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One Reader’s Review From A Festival Screening Of CHOKE!

I Like the Concept by William Ashbless	Apr 28th, 2008 08:26:52 AM
And it sounds pretty darkly funny. So I'm kinda looking foward to it. Not too much, but I want to check it out...maybe on DVD.
2nd by Zeegloo	Apr 28th, 2008 08:27:10 AM
I wonder if a Lullaby movie would be any good... Hmmm...
Anyone seen my dad? by Bastard Son of Superman	Apr 28th, 2008 08:32:32 AM

You know what would suck? by Monkey Butler	Apr 28th, 2008 09:16:17 AM
A Haunted film. Because if Choke is the family guy manatees, Haunted is manatee shit on the bottom of the tank.
even worse than that, monkey butler... by vaudeville villain	Apr 28th, 2008 09:32:04 AM
would be a Rant film. the third act alone of that film would be, i guess, month-old manatee shit on the bottom of an algae-infested tank.
Last Chapter of Fight Club Impossible to Film? by Jack Shepherd	Apr 28th, 2008 09:39:43 AM
Mza, you've got the last chapter of Fight Club all wrong. If I remember correctly, the narrator has completely lost his mind and isn't talking to God but to a doctor in a mental hospital. (I seem to recall something about "all of God's diplomas on the wall," etc.) At any rate, there wasn't anything especially tricky about this ending; Fincher could have shot it, it just wouldn't have been as ambiguous as the one he used.
Though by Series7	Apr 28th, 2008 09:45:35 AM
I am a big Chuck fan. Big enough that its one of the few things of recent times I've felt let down about. Especially with Haunted. Took me a while to get into Rant, but I really dug it at the end. I think it would lend itself to be a good movie. Done as a documentary though like the book. I mean people bitching about the end of the book, its just like every documentary ever made. Where there are no conclusions and usually the last 1/3 of every documentary is just people guessing or theorizing anyway. I liked Choke and I feel that Sam Rockwell is the perfect choice for the role. Though Choked always felt like the shitty little brother to Fight Club, and this is what this movie is probably going to turn out to be. Hopefully they stay away from turning Survivor and Invisible Monsters into movies. Unless they are given to someone with Fincher like abilities. Because Fight Club is Chucks worst book and probably, next to Requieme as one of the few better then the book movies out there. Though as I am reading Purfume (only got the last 1/3 left) that is a really good book to movie translation so far, took out the middle section of the book which was pretty useless anyway.
Hated the book but loved the movie by Lovecraftfan	Apr 28th, 2008 09:50:38 AM
Saw it at Sundance and definitely one of my favorite films there.
Palahnuik is awful by Laserhead	Apr 28th, 2008 09:53:23 AM
and an outed homosexual, which certainly casts Fight Club in a different light.
Why does it matter that he's gay? by CarmillaVonDoom	Apr 28th, 2008 09:55:39 AM
Laserhead, have you ever written anything on this site that doesn't out YOU as a DOUCHEBAG?
It matters because by Laserhead	Apr 28th, 2008 10:06:59 AM
the entire subtext of Fight Club and his 'transgressive' writings can be seen in a new, and actually more definitive light. The dude's a bad writer by any estimation; it's just that his guarded homosexuality (emphasis on 'guarded'; like a secret identity, like, um, Tyler Durden) kind of turns Fight Club into Freudian parody. I think the only guys I've criticized on this site are Frank Miller and Palahnuik. So if thinking Frank Miller and Chuck Palahnuik are crap writers whose work is a string of cliches and idiotic philosophical postures, whose audience consists of perpetual adolescents, then yep, I'm outed as a douchebag. And you're outed as a moron.
Salon review by Laserhead	Apr 28th, 2008 10:13:04 AM
says quite cogently everything that's stupid about Palahnuik's writing, so rather than quote it, I'll just post a link, and you can argue with it: http://tinyurl.com/l4qi
Jack Shepherd by BGDAWES	Apr 28th, 2008 10:37:38 AM
You're right. I was just about to make that correction as well. In the final paragraph the narrator is sent back to his room in the mental hospital and a male nurse let's him know project mayhem is still going strong. Personally, I prefer Fincher's ending and so does Chuck P. (or so I've read). Choke was actually my favorite novel of his so I hope this is decent. I should re-read the book. At least Rockwell is 'perfect' casting.
