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Quint joins in on the gang bang for Chuck Palahniuk's SNUFF!!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I don’t often look at books here on the site. I love reading, but there have been very few novels I’ve sought out early.
I didn’t exactly seek out Chuck Palahniuk’s new novel, SNUFF, but I got it early and got a chance to read it before its release last Tuesday.
I interviewed Chuck Palahniuk at Sundance in a big group with Clark Gregg, Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston for CHOKE, a flick I really dug. After the interview I ended up talking to him, excusing my ignorance to his work. I have a few of his books that I bought and put on the “to read” stack, but hadn’t gotten to them yet.
He asked for my address, said he wanted to send me some of his short work, so I scribbled it down on a piece of legal yellow notepad, thinking it’d get lost in the full Sundance shuffle.
A month later I got a package. Not an envelope, but a package. Wrapped in gold paper. In the box were chocolates, trick handcuffs, CDs with Palahniuk reading his short stories, a blow-up doll (autographed to me) and an advance reading copy of SNUFF, also signed.
Apparently, Palahniuk is known for sending packages to his fans. My little brother is a fan of his work and I gave Chuck his address as well and Chuck made him a necklace out of rocks and beads.
Anyway, I got the book right before an oversees trip, so I ended up reading it in one shot on the plane and I probably annoyed those sitting around me because there are more than a handful of moments where I busted out laughing.
SNUFF is told from many different points of views, all centered around the record breaking 600 man gang-bang that’ll make aging porn star Cassie Wright a legend.
Each person is given a number. All sorts of types show up. Some are volunteers from the fan community wanting to be in this record making video, some are genuinely in love with Cassie Wright, some are porn stars wanting a piece of the spotlight and some are just perverts.
The numbers are called at random and men are taken up in small groups.
Palahniuk jumps from perspective to perspective. We’re introduced to our eyes, but we know them by their numbers. Each chapter is called Mr. 137, Mr. 600, Mr. 72, etc based on who we’re seeing through. There’s also a young woman, Cassie’s assistant, who gives us a fresh point of view.
Mr. 72 is a young man who comes bearing flowers and seems deeply in love with Ms. Wright. Mr. 600 is a male porn star who co-starred with Cassie in many films. He’s a shady, shallow, vain guy. He’s none too bright, either.
Mr. 137 is one of my favorite characters of the book. He’s an ex-TV superstar who fell from grace after a big homosexual scandal. He’s desperate to prove his heterosexuality and daydreams about Cassie falling in love with him, accepting his proposal and starting a reality show about their marriage.
What’s great about the story is we stay firmly in the waiting room, drenched in fake tanning, sweat and desperation. We see groups go up to the set as the gang bang happens, but we never go inside until the very end. As the crowd thins our main POVs begin running into each other and this is where Palahniuk really has fun playing with different perceptions.
Of course the ending is so out of left field fuckin’ crazy bizarre that I had to re-read it three times to make sure I read what I read.
The book is a quick read, a fun read. It is my first experience with Palahniuk, so I can’t tell you how it holds up to his past work, but I can say that it was everything I expected from the man. It’s hilarious, but somehow sweet at the same time. It’s hard to explain the balance that Palahniuk strikes, but in my view he succeeds.
If you haven’t gotten to check it out, he has a series of Cassie Wright porno trailers that he’s created. The book is filled with fantastic porn film names as Cassie Wright’s many films play on TVs in the waiting room. They took three of them and made these promos for the book. Enjoy Wizard of Ass, Twilight Bone and Chitty Chitty Gang Bang!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
Readers Talkback
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Indy 4 stunk.
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I'll have a review up on Variety this weekend. Finished writing it today. Not to spoil it, but it's largely positive, although I thought the ending was a little limp, so to speak. Not one of Chuck's best but certainly on par with his recent efforts Rant and Haunted, and definitely better than Diary. Plus you'll get some priceless looks from people who see you reading it and dare read the description on the back cover. Quint, of all the things you've gotten to do for AICN, receiving a personal package from the Chuckster is probably the single thing I am most jealous of. I don't know what you've read but Invisible Monsters and Survivor are as good as any places to start. Chuck fans will eat this shit up. Glad you reviewed it and liked it. Nice job.
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Your movie reviews are way off base, but this page has redeemed you a little bit. "Chitty Chitty Gang Bang", "The Wizard of ASS" and "Twilight Bone"...Classic! LOL!
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But this is easily my favorite of his. (I haven't read Rant yet.) The bit about the "missile crater greased in Vaseline", and the "outtake" were fucking hilarious. Definitely recomend this, except of course to those who are too cool to like Pahlaniuk. We're supposed to call him a hack, right?
