I hate to do two Palahniuk books in a row, but the weekly topics have aligned
rather well with his works. Last week was Haunted’s take on masturbation with “ Guts,”
and this week the topic is pornography, and I’m focusing briefly on his novel Snuff. The
problem with reviewing Palahniuk is that he is very popular, and there are far better
reviews by professionals out there, but I don’t think I have any other books that tackle the
subject of pornography quite as he does.
Snuff chronicles the exploits of the faded Cassie Wright, who was once a porn
legend, but has settles into a rut. In an attempt to milk her legend, she agrees to have sex
with 600 men on camera, and the story unfolds, moving from perspective to perspective.
We see through the eyes of male porn-stars and her female assistants, and the stories that
unfold within their pasts and how that has built their present. It’s not a book of smut or
erotica, but rather a story that humanizes the numerous faces of the sexual industry.
A plot summary isn’t necessary or space efficient, as Palahniuk’s writing is too
well structured to break down well in a few paragraphs, but the topic of discussion within
makes for a good little review. The book doesn’ t advocate pornography or shun it; rather,
it approaches the men and women beneath the skin. Far more than just well endowed
breasts and penises on a screen, the personalities of the four characters explored within
the novel showcase a myriad of personal flaws, strengths, and dreams. Once and still a
very serious power in the world of social media, pornography makes up a huge
percentage of the internet these days, and its impact on America is highly debated.
Whether you're for or against it, Palahniuk argues that we focus too much on the sex and
less on the fact that this is just a job for these people, and like anyone who becomes a
doctor or a lawyer, there can be deeply personal reasons for entering this particular field
of work.
This social approach elevates the novel beyond what it could have been, basically
dissecting one woman’ s emotional needs for sex and public approval through her
interactions with four other individuals. As Palahniuk shows, pornography isn’ t about the
reality of the sex or the opinion of regular society, but instead it exists as a release for the
emotional and personal release that we as people experience through exploring our
fantasies and emotions. Thus, Cassie Wright symbolizes what the porn industry
symbolizes at its most basic, the human desire to be wanted and to be enjoyed. It’s not
about subverting the American culture or moral values, it’s not about exploiting men or
women, and it’ s definitely not the devil luring us into sin; it’s fantasy and pleasure, pure
and simple.
http://www.amazon.com/Snuff-Chuck-Palahniuk/dp/0385517882
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
KZ Review: Chuck Palahniuk’ s "Guts"
Rather than review the whole of Chuck Palahniuk’ s Choke, I’ ve chosen to focus
briefly on his short story “ Guts.” I got the opportunity to see Palahniuk in Atlanta while
he was promoting his novel Diary, and while there he read “ Guts,” which wouldn’ t be
released in a book for several more years. While no one fainted at the reading I attended,
there were some visibly uncomfortable people, and more than a few people green around
the gills.
“ Guts” deals with the dark side of masturbation, detailing three stories in which
young men get caught masturbating in unusual ways. One boy uses a lubed up carrot to
stimulate his prostate, but hides the carrot in his laundry only to have his mother cook it
and serve it with dinner. Another boy uses a long, thin piece of wax to stimulate his
urethra, inserting it into himself, but then breaking it off and requiring extensive surgery
to remove. The final and most shocking story explores the tale of a man who pleasures
himself in a pool while sitting on the water intake. The suction pulls his intestines out
and he has to chew through them himself to save his own life.
These tales are horrifying examples of what sexual repression can do to young
people who are just enjoying themselves. It’ s the secretive nature of their masturbation
that causes them problems, and the simple act of having talked their desires through with
someone else could have saved pain and money. The story raises the example of
Autoerotic Asphyxiation, and points out that such a death could be avoided if adults just
talked to kids about their bodies and approached the topic of what’ s dangerous and what’ s
not.
While most masturbation mishaps in real life result in little more than
embarrassment, even that could be avoided if parents and society as a whole could move
past the dated views that bodily pleasure is sinful or wrong. It’ s not an easy subject to
talk about, and Palahniuk approaches in probably the most interesting way possible. Like
authors have since the dawn of the novel, he takes art and uses it to make a message to
society, and what better way to get them to listen than to make them sick?
http://www.amazon.com/Haunted-
briefly on his short story “ Guts.” I got the opportunity to see Palahniuk in Atlanta while
he was promoting his novel Diary, and while there he read “ Guts,” which wouldn’ t be
released in a book for several more years. While no one fainted at the reading I attended,
there were some visibly uncomfortable people, and more than a few people green around
the gills.
