Rant: Hilariously Bad Trash.

did anyone actually buy rant? besides people here.

[QUOTE=morey;1078340]did anyone actually buy rant? besides people here.[/QUOTE]

I bet it's only about 2/3rds of the people here bought it. Not everyone likes Chucks book, big whoop.

a guy here bought it and he wants to talk to me about it, but i haven't read it, they have a couple copies at the library.

It is better than the DaVinci Code, I'll give it that much.

i know it made the NYT bestseller list, i remember 8, maybe higher - so, it sold some motherfucking books - i liked it a lot, less than survivor or choke, but more then most of the rest

I bought Rant!

But read it I did not.

rant sold a buttload of copies, no question. and i thought it debuted at number six on the nyt rictor scale

I'm all for open criticism and discussion, but accusing someone of being a poor writer whilst using allcaps is fucking daft.

yeah that hardback version is a good doorstop and will even out any wobbly table legs.

it also serves as useful baton when being attacked by bats.

I just finished reading Rant, my second CP book (Invs. Monsters, first book - loved it to!), and must say it was fabulous! One wild funny and twisted ride. I'm still thinking about days later. I loved the whole time-travel thing!

Hi people, long time reader, first time poster!

Well, Mr Instigator, I happen to like Rant. I also thought Haunted was a  classical return to a form,  we haven't seen since, yes, Fight Club itself. It has the same qualities of  empowerment of the individual, and that particular brand of transgressional attitude as Fight Club.

Any way, I was gripped. Perhaps you could enlighten us as to what type of reading you think is suitable for us mid-30 somethings, as you imply we should be leaving this for the callow 'yoof'?  Are you suggesting that this 'hackneyed trash' isn't up to your high standards? Perhaps one of the nice and safe 'Richard & Judy' book club choices, hmm?

I like a bit of originality in my reading, ideas, dialogue, language usage. I found them in Rant, and, they wern't just surreal crap in a vaccuum. (See the Wikipedia entry from the Southpark guy's cussing the Family guy writers, as Manatee's!) It's all relevant. Which brings me to the other accusation of plagiarism! Or, one could argue, topicality.

Lets take time-travel, a hoary old Sci-Fi conceit, being given a new lease. Think Niffenegger's 'Time Travellers wife', sub plots in 'Lost', 'Heroes', and even 'Watchmen' (film coming shortly, so I hear.)  Not plagiarism, but a topical body of work.

Rabies? Yes, Cronenbergs film really pushed the idea of that forward, didn't it?  Just look at 'I Am Legend' remake, pretty good analogy to the Rabid. Is this plagiarism, or has it added something new to the current body of work? Course it has. I remember the Rabies scares of the 70's and 80's, skulls on harbour railings as a kid, never having heard the term before. Rabies, Rabid, very onomatopaeic. Very scary. And, here we have a new concept in the canon, self -infection, living with, and actively seeking out that which should be scaring us silly. A character that wants them insect and animal bites. Love what we fear. Saw a clip of new Rambo film, after reading Rant, and theres that tension scene, where somebodys facing off against a snake in a pit. Laughed when I saw that, because that stereotype of the 80's action hero is extinct. Now, I see a snake scene, and think Rant Casey.  You don't automatically have to die from a bite, in fact, you can even get some fucked up kick out of it. Chuck has broken us out of the stereotypical fear paradigm.

See, thats what I mean about Chuck adding something new to contempary literature, which Instigator can't see. Remember when Pulp Fiction came out? That dialogue was sharp, man. Sure, it wasn't brand new, you could trace its lineage back to Harold Pinter, and the Absurdists, but, it changed things. It evolved how we percieved the norm. You look at 80's action flicks now, especially that crap by DeSouza, you know, the Steve Seagal stuff? It just doesn't compare. Tarantino devolved them into an anacronism, by being so damn good, everybody has to be as good, if not better. Thats evolution, and for me, Chuck's on fire at the moment. He's churning out concepts that are cutting edge. It might seem like he's rehashing old ideas, but he's putting the thought in. At the risk of upsetting Warren Ellis, (who is pretty competent in his own right), here you have an example of lazy plagiarism. He's pretty prolific in the comics genre, and a lot of his work is cutting edge ideas, mixed together. But. Hes like a fruit machine, ( or a Manatee), lots of ideas on the wheels, spins them to get a unique combination, then churns out a piece around these concepts, putting them in a nifty sounding tag-line denouement. ( See the excellent Planetary, or Global Frequency). He doesnt flesh out concepts enough. Chuck does. That simple.

Even car crashes, an horrific fear of most sane people, has now been 'taken back' by Chuck's vision. The Black community 'take back' the 'N'-word.  Through Chuck, his readers  'take back' their  fear of violence, disease,  accidents, and indeed, most of our pathetic capitalist slave lifestyle desparations. Surely thats not as useless as Instigator makes out, is it?

your not my brother are you? his name also begins with J.

I like your simplification of what Chuck does... Making us fearless to those things we've been taught to fear... Thank you -- you've brought a sly smile to my grisly face

Mmm, you know what I mean? Like those cheap, lazily written horror genre films, where all leading characters seem to just be fodder for the 'boogeyman'.  Easy thrills, by propagating a victim mentality. Stuff where nothing you can do, will be imaginative enough to deliver you from the 'bad guys ' grasps. Just what we need, being ground down in our fantasy lives, as well as our 'real' day to day lives.  And then, thats just the tip of the iceberg of things were meant to have a 'healthy' fear for.

I like how Chuck imagines alternative lifestyle habits to love what we fear, even if its only whilst reading instead of actually doing. Shows us there's still a bit of hope...

Hey, this breakdown of how unrealistic Rant makes it sound great! You've actually convinced me to read this one. If you want realism stick to the reference section at your local library. "Reality is for those who can't handle fiction."