που μπορούν να προσφέρουν την ίδια εξελιγμένη άμβλυνση της κριτικής τους τόσο για τις υπερβολές, όσο και την ρηχή,
εμμονική σκέψη της σύγχρονης αμερικανικής κοινωνίας, της μάζας, του πολλαπλού κερδοσκοπικού και φαινομενικού οργασμού.
Ο Πόλανικ ρίχνει τα χτυπήματα του παραδίδοντας μαθήματα ψυχικής διεργασίας και σκέψης, χρησιμοποιώντας έναν εκπληκτικό συνδυασμό υπερβολικής λεπτότητας και γελοίας περιφρόνησης.
Βλέπει την ψευδαίσθηση της σύγχρονης ζωής και την αναλύει με μυσταγωγική σάτιρα φιλοσοφημένης σκέψης αλλά και με μεγάλη ευαισθησία και ομορφιά τέχνης.
Η Αμερική έχει χάσει τα πάντα ανάμεσα σε ψευδαισθήσεις και όνειρα διαφημιστικών παρεμβάσεων και χειρουργικών επεμβάσεων.
Ο Πόλανικ δεν φοβάται να παει κόντρα στην
πολιτική ορθότητα και να απεικονίσει την πνευματική ανατροπή της χώρα του.
Χωρίς ηρωισμούς εσωτερικής κατολίσθησης, χωρίς καταθλιπτικούς οραματισμούς, φτιάχνει το έργο του με άρωμα αισθήσεων μοναξιάς και γεύσεις απο πικάντικες ελπίδες.
Προσπαθεί να φθάσει στην θέωση της υπαρξιακής οντότητας εκθέτοντας στιγμές περιπλάνησης κάπου μεταξύ της βούλησης, της άνεσης και της αγάπης, χωρίς πλαστικές χειρουργικές αξίες και υψηλή θεαματικότητα αλλοιωμένης ενημέρωσης,
που χαρίζουν αθανασία και πουλάνε λιωμμένα κεριά
σε ναούς πιστής ακολασίας και πλαστικά λουλούδια για ψεύτικες προσευχές σωτηρίας και αναξιόπιστες θεϊκές παρεμβάσεις σε σώματα εξιλαστήριων θυμάτων και ακατανόητων συμβόλων και συμβολισμών.
Το νεκροταφείο των επιζώντων έχει οικουμενική θνησιμότητα μυαλών και οι στοχαστές που θα μας σώσουν έμειναν να θαυμάζουν την εποχή της Αναγέννησης
Καλη ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.
Rating: really liked it
بعد الرواية دي أعتقد أني فعلاً بحاجة لرؤية طبيب نفسي للمرة الأولى، ليصلح ما أفسدته فيّ.
الرواية مضطربة بجنون، شخصيتها مجنونة، وربما العالم هو المجنون، وكان تندر برانسن، بطل الرواية، هو العاقل الوحيد؟
يحكي بالانيك قصة تندر برانسن، ورحلته من فتي كريدشي مطيع يجز العشب وينظف البقع إلى "الناجي الأخير" من طائفة الكريدش الانتحارية والقائد الديني الملهم.
ويقدم بالانيك شخصيات مثيرة مثل فرتيليتي الغامضةالتي تتنبئ بالمستقبل، آدم الضال، موظفة التحريات الاجتماعية التي كانت بحاجة شديدة للمساعدة قبل أن تساهم في مساعدة أحدهم وغيرهم من شخصيات بالانيك التي وإن تشابهت في امراضها النفسية إلا أني سعدت بقراءة ما يفكرون فيه، في لحظات ما قبل الموت، من خلال تندر بالذات.
تندر برانسن شخصية معقدة ومضطربة، لا تتضح أسباب هذا التعقيد إلا بعد قطع شوط كبير من الرواية، ولكن مع بداية الصفحات الأولى ونشاطه "الهاتفي" ويظهر كم معقد هو، وما أنت على وشك ان تقراه ليس عادي.
سمعت الكثير عن أسلوب بالانيك المشوق، ورواية "نادي القتال" على قائمة قرائاتي منذ فترة طويلة، ولكني سعيدة بان هذه أول قرائاتي لبالانيك، كنت بحاجة بشئ مختلف وأعتقد أنني وجدته في كتابات هذا الرجل.
