Why do people think Chuck is Nihilistic?
I've been a big fan of Chuck Palahniuk since about 2 or 3 years ago after I read fight club, since then I've read Invisible Monsters, Choke, and Haunted. I am also currently reading Snuff.
Something I've come to notice while reading these books is that a lot of the reviews about them have said that Chuck is Nihilstic? Why do people believe this?
Nihlism is the belief that things don't mean anything, that there is no point to life, and there's not even worth in trying to create a life to live. But Chuck's books don't offer a hopeless universe. For example, both Choke and Invisible Monsters end with a hopeful outlook on life. Shannon gets to abandon her meaningless beauty life, and Victor realizes that he's capable of love, and that he can create his own meaning in life.
So why is everyone calling Chuck an Nihilst when some of the values he holds high in his literature are love towards humanity and community?
Because most everybody feels compelled to place most everybody else into a box. Once a label is applied, That Which Is Labeled is less of a mystery and less of a threat. Further, what's labeled and boxed is, in theory, trapped, confined and shelved.
Dr. Manhattan is right. It's the characters that in some instances project nihilistic worldviews. This is NOT necessarily Chuck's worldview. Anyone who makes this claim is just flat out wrong and have no concept of narrative construction, the use of antithesis, the function of first-person narration, etc.
To say that Palahniuk is a nihilist, as a person or as a writer, because he has created nihilistic character types is like saying that Nabokov was a pedophile because he wrote Lolita. Or that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is non-fiction because Hunter Thompson also wrote journalism.
Chuck has explained before that some of his characters are Nihilistic but he is not.
"The Warmth of Blood" 30 min Short Film
http://vimeo.com/5523162