“ Guts” deals with the dark side of masturbation, detailing three stories in which
young men get caught masturbating in unusual ways. One boy uses a lubed up carrot to
stimulate his prostate, but hides the carrot in his laundry only to have his mother cook it
and serve it with dinner. Another boy uses a long, thin piece of wax to stimulate his
urethra, inserting it into himself, but then breaking it off and requiring extensive surgery
to remove. The final and most shocking story explores the tale of a man who pleasures
himself in a pool while sitting on the water intake. The suction pulls his intestines out
and he has to chew through them himself to save his own life.
These tales are horrifying examples of what sexual repression can do to young
people who are just enjoying themselves. It’ s the secretive nature of their masturbation
that causes them problems, and the simple act of having talked their desires through with
someone else could have saved pain and money. The story raises the example of
Autoerotic Asphyxiation, and points out that such a death could be avoided if adults just
talked to kids about their bodies and approached the topic of what’ s dangerous and what’ s
not.
While most masturbation mishaps in real life result in little more than
embarrassment, even that could be avoided if parents and society as a whole could move
past the dated views that bodily pleasure is sinful or wrong. It’ s not an easy subject to
talk about, and Palahniuk approaches in probably the most interesting way possible. Like
authors have since the dawn of the novel, he takes art and uses it to make a message to
society, and what better way to get them to listen than to make them sick?
http://www.amazon.com/Haunted-
Monday, October 11, 2010
KZ Novel Review - Lolita
There are a million reviews of Lolita out there, so instead of talking a little about
the novel and what happens, I want to quickly discuss an interesting connection that
Nabokov’s most well known work shares with Edgar Allen Poe. I’m sure proper papers
have been written on this subject, but I’m just interested in pointing this out for any
readers to think about. Both of these works are huge in the literary world, and it’s always
fun to find links between one work and another, so just make up your mind for yourself,
is there a connection, or am I reading too much into this?
Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita begins with obsession and death. Humbert
Humbert, the novel’s protagonist, introduces his narrative conflict with a soulful
admission of lost and unrequited love. “There might have been no Lolita at all,” he
says, “had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl child,” . Humbert’s aged regret
and admission of guilt opens into a world where he has long ago lost his youthful love,
Annabel Leigh. From this admission to the point where the actual reflection of the events
that transpired begins, Nabokov draws obvious parallels between Humbert Humbert and
the narrator of Edger Allen Poe’s poem, “Annabel Lee.” Poe writes his poem in anguish
of loss and youth, and Lolita structures its narrative on a foundation almost identical
to “Annabel Lee.”
Nabokov peppers the first four chapters with allusion to the poem, using several
direct images and phrases to dramatize the impact that losing an early love has had on
Humbert. Chapter one closes with an echo of Poe’s poem, “exhibit number one is what
the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied,”, a paraphrase of the
ending of “Annabel Lee’s” second stanza. Humbert begins his defense in Earthly court
by pleading that his love was envied by even the Heavenly Host.
Humbert explains his normal and sane life prior to meeting young Annabel
Leigh, but then dives into passionate words and feverish thought at the memory.
Speaking of their mad and anguished love, he recounts how they met at “the kingdom by
the sea,” and later separated at the pulling of her “high-born kinsmen”. Nabokov writes
that Annabel Leigh was drawn away by the sea and his brother, lending an even greater
mystical justification for his loss and his obsession with Lolita. His tale ends with his
statement about her death, a simple sentence, “four months later she died of Typhus in
Corfu.”
Finally, in chapter 4, Humbert concludes his history and begins to focus on his
craving for and fixation with Lolita. He says that the whole of his tryst with Lolita begins
with Annabel, and even refers to his lust as his “Annabel” phase. He dives into a flurry of
mixed images revolving around the sensual imagery of Annabel Leigh, and the sexual
imagery of Lolita, intertwining and confusing the two, closing his observation with the
lines, “I broke her [Annabel’s] spell by incarnating her in another [Lolita].”