الرواية تتعامل مع "الدين" كفكرة وكمعتنق وكوسيلة يتلاعب بها الآخرون بالناس سواء عن طريق الدعاية أو التسويق أو عن طريق الإرهاب العقلي والجسدي. عن مدى فهمنا ووعنا للدين، وعن حد التدين المناسب في المجتمع، وما الفارق بين كل متدين "بطريقته". وبهذا يصبح الدين الموضوع الأساسي للرواية، وبوجود الدين لا بد من وجود العنصر الثاني "التابو" في أي رواية وهو الجنس. الجنس في هذه الرواية يتم التعامل معه كشئ حرمته ديانة معينة، لما وكيف حرمته، كيف أرهبت أتباعها من ممارسته، من فكرة الزواج أصلاً، هي محور آخر للرواية.
التحول المفاجئ في حياة تندر من خادم إلى قائد ديني ومن ثم إلى لا شئ مرة أخرى، من الصعب إحتماله دفعة واحدة. فتندر المغلوب على أمره على الدوام يمتثل لأوامر أي شخص، وبعد إختفاء راعيه، يبدأ بالبحث عن شخص آخر يبدأ بإعطاؤه الأوامر كان مستفزاً في أحيان كثيرة، ولكنني كنت متشوقة دومًا لمعرفة "ماذا سيفعل الآن".
وبالطبع من أهم مميزات الرواية هي الترجمة، فعندما يكون المترجم معجبًا كبيرًا بالرواية والكاتب أصلاً يبدو هذا واضحًا من المجهود المبذول في الرواية. وهشام فهمي من الواضح أنه معجب لأقصى الحدود بأسلوب بالانيك، فمجهوده في الترجمة أمتعني لدرجة لم أكن أعتقد أني كنت لأستمتع بها لو قراتها في لغتها الأصلية.
رواية مفاجئة وصادمة وليست مناسبة لجلسة قراءة خفيفة، وقد تحتاج لطبيب نفسي بعد انتهاؤك منها.
Rating: really liked it
I can't be entirely objective when it comes to this book, but hear me out.
Of course I watched Fight Club in 1999. It gave a name to all of the existential dread I felt at the time as a homeschooled Mormon teen who was just starting to realize something was wrong with my upbringing. I was about to turn fifteen, so I couldn’t yet see an R rated movie on my own, but my brother was nine years older and took me to see it with his boss and his boss's boss's hyper-evangelical teenage son. The options at the theater were slim: Bringing Out the Dead, The Omega Code (evangelical kid had already seen it, of course), and something called Fight Club that nobody knew anything about. My brother and I pushed hard for Fight Club, and his boss was the swing vote.
This movie rocked evangelical kid to his core. I remember he walked out of there with a thousand yard stare, looking like he wanted nothing more than to go home and beg forgiveness. For me it was kind of an awakening. I latched on hard to the counter-capitalist, anti-marketing, anarchist, fuck you attitude it embodied and lived on those fumes for the next few years. I had finally found something that I related with. I wanted more, as soon as possible. But mostly, I wanted to understand the themes and how they related to my experience.
My girlfriend at the time was busy being dragged across Ireland by her uber-wealthy high school friend on vacation, and I had nothing else to do but work my full time job as a prep cook in a psuedo-restaurant in the mall (not strictly legal at fifteen, but they didn't care, until they were fined for breaking child labor laws), make bad ripoffs of Crystal Method and Prodigy songs in demoscene trackers on my family's Pentium II, and drive around in my 1987 Ford Tempo, blowing my disposable income on cheap clothes and entertainment. It was around this time I learned that Fight Club was based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk.
At that point in my life, I wasn't a big reader. Publishers hadn't yet realized that YA was a marketable category, so instead of the ridiculous variety of options teens have now, I faced a huge gulf between kids’ books and adult books, neither sounding interesting to me. With the new found freedom of my driver’s license and a barely functioning vehicle, I drove to Barnes and Noble and picked up a copy of Survivor, newly out in paperback.
I devoured it.