Lullaby is Great by Jack Shepherd	Apr 28th, 2008 11:16:59 AM
Lullaby is my favorite Palahniuk book, but Haunted and Rant aren't bad either. And who gives a shit if Palahniuk's gay or not? It's 100% irrelevant to this discussion or any "interpretation" of his books.
My wife got a care package from Chuck by Shigeru	Apr 28th, 2008 11:17:15 AM
complete with personal letter and a stuffed animal "POWER CARDINAL". Diary would make an interesting flick.
We are in agreement on Frank Miller by CarmillaVonDoom	Apr 28th, 2008 11:20:26 AM
Sorry to get personal with that last post; the negativity around here towards homosexuality in general is just getting VERY irritating. I've only read Lullaby, so I guess I shouldn't get into a debate about Palahniuk.
Clive Barker is a good example... by CarmillaVonDoom	Apr 28th, 2008 11:22:23 AM
...of a writer whose older stuff can be looked at in a different light after he came out, so I will step right up and admit I was out of line.
T&A by supertoyslast	Apr 28th, 2008 11:50:57 AM
If any of that T&A belongs to Kelly MacDondald, then I'm there. God, she was hot in the Peter Pan outfit in Finding Neverland.
survivour would make a great movie by ironic_name	Apr 28th, 2008 11:52:00 AM
as long as you had the real ending after the credits.
No, only pretentious assholes combat intelligent criticism by la by Laserhead	Apr 28th, 2008 12:00:14 PM
a pretentious asshole. And that in no way negates any of the criticism the reviewer levelled at his terrible, terrible books. I have absolutely nothing against homosexuals, I just think it's interesting that a writer who presumes a kind of 'tough-guy' posture, and writes a book about man-love expressed in secret, through physical violence, would go to some length to hide his homosexuality from the public. Then, afraid an EW article was going to out him, he posted his admission of sexual orientation on his website. When the issue never outed him, he took the admission down.
that should say 'labeling someone' not 'la' by Laserhead	Apr 28th, 2008 12:00:45 PM

Kelly MacDondald was Peter Pan by Shigeru	Apr 28th, 2008 12:17:40 PM
In Finding Neverland? Holy shit I've never wanted to bone such an androgenous person more then when I saw that scene.
Chuck's sexual orientation by Shigeru	Apr 28th, 2008 12:19:34 PM
Ever think... it DOESN'T REALLY MATTER? Yeah if you want to write thesis essays critiquing him but to the average person buying and reading his book it doesn't and certainly shouldn't matter. So don't blame the dude for not printing "I'M A FLAMING GAY WHO LOVES DICK" on the cover of all his books.
And his homosexuality does cast Fight Club in a different light by Shigeru	Apr 28th, 2008 12:24:43 PM
But a good and interesting one. It says something that a gay dude wrote the definitive novel about emasculated men overcompensating for it. Go ahead and hate his writing, but to bring up his homosexuality like it's some dirty little secret is fucked.
it's true. by Shigeru	Apr 28th, 2008 12:31:20 PM
I saw him speak once.... tough guy he was not.
The WRITING assumes a tough-guy posture by Laserhead	Apr 28th, 2008 12:43:12 PM
You know. You know the staccato sentences. You know how they repeat. How they try. Try to hit you. How they avoid sentiment. How they dwell on blood and guts. You don't need to read Salon to get a cogent review of why he's a bad writer (and I don't), that one just came easily to hand because I remembered the ruckus it started when it first appeared, while at the same time thinking the reviewer was dead on. Node- go fuck yourself, you illiterate douche; you can't actually, articulately defend the man's crap writing, it's phoney, idiotic philosophical posturing, so you have to take shots at me for, um, reading Salon. The worldview and 'issues' of Palahnuik's work are about as intelligent and sophisticated as those of a mildly educated 12-year-old. Poseur nihilism for sub-literates, written in one of the most gratingly phony stylistic voices in modern American fiction.
And Shigeru, it's your buddy Chuck by Laserhead	Apr 28th, 2008 12:44:32 PM
who treated his sexual orientation like it was a dirty little secret, not me.
