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-Novel-Stories-Chuck-Palahniuk/dp/0385509480