It fed the still small voice in me that was saying “You’re in cult” and “This is not normal”. Of course, my upbringing wasn’t nearly as harrowing as Tender Branson’s, but Survivor was a safe way for me to explore the darker corners of my world, and my own experience through the lens of something much worse.
More than twenty years later I’m finally rereading Survivor, and it’s impossible to not experience it as a period piece of the late nineties/early aughts. The consumerism and problems of the late nineties that it is concerned with come across as quant compared to the myriad problems facing Zoomers today. It’s almost adorable now, considering how unbelievably fucked the world has become in the last twenty-two years. The core of the story still works though, which is a character dealing with disillusionment, desire, and sudden celebrity in a world that seems entirely alien to them.
This could be made into an unbelievably engaging TV series. It is so ripe with adaptive potential. For a while in 2001 Francis Lawrence had optioned the rights, and Trent Reznor reached out, looking to get into film scoring, and then 9/11 cancelled any project that involved plane crashes. It bounced around from producer to producer over the last two decades, never getting off the ground. At one point, Fight Club screenwriter Jim Uhls was even attached to it. In late 2019 it finally found its way back to Lawrence, who announced that he was planning to approach it as a TV series. Hopefully he remembers and reaches back out to Reznor, now one half of the most in demand composer duo in the world, to bring the score to life.
That is, of course, if it can gain flight this time.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a peek into what was going on among the collective dissatisfied counter-culturalists of the late nineties, Survivor is a brisk, worthy read. You can probably knock it out in an afternoon. Just be prepared for a lot of repetition, nihilistic malaise, and general unsatisfiedness from all characters present and accounted for.
Dial back the clock twenty years. It’s a fun ride.
Rating: really liked it
Vonnegut,Kozinski,Christopher Moore and now Chuck Pahlaniuk have tapped the black humour of all the mainstream sacred cows, with stylish grace and the prescient ability to extrapolate the consequences of our most innocuous acts.
Another commonality: they all have the uncanny ability to transform our feelings for their ungainly, unlikely, unlikable, sometimes even rather repulsive oddball freak heroes from clinically detached to warm and fuzzy. Quite a class act.
We may not like them, but they are us. No matter that we are not flitting about in our private jet nor yet hijacking someone else's flight, not slogging through dense undergrowth or along remote mountain passes, we can see the logic in the extreme actions of the characters, and can easily place ourselves in the action.
If you can get past the truly awful bits at the beginning and want to know anything more about a powertripping,manipulative, emotionally stunted slob, you may read on to reluctantly accept that this is an apt archetype for the kind of people the system (church,state, and economic)are churning out. CP has brilliantly exposed the paradoxes of power and the vacuum in the soul of American culture.
CP's irony is consistently in your face but he can also be subtle. His trick of pagination starting at the beginning of the end with the countdown to zero, was not something GR could handle. My reading graph for this book is hilarious. But how fitting the metaphor for societies negative progress.
The Irony of Names...First, the irony of Tender being the generic name for boys brought up to obey without question,the authority and the rules instilled in them by their elders.This entailed suppression of all the qualities, compassion, emotional depth and sensitivity to ones own as well as primarily the feelings of others,that most prominently define the original meaning of the word.
That Our Hero continues to use this name, almost as a pseudonym,even when discarding his uniform of faith, confirms his passive/accepting character. He is lost without instructions, yet he feeds on praise and goes through severe withdrawal when deprived of his audience.
That our unflappable heroine, the plucky and prescient Fertility Hollis, believes that she is sterile,gives her the protection she requires for the most distressing aspect of her job as a surrogate mother, the possibility of actually having to conceive and carry off a pregnancy. I think CP is rubbing it in here with his imagery of a depraved and barren aspect of the abundance that surrounds us, always hungry for more. I found it rather chilling that Fertility achieved her blase attitude to the disasters she predicted by accepting the fact that it was useless to warn people because not only would they not believe her, they would question her ability.
It is interesting to note the wide variety of responses posted for this book on GR.I can see that some people might get bogged down in being offended. I thought it was great reading and a wickedly accurate assessment of the situation here as it is evolving.
There are also scattered about this terrific, provocative book some really basic and practical helpful hints for stain removal and basic household micro management.