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Nothing I or anyone else can convince you not to see it, so I will just give you this piece of advice...Be prepared to be dissapointed. Very dissapointed. Blame Spielberg and Lucas brother.
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Cos those girls do gangbangs the best. <p> Try it if you don't believe me.
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is that I now, FINALLY, know how to pronounce Chuck Pahlaniuk's last name.
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The short story from his book "Haunted" in case anyone still hasn't heard the legend, is known for causing people to vomit at live readings. After reading that book for myself, I must admit, I had to take several breaks during that story to regroup. Anybody else here read "Guts" and had a similar reaction?
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I think he's a genius, but his books often get bogged down in virulent Shyamalanitis. His stories tear themselves apart with ever more ridiculous plot twists.
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Should have seen that. Although in fairness, I'm never sure how to pronounce his name either. I'll look at the vids...Does everyone know how to pronounce Synecdoche New York yet?
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Yay?
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This is why Chuck rules.
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Sin-Eck-Doe-Key. It's an Writing term meaning when one part is used to represent the whole - ie: "he's got great wheels" meaning a car.
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are never as good as real porn movie names. Yes, I saw "the Sexual Zone". Yes, I saw "Splendor In The Ass".<p>"Wizard or Ahhs" and "Titty Titty Gang Bang" would have been funnier, but I get that he was deliberately trying to make them sound lame. He was, right?
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Damn You Michael Bay
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whats the philosophy of gang bangs anyway
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Loved Fight Club and Choke. Haunted extremely disturbing. And Diary was his worst work bar none. Can't wait to pick this new one up. Chuck is an author of astounding originality.
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Best real porn title ever.
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Grizzly Madames and Say Hola to my Hole-a.
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Already used in "The Girl Next Door". The legendary producer from whom Speed Racer steals his coveted award was for a porno with that name.
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But is it kosher to post the whole damn thing on the site? Anyone? Anyone?
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It's definitely a good book, but not my favorite in terms of Palahniuk. In my opinion it's definitely better than "Lullaby" and "Diary", but not a good as "Haunted" or "Rant", and since those are his latest two, it seems somewhat lacking, especially since it's only about half the length of both of those books. It's definitely enjoyable though, and his diction is fantastic, to the point where I was disgusted to the thought of even having sex again, but I definitely don't think it's his best. However, his book out next year, "Pygmy", sounds pretty great, and his editor even said it's the best thing he's written, so, we'll see.
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I personally cant think of reading something that i cant imagine as being realistic. its goofy.
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trangressive, homoerotic hack-work; no characterization, adolescent preoccupations. Fuck Chuck.
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What is the deal with Harry not publishing Uncapie's review of "Tunnel Rats", the Uwe Boll Vietnam pic?
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Been waiting for this for a while. I absolutly LOVE all his novels (although I havent read Invisible Monsters, yeah I know I should. I will! Promise). And good to see he's back after a somewhat dissapointing Diary and Rant
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Though I want to enjoy this. I went to the store to pick it up the other day, but had read some bad reviews. It cost $25 and there were some books I had been meaning to read on the bargain table, so I decided to wait for Snuff in paperback. I look foward to it, but with low expectations. Rant, though, I felt was his best book and I think it had something to do with the time that he had taken off of writing. It you haven't read Rant, and like Palahniuk at all, I fully recommend it. It shows the potential that the man has. It's almost Vonnegut meets Phillip K. Dick.</p><p>Anyway, I picked up Raw Shark Texts, which I've heard is a poor man's House of Leaves, but even a poor man's House of Leaves sounds like a hell of a horror novel. And I grabbed Yiddish Policeman's Union, which I'm in the middle of and loving.
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it's just that third person omniscient REALLY starts to grate after a while, and then come the random factoids... "WOOD BURNS AT 216 DEGREES..."
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Chuck is the only author that I know that takes the time to write back to his fans and send them a bunch of cool stuff. I got this from him during his last fan mail window. http://a911.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/3/l_6993a243cf1967560abc81597515cd5e.jpg
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http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=34542135&albumID=568459&imageID=9766495
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I used to work in a video store with a porn section, and I always got a chuckle out of the porn versions of hit movies. My favorite (because it was so damned random) was "Dante's Dick" (Dante's Peak) about a guy who could detect earthquakes and volcanoes with his cock. I was always tempted to watch it, but I was afraid it couldn't possibly live up to the amazingly bizarre synopsis from the back of the box.
