May 2009 Discussion: Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk
The selection for this month is Pygmy, by none other than our very own Chuck Palahniuk. Most of you will know what the premise of the book is, but for those that don't, I've taken liberty to thief a synopsis from Amazon:
Palahniuk's 10th novel (after Snuff) is a potent if cartoonish cultural satire that succeeds despite its stridently confounding prose. A gang of adolescent terrorists trained by an unspecified totalitarian state (the boys and girls are guided by quotations attributed to Marx, Hitler, Augusto Pinochet, Idi Amin, etc.) infiltrate America as foreign exchange students. Their mission: to bring the nation to its knees through Operation Havoc, an act of mass destruction disguised as a science project. Narrated by skinny 13-year-old Pgymy, the propulsive plot deconstructs American fixtures, among them church (religion propaganda distribution outlet), spelling bees (forced battle to list English alphabet letters) and TV news reporters (Horde scavenger feast at overflowing anus of world history), before moving on to a Columbine-like shooting spree by a closeted kid who has fallen in love with the teenage terrorist who raped him in a shopping mall bathroom. Decoding Palahniuk's characteristically scathing observations is a challenge, as Pygmy's narrative voice is unbound by rules of grammar or structure (a typical sentence: Host father mount altar so stance beside bin empty of water), but perseverance is its own perverse reward in this singular, comic accomplishment.
I've come up with a few discussion starters, but feel free to post anything else related to the book that you'd like to talk about.
-Of course, the broken English prose is the first thing that stands out to the reader. What did you think of it? Was it unnecessary? Completely necessary?
-The book is a portrayal of American society through the lens of someone with completely different ideals. Do you think that this contributed to the illumination of American shortcomings, or did you think it was merely a biased viewpoint that added to the comicality of the book? What about the view of the terrorist state portrayed through the book?
-There is a phrase, 'You are a product of your environment'. Pygmy is a great example of this. He was conditioned by his government to hate America, told that America was the catalyst for evil, and that the world would be at peace once America had been dethroned. All the operatives were told that Americans had murdered their parents. At what point did Pygmy begin to sympathize with America, and abandon the ideals he had been conditioned by since the age of four? What do you think caused this?
-At the end of the book, Pygmy planned to detonate the experiment, and warned Cat sister to vacate. When the bomb was set off, the money was untainted. Do you think he knew all along that he wouldn't commit the atrocity, or that he just had a last minute change of heart? Or that he forgot? Is there any symbolism attached to the ending of the book?
Again, please bring up any other discussion topics that you would like to talk about.
Step back. Evaluate. Recognize.
-Of course, the broken English prose is the first thing that stands out to the reader. What did you think of it? Was it unnecessary? Completely necessary?
I think it was a risk well-taken. You don't see many authors doing this and Palahniuk really didn't have to. I think it's the biggest factor in tuning readers out, but if you can adapt to it, this novel is an absolute wellspring of hysterical quotes because of it.
I'm currently linking the shorts about Pygmy's "case study operative" fairy tales to friends to see if they like it. I tell them that if they like the dialogue and think they can do it for 241 pages, then they should pick up the book and prepare for some fun. One person read it and said to me, "You can actually read this?!?!" This guy's an example of someone who shoudln't be reading the novel...
-The book is a portrayal of American society through the lens of someone with completely different ideals. Do you think that this contributed to the illumination of American shortcomings, or did you think it was merely a biased viewpoint that added to the comicality of the book? What about the view of the terrorist state portrayed through the book?
I don't really take this novel to be any kind of coherent statement about conflicting political ideologies; I don't see it as a "political" novel or "espionage thriller." It's an absurd romantic comedy disguised as these things.
What is interesting, however, is that "Team Cedar" often demonstrates the extreme and offensive behavior that Pygmy was indoctrinated to expect of an American family. Instead of activating his revulsion, he considers it par for the course and learns to bond with them nonetheless. This was quite a shock at first, but became quite fitting, IMO.
-There is a phrase, 'You are a product of your environment'. Pygmy is a great example of this. He was conditioned by his government to hate America, told that America was the catalyst for evil, and that the world would be at peace once America had been dethroned. All the operatives were told that Americans had murdered their parents. At what point did Pygmy begin to sympathize with America, and abandon the ideals he had been conditioned by since the age of four? What do you think caused this?
I think the turning point for him was clearly becoming the school hero after stopping "Trevor Bitch." All of the sudden, he was popular, important... loved. This threatened his identity as an operative more than anything. His identity was an anti-identity, just a number existing in accordance with the will of the state. By becoming "the Pig-ster," he became a real individual... and that was the beginning of the end for Operation Havok.
-At the end of the book, Pygmy planned to detonate the experiment, and warned Cat sister to vacate. When the bomb was set off, the money was untainted. Do you think he knew all along that he wouldn't commit the atrocity, or that he just had a last minute change of heart? Or that he forgot? Is there any symbolism attached to the ending of the book?
It's hard to theorize on this as it's 1st person. Maybe he didn't want her to see him get killed by the other operatives, but he could have narrated that for us. I think he knew for sure he wasn't going to do it, but for some unknown reason (other than that he couldn't spoil it for the reader), he needed to warn Cat Sister off- to protect her from whatever was to come of it all.
I'll have more to add of my own thoughts and questions, but I'm looking forward to hearing what others have to say for now. 
I'd like to redirect the discussion here:
http://chuckpalahniuk.net/group/official-cult-book-club/may-09-pick-pygm...
Thanks!
I think it's interesting to consider this book in comparison to Fight Club; particularly as a counter-point to Fight Club. One is about rebellion from within, the other is about rebellion from without. Even the "broken English" prose style contrasts starkly with the sharp, on-point style of Fight Club: in that book we appreciate the apparent astuteness of the narrator's observations until we begin to question his sanity; here it's the opposite: we presumably laugh at, or at least reject, Pygmy's brainwashed notions of American culture until very real and valid points about its hostility and ignorance are made incidentally, through actions and incidents in the community rather than Pygmy's own words, and his eventual breakthrough into something like lucidity and what we would consider "sanity."
I think what caused Pygmy to ultimately reject the ideals he'd been propagated with all his life was love, something he'd been denied since his separation from his parents. The scene in the airport where he rushes back to kiss host mother seems a particularly vital moment, in addition to the more obvious affection he feels for cat sister. I think it can really be read as the triumph of feelings over words; almost a "love conquers all" message, and with all that implies: the ability of human emotion to contradict even the most deep-rooted indoctrination. To get a little more specific, Pygmy being thrust into the real world results in him gathering real human experience, which results in organic, natural human emotion, which is more powerful than the forced hate that's been pushed on him all his life.
I guess I've strayed from my initial Fight Club comparison here, but I don't know, I just had that book's themes in mind a lot while I was trying to figure out Pygmy's. The part where cat sister asks Pygmy something like, "What's your little friend's name? Marla?" seems too blatant not to be an intentional reference.
I don't know, I'll post more about this as it comes to me. I just finished the book so these are just my initial thoughts. Oh, and I really liked it a lot. Definitely a new favorite of mine among Chuck's books.