There can be no doubt that Nabokov intended this thematic parallel, and in fact
he likely uses Poe’s poem to help justify Humbert’s actions, making him seem innocent
to true evil and just a victim to loss and love.
the novel and what happens, I want to quickly discuss an interesting connection that
Nabokov’s most well known work shares with Edgar Allen Poe. I’m sure proper papers
have been written on this subject, but I’m just interested in pointing this out for any
readers to think about. Both of these works are huge in the literary world, and it’s always
fun to find links between one work and another, so just make up your mind for yourself,
is there a connection, or am I reading too much into this?
Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita begins with obsession and death. Humbert
Humbert, the novel’s protagonist, introduces his narrative conflict with a soulful
admission of lost and unrequited love. “There might have been no Lolita at all,” he
says, “had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl child,” . Humbert’s aged regret
and admission of guilt opens into a world where he has long ago lost his youthful love,
Annabel Leigh. From this admission to the point where the actual reflection of the events
that transpired begins, Nabokov draws obvious parallels between Humbert Humbert and
the narrator of Edger Allen Poe’s poem, “Annabel Lee.” Poe writes his poem in anguish
of loss and youth, and Lolita structures its narrative on a foundation almost identical
to “Annabel Lee.”
Nabokov peppers the first four chapters with allusion to the poem, using several
direct images and phrases to dramatize the impact that losing an early love has had on
Humbert. Chapter one closes with an echo of Poe’s poem, “exhibit number one is what
the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied,”, a paraphrase of the
ending of “Annabel Lee’s” second stanza. Humbert begins his defense in Earthly court
by pleading that his love was envied by even the Heavenly Host.
Humbert explains his normal and sane life prior to meeting young Annabel
Leigh, but then dives into passionate words and feverish thought at the memory.
Speaking of their mad and anguished love, he recounts how they met at “the kingdom by
the sea,” and later separated at the pulling of her “high-born kinsmen”. Nabokov writes
that Annabel Leigh was drawn away by the sea and his brother, lending an even greater
mystical justification for his loss and his obsession with Lolita. His tale ends with his
statement about her death, a simple sentence, “four months later she died of Typhus in
Corfu.”
Finally, in chapter 4, Humbert concludes his history and begins to focus on his
craving for and fixation with Lolita. He says that the whole of his tryst with Lolita begins
with Annabel, and even refers to his lust as his “Annabel” phase. He dives into a flurry of
mixed images revolving around the sensual imagery of Annabel Leigh, and the sexual
imagery of Lolita, intertwining and confusing the two, closing his observation with the
lines, “I broke her [Annabel’s] spell by incarnating her in another [Lolita].”
There can be no doubt that Nabokov intended this thematic parallel, and in fact
he likely uses Poe’s poem to help justify Humbert’s actions, making him seem innocent
to true evil and just a victim to loss and love.
and
Monday, October 4, 2010
BREAKING Taboo Book Review for Monday Oct. 4
by KZ
Natalie Goldberg’s work has spanned various genres of writing, from memoir
writing to strict non-fiction and fiction, but her strongest material is seeped in ability to
connect with the creative process that all writers and artists must struggle through to
produce work. Author of Writing Down the Bones, her book, Wild Mind; Living the
Writer’s Life, is a more intimate guide to writing work that “gets to the jugular,” as my
late teacher and friend, Peter Christopher, used to say. A writer’s job may seem easy to
outside parties, but as Goldberg explains, and anyone who has tried to write anything
more than a letter can tell you, it takes a lot of work to make something that comes from
the mind look like anything more than a garbled mess. Wild Mind is a very structured
guide into developing those raw thoughts into a precise stream of words and work that
serves to connect the writer to whole of mankind.
What is a “wild mind?” Goldberg doesn’t present a short little book with quips
such as “write every day” or “write what you know,” rather, she explores the very raw
material that builds the rough free writes and drafts that are the building blocks of writing.
Her book is a journey, through her mind of course, but also through your own. Through a
series of exercises, writing prompts, reflection, and revisions, she takes readers through
the very fine steps of the creative process. As Yeats proposes in “Adam’s Curse,” the
work of a poet, writer, or artists is a curse similar Adam’s punishment. The artists toils as
does the rest of man, “constantly stitching and unstitching” hours of work because, “A
line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,” all is for
nothing.