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woot! woot!
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No offense to Uncapie, but after Boll lost his tax loophole and actually started realizing he had to be responsible for the crap he puts out, we realized the only thing he had was the image of "Worst Director." He started using the buzz to push his movies, so it became our policy to not cover his flicks. They're just not worth the publicity for the guy. He can have a brilliant career making direct to video movies (Postal is damn near that because theater owners didn't want the huge Box Office loss of ALL his film... even if you buy his ridiculous statements he makes about how much his DVDs sell, that doesn't help the theater owners fill seats). So, long answer to your question. We just try to avoid posting any Uwe Boll story and we have since last year.
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The best way to get rid of something that vile is to ignore it and, in the case of Mr. Boll, not feed his misguided ego.
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While I agree it's perfectly within AICN's editorial rights to choose not to cover Uwe's movies, especially considering some of the personal attacks Uwe has made on YouTube against Harry, Quint and myself, it's true that Postal is his best film (though I realize that's not saying much) and for the record, I was really intrigued by the Tunnel Rats trailer. Seed, on the other hand, is fucking trash.
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He calls out Quint at the end of his Rottentomatoes interview. Hey, if you're pissing off the worst director making films today, you have to be doing something right.
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I saw him in person in Columbus
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I have long been a Palahniuck fan. The first book of his I read was Choke and it's still my fave so I'm super-stoked to see the film. That being said his last few books were good but not great. I still pick up everything he comes out with because they are good fun reads so I'm sure Snuff will at least be that.
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Why the fuck would ANYONE want to make a movie about smokeless tobacco use? I'm truly perplexed...
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Did anybody who read that story even feel a little bit queasy? "Guts" I mean. That was stupid. I don't buy for a moment that people actually threw up when they read it or had it read to them.
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He's just as dumb, obnoxious, infuriating, talentless, craven, and bloodsucking as the typical forum troll. There should be an island where these jackasses can go to engage each other in infinite loop dialog consisting solely of junior high playground insults.
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Ettan, General, and GrovSnus, to be precise, with Skruf thrown in for added variety.<br><br>Ahhhhh, paradise...
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Fits like a glove
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... and RANT's the best thing Palahniuk's written since FIGHT CLUB, imo (though I also liked LULLABY immensely). Can't wait to snag SNUFF. The man never fails to deliver!!
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Good call on learning how the hell to say his name! Atlast I can say it with confidence and discovered I was WAY off before. Though it doesn't help that I still can't spell his name the same way twice. <br><Br> As far as his books go, I have all of them pre-Snuff and Rant tops the list IMO, but all of them have something of interest in them.
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It is EASILY one of his best works and also one of the best books I have read a couple of years. The man is truly a genius and a master storyteller. I can't wait to get my hands on this.
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with the novel "Porno" which is with the sequel to "Trainspotting". I would recommend people read "Porno" to get a true understanding behing the gritty reality of porno.
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I've made the effort two or three times to read that book but I just can't get into Irvine Welsh for some reason.
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Great job, Chuck.
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Just a thought!
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clone-o-mat doesn't know what he's talking about. GUTS is famous for making people faint, not throw up.<br> There's an mp3 floating around with Chuck reading it for an audience somewhere and someone faints and he claims in HAUNTED that the short story keeps having that effect on people on live readings (supposedly it's when he comes to the place with corn and peanuts).<br> On the one hand, reading something and having it read to you (by someone you might look up to like an author you like or to some people a preacher) are two very different things.<br><br> On the other, "Writers are liars".
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and I've read everything else by him so far so I'm definetly getting Snuff as soon as it hits paperback.
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I saw Chuck P. speak in KC a couple years back, right before Haunted came out and he actually said "its Pa-la-nik like colonic". Thats what I remember anyway. Survivor is my fave, cant wait to read Snuff.
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Never miss one of Chuck's books - been hooked since Fight Club, and that was before it was optioned as a decently re-envisioned, but ultimately flawed film.
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May 27, 2008, 3:07 a.m. CST
NECROSIS OF THE STOMACH LINING TAKES CLOSE TO THREE FULL DAYS
by birdy birdman
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You know, young lady, if you can't say something nice, then you shouldn't say anything at all.
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everyone is "discussing" Indy, but Chuck is kind of a one trick pony. if you want a good feel of his work, read Choke. all his books are the same, but the names have been changed to protect his bank account.
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geJINGo <a href="http://yeveqm.com/ ">wfRCoxV</a>
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dvFERq <a href="http://fmnvtp.com/ ">KBrSury</a>
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