PulpLit.net

Ground Chuck, 49? a pound

[Posted at 11:06 PM] Once in a while, a critic decides to really lay into an author. In this day and age it's relatively rare - not even Anthony Lane has the balls to stick it to anything other than Star Trek: First Contact. But Laura Miller over at Salon lets Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club and Choke, have it right between the eyes (subscription or brief ad-viewing required).

Some highlights:

The gimmick of "Diary" is that it's supposed to be a journal Misty is writing for Peter should he ever emerge from his coma. Employing that kind of ventriloquism in a suspense novel would be a tricky thing to pull off for even an accomplished and careful writer, and since Palahniuk is neither, he makes a real hash of it.

Reading Palahniuk is a revelation of sorts because it shows that bad fiction works exactly the same way: It's execrable on a sentence-by-sentence basis as well as in overall form and theme. The bad writer, it turns out, picks exactly the wrong detail, flubs it, and then tosses it like a stink bomb in the path of the reader dutifully struggling to follow him. This is a signature Palahniuk technique.

And my favorite:

As with SUV commercials, the target audience seems painfully clear: It's that strangely oversize fellow you sometimes get seated next to on airplanes or in bars, the one who loudly testifies to "laughing my ass off" all the way through Palahniuk's "fucking twisted" books and then glares, as if daring you to deny that such a thing is possible or that he is one dark and edgy dude.

Ouch. I haven't read the book, but I was one of the five or six people who thought Fight Club (the movie) was idiotic. Anyway, kudos to Miller for grinding Chuck down a bit.

[Posted at 11:27 PM] Could someone please make this Sobig.F virus go away? I received 63 emails with the damned thing today. For those not in the know, if you receive anything with "Details" in the subject line, or a ".pif" file attached, delete it immediately, even if it's from someone you know. Whatever you do, do not open the file - especially if you've got me in your address book.

This is the first time a virus has actually annoyed me.

--JC