SPOILER - Recycled Material?

Cody
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One of the bigger scenes for me was when Mr. 72 bid, purchased and fucked the Cassie Wright doll.  The description of fucking a blow-up doll with a slow leak (and doing so faster so as to finish before it completely deflated) isn't a new idea.

 

Chuck has used this before.

 

He states in the documentary "Postcards from the Future" that the protagonist from his first, unpublished book, "Insomnia: If You Lived Here, You'd Be Dead Already", fucks a blow-up doll with a slow leak and tries to finish before it completely deflates at a very pivotal part of the story.

 

Now I don't believe for a moment that Snuff is that book, I just thinks it's cool that he's using bits from that book in his other works.  I wonder what other bits he has cultivated from that story and used in his other novels.

 

Your thoughts?


Posted May 27th, 2008 by Cody

trenton welles
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Re: SPOILER - Redcycled Material?

in my humble opinion, i think that recycled material is the definitive sign of a tired writer. Not to say he's washed up, or losing his edge or creativity. I'm just saying i think he's exhausted the supply and maybe should take some time to refuel. Apparently his next book to release next year is already written. That will be three books in three years and each so far has got consistantly more boring.

It doesn't bode well...

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Tue, 05/27/2008 - 18:50

Cody
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Re: SPOILER - Redcycled Material?

In this case, he has said that the first novel just didn't work.  He couldn't get anyone to buy it.  As a writer, being able to "slay your children", i.e.  tear apart your stories and find out what doesn't work despite your feelings toward characters or scenes, shows quite a lot of maturity.  If you had a story that didn't work, for whatever reason, then were able to take a piece of that story and create something else out of it, something better, while at the same time effectively killing the initial work, that's just good decision making.

 

I mainly wanted to find out if anyone else made the connection.


Tue, 05/27/2008 - 19:01

rainbowsheeps
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Re: SPOILER - Recycled Material?

Taking ideas from a story you've published and repeating those ideas would be a tired writer.

Taking an idea or a few lines from something shitty you wrote a long time ago that no one has seen is just being resourceful. He probably just liked the idea and wanted to include it here.

If you want to argue he's losing his edge or whatever, though, go for it. But I don't think the usage of lines means anything other than he liked the idea.

I havent read one of his books since Diary. I'll probably get around to it eventually, though.

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Tue, 05/27/2008 - 19:05

bridgeofsorrow
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Re: SPOILER - Recycled Material?

Chuck told the story at his Denver reading about his first writer's workshop.  He said they were all women his mother's age, but to keep writing, he knew he needed to be part of a group that kept him going or he would stop.  He said the first time he read his work to these ladies was a short story about, yeah fucking the blow up doll.  He said when he was done reading, the ladies politly asked him to leave and not come back.

There's no point to be made, I just thought that was a funny back story.

But I agree.  Taking something you wrote and never used for whatever reason, and making it into something else, that works, is smart.  Not a sign of a tired writer.  There's just a piece you did that you like, even a song or line in poetry, and you use it later, so you are using something YOU wrote that YOU like.

 

probably doesn't make sense.

Chuck did say right after Rant that snuff was going to be just a quick funny novel as his publisher or agent suggested he do.  If you were expecting something else, it doesn't make sense.  Rant was very smart, and went over a lot of people's heads, Snuff is what he said it would be, and Pygmy sounds awesome so far.  He said since he keeps giving out, or teaching, his writing tecneacs, so he has to keep coming up with new stuff.  Doesn't mean he's tired or washed up.  He would actually be a sell out, not an artist, if he kept writing the same kind of stuff forever even though it's not stuff he is inspired to write anymore.


Sat, 05/31/2008 - 23:11