Chuck Palahniuk on "Ask Me Anything"
Isabella Loskutoff ’15 / Emertainment Monthly Video Games Editor
First and foremost, Chuck Palahniuk’s 2007 sci-fy novel Rant was introduced a while ago as a trilogy. However, there has not been word said about the progress of the other two novels. It was one of the first questions answered by Palahniuk and he said that he had a second book written, “…but I’m such a compulsive nut-job that I’m still looking for a non-fiction form to use as a structure. I know, I know, I’m stuck on structural gimmicks, but experiments like that are important to me.” Fans responded ecstatically to the information, and Palahniuk’s publicist confirmed the information as true on the author’s Facebook and fan page.
Many of the questions Chuck Palahniuk focused on answering were those asked by college students. One user expressed that he was writing an essay on Invisible Monsters, and he asked if there was a perspective that Palahniuk wanted his audience to experience while reading the book. “My original goal, back when I had integrity, was to write all my books with two-word oxymoron titles — Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, etc. Survivor was first called Unnatural Disasters. But I loved how monsters are usually defined by their appearance, so how could one be invisible and still be regarded as a monster? Think on THAT,” the author replied. Witty, thought provoking, and slightly controversial; these are all things to be admired in Chuck’s work and, apparently, in his daily speech. Another student stated that they were studying Journalism at the University of Oregon and wondered what the positive aspects of the major had to offer a writer. Palahniuk said that studying journalism trained him to be observant of his surroundings and communicate with his audience clearly (he also majored in Journalism at UofO).
One of the very humanizing aspects of the AMA (and my personal favorite part) was the various anecdotes that Palahniuk included in many of his responses. The current, top rated response on Reddit (accumulating a total of 1662 points) is the author’s response to a fan that saw him take a drink out of a Jack Daniels bottle during a speech he made in San Francisco. Palahniuk revealed that, “Those bottles on that tour… they were filled with Lipton’s tea. I wanted a sight gag that would look cool.” There were many other stories provided by the author of real life events that inspired many of the character’s and circumstances in his books. Palahniuk ended the AMA with a humble thank you to his editor, publicist and reader and simply put, “I’ll Shut Up Now.”
Did you miss the AMA or want to read more? Check out the Reddit forum here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ckp9q/hello_yo_hi_im_chuck_palahniuk_the_worst_best_bad/