newcomer
Hi everyone,
I am an exceedingly bored member of the human race, just looking for a bit of intellectual stimulation. I joined here on a complete whim having discovered that people who like Palahniuk tend to have pretty interesting reading tastes.
One question- does everyone on here LOVE Palahniuk, as in, is he most people's favourite writer? I ask this purely because I like Palahniuk, but I don't love him. He doesn't exactly rock my world. I've read "Fight Club", "Haunted", "Choke" and "Rant." I loved "Fight Club", I thought "Haunted" veered between being incredible and terrible, I thought "Choke" was mildly entertaining, and I thought "Rant" was mediocre.
In my opinion, Chuck Palahniuk is certainly not a subtle writer. His satire smacks you right between the eyes. In some cases I think this works brilliantly e.g. the directness and brutality of "Fight Club" leaves an indelible mark. However, in other cases, such as in the ongoing story in "Haunted", the satire just comes across as patronising and heavy-handed. By the end of that book I was just saying to myself "ok I get the point Chuck." It frustrated me because some of the stories in that book such as "The Nightmare Box" were amongst the best things that I'd read by him.
Having said all this, there are not many existing writers that I rate highly, but Palahniuk is amongst them. The only active writers that I would rate higher than him are Michel Houellebecq, Bret Easton Ellis, Will Christopher Baer and James Ellroy (I think he's still writing.). I would have said JG Ballard as well, but of course, tragically, he just passed away.
As well as these writers there are the likes of Mark Danielewski (still reserving judgement as to whether he's a one-hit-wonder), Jeremy Robert Johnson, Craig Clevenger, John Niven, and probably others that I've forgotten. Anyone else fans of these? If not, I'd strongly recommend "Angel Dust Apocalypse",(Robert Johnson), "House Of leaves" (Danielewski), "Kill your friends" (Niven), "American Psycho" (Easton Ellis), "Atomised" (Houellebeq.), and "The Atrocity Exhibition" (Ballard)
Anyway, I've gone on long enough. Vehement disagreements are always welcome.
Farewell
B smith
Are you GLAMHOTHS brother, cos that would be cool?
and is in no way related to me.
nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it.
james ellroy is still writing. 'blood's a rover' is supposed to come out later this year. it's part 3 after 'american tabloid' and 'the cold six thousand'. nobody can write like james ellroy.
I'm from England, near London. I'm doing a drug/alcohol rehabilitation course at the moment but got suspended this week. I'm somewhat of a loser. Favourite sandwhich would have be...chicken and bacon.
Talking of Will Christopher Baer, when the hell is Godspeed coming out?
B smith
July? give or take a year or so.
hahahaha
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play hard, like it's work to be done.
chuck is the most aware writer i know of. he has so much life and humor about himself. he is certainly a writer's writer, and he is the hardest working that i know of. aside from maybe king back in the day.
king = natural storyteller but crippled by horrible prose
chuck does smack, hard. one of my favorite writers, and as cool as he is to his fans, he is hard not to love. but i do feel that clev and baer and cormac and erickson are better writers. chuck is more accessible, though. like, anyone can approach chuck's work and be blown away. a fifteen year old girl, or a forty year old man. that cant be said comfortably about many authors.
jeremy robert johnson is a cultist. in fact, chuck blogged his angel dust collection. in fact, so did stephen graham jones from the fold ( the fold = www.welcometothevelvet.com )
here's one of baer's first short stories:
http://chuckpalahniuk.net/features/shorts/suffer-the-fool
godspeed is coming out september, i think pat walsh (his editor, via the velvet) stated publicly.
oh, and the new clevenger ( saint heritic, found here: http://www.craigclevenger.com/ - just follow the tin man ) comes out this fall as well.
and this site is far from a collective of folks in love with chuck. on the open forum, we seldom talk about him. booktalk is generally reserved for the bookclub forum. check the place out. in depth discussion on HoL, as well as raw shark text, and JRJ's angeldust collection. countless others.
and welcome to the cult !
you took the fuck long enough to get here 
-kabol
..
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welcome to the family. i think you'll like it here.
normally i'd point every new member towards will christopher baer, but it seems you're there already
where are you from, what do you do, what is your favorite sammich?