This is the central theme to Goldberg’s book, and the text itself flies by. The text
is neither long nor complicated, but it accomplishes more in short chapters and brief
exercises than whole volumes of textbooks. Interesting, useful, and carefully constructed,
Goldberg’s book is designed to teach by example. As the author grows as a person and a
writer, changing from student to teacher throughout, the reader grows as well. The book
is meant as an interactive guide, the words are read and then the activities are your own.
The free-writes approach a casual level, but work like keys to the mind, designed to open
specific emotions and memories within the practicing writer, freeing the wild
or “monkey” mind’ that primal and open part of our brain that we all share.
Wild Mind is not a book to pick up and read straight from the shelf, at least not for
most people. The text exists as a guide to improving upon the writing that comes out
from those who already have the desire. Goldberg doesn’t promise to make any writer
great, or to deliver fame, because she doesn’t seek fame herself. Like a character that
appears near the end of her narrative, a large biker who hangs himself from hooks to
experience and share in the pain of childbirth that women feel, Goldberg’s writing, and
the work of those her book will inspire, seeks only to grow in humanity. As she offers,
real writing isn’t meant to be a bestselling book or a quick read, but should approach the
hard edges of our emotions and lives, wear them down, and expose what’s beneath.
Much like Adam and Eve, cursed by their maker to toil and hurt to survive, we all feel the
same range of emotions, pains, and pleasures. It’s these connections that give us power
as a community of humans, and it’s writing’s power to expose those connections that give
it lasting worth in our lives.
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-
Natalie Goldberg’s work has spanned various genres of writing, from memoir
writing to strict non-fiction and fiction, but her strongest material is seeped in ability to
connect with the creative process that all writers and artists must struggle through to
produce work. Author of Writing Down the Bones, her book, Wild Mind; Living the
Writer’s Life, is a more intimate guide to writing work that “gets to the jugular,” as my
late teacher and friend, Peter Christopher, used to say. A writer’s job may seem easy to
outside parties, but as Goldberg explains, and anyone who has tried to write anything
more than a letter can tell you, it takes a lot of work to make something that comes from
the mind look like anything more than a garbled mess. Wild Mind is a very structured
guide into developing those raw thoughts into a precise stream of words and work that
serves to connect the writer to whole of mankind.
What is a “wild mind?” Goldberg doesn’t present a short little book with quips
such as “write every day” or “write what you know,” rather, she explores the very raw
material that builds the rough free writes and drafts that are the building blocks of writing.
Her book is a journey, through her mind of course, but also through your own. Through a
series of exercises, writing prompts, reflection, and revisions, she takes readers through
the very fine steps of the creative process. As Yeats proposes in “Adam’s Curse,” the
work of a poet, writer, or artists is a curse similar Adam’s punishment. The artists toils as
does the rest of man, “constantly stitching and unstitching” hours of work because, “A
line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,” all is for
nothing.
This is the central theme to Goldberg’s book, and the text itself flies by. The text
is neither long nor complicated, but it accomplishes more in short chapters and brief
exercises than whole volumes of textbooks. Interesting, useful, and carefully constructed,
Goldberg’s book is designed to teach by example. As the author grows as a person and a
writer, changing from student to teacher throughout, the reader grows as well. The book
is meant as an interactive guide, the words are read and then the activities are your own.
The free-writes approach a casual level, but work like keys to the mind, designed to open
specific emotions and memories within the practicing writer, freeing the wild
or “monkey” mind’ that primal and open part of our brain that we all share.
Wild Mind is not a book to pick up and read straight from the shelf, at least not for
most people. The text exists as a guide to improving upon the writing that comes out
from those who already have the desire. Goldberg doesn’t promise to make any writer
great, or to deliver fame, because she doesn’t seek fame herself. Like a character that
appears near the end of her narrative, a large biker who hangs himself from hooks to
experience and share in the pain of childbirth that women feel, Goldberg’s writing, and
the work of those her book will inspire, seeks only to grow in humanity. As she offers,
real writing isn’t meant to be a bestselling book or a quick read, but should approach the
hard edges of our emotions and lives, wear them down, and expose what’s beneath.
Much like Adam and Eve, cursed by their maker to toil and hurt to survive, we all feel the
same range of emotions, pains, and pleasures. It’s these connections that give us power
as a community of humans, and it’s writing’s power to expose those connections that give
it lasting worth in our lives.
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-
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