I've read Fight Club and Survivor by Laserhead	Apr 28th, 2008 01:15:03 PM
trying to parse out his popularity. Both books are pretty awful. I also read something like 100 pages of Diary before putting it down. I don't get any information from tabloids, I was just trying to find out what might be the root of his success, and I was genuinely searching for something admirable in his writing. Then I understood that like 'Dancing with the Stars' or W, his popularity was rooted in his appeals to idiocy.
and... by Laserhead	Apr 28th, 2008 01:29:11 PM
Before you ask, to continue the 'idiotic philosophical posturing' argument (and this from me, not Salon, Node); in what I've read, he consistently casts himself as a novelist of 'ideas': ideas about culture, masculinity, the body, etc. But the ideas illustrated in his books are routinely facile, childish, and overlaid with a puerile sexual anxiety, all conveyed in one of the most obnoxious and simplistic prose styles I think I've ever read. In his books the chief conflict seems to be someone with a grudge against society/culture because they presumed that society/culture guaranteed them something (a fulfilling lifestyle, a viable definition of masculinity, etc.), and then, when culture doesn't provide them with this (though it was the character who assumed culture must fulfill them), they manufacture tons of righteous indignation, fulminate and strike back at society in nonsensical ways. But their entire motivating force is fundamentally childish; i.e., 'I thought the world was going to be one way and it's not.' (Welcome to existence. Grow the fuck up.) That these ideas are obviously taken seriously by the author and his readers as some kind of harsh 'truth' is indicative of how low our standards have become. Because there's no truth in any of his books that I've read. In Fight Club, a bunch of guys who feel emasculated by 'modern society' decide the answer to their problems is fascism. This is idiotic. Especially when it was the characters who emasculated themselves because they lacked the nerve and insight to choose alternative lives. Not to mention the idiocy of the kind of 'pranks' the members pull as 'strikes against society', pranks which accomplish nothing whatsoever except to bolster their egos. In this way, and in the central conflict of the story, a narcissistic viewpoint becomes apparent. On top of that, there's that awful, posturing prose style. Now before you say, 'Hey, you don't like his stuff, yet you read two of his books-- what the?!?' I read those books out of curiosity and an abiding interest in American letters. Sometimes you have to wade through a lot of shit to find the diamonds. I put Palahnuik in the shit pile.
And it's perfectly reasonable by Laserhead	Apr 28th, 2008 01:32:22 PM
to judge a writer based on two or three works. You don't have to digest someone's entire canon to form an educated opinion on them. Have you listened to every album by every band you ever formed an opinion about?
obnoxious simplistic prose styles by dr sauch	Apr 28th, 2008 01:32:31 PM

by the way	Apr 28th, 2008 01:38:02 PM
while everyone's in a good mood, I'd like to change the subject by suggesting everyone encourage Harry to promote a petition for saving Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are" instead of waiting a year & a half for the studio version. Thank you very much.
YOU GUYS NEED TO TAKE A NAP.... by LORDRANDO	Apr 28th, 2008 02:00:22 PM
Its kind of fussy in here.
Where the Wild Things Are by Laserhead	Apr 28th, 2008 02:00:56 PM
I think Harry DID try to summon up a petition, or something. He had an article about what the studio was trying to do to the film and begging them not to. You might have to search for it. Node-- almost vomitted in your mouth because I used the adjective 'abiding'? Too bad. Maybe one day I'll eat at whatever restaurant you bus tables at, and you can piss in my soup. Yay, Project Mayhem!
Laserhead, you're an idiot by D.Vader	Apr 28th, 2008 02:25:40 PM
There, I said it so no one else has to. Did you ever stop to think that everything you criticized about the characters actions in Fight Club- being fascist, narcissistic, egotistical, and springing from self-emasculation was, uhm, the point? Congratulations, you understood the book. Unfortunately, you misplaced your revelations and think your response is "new", when in reality was the intention all along.
Laser'gimme'head by Tender Branson411	Apr 28th, 2008 02:37:43 PM
Sounds like someone wants to be popular like Chuck P. but is reduced talkback banter
Laughed My Ass Off During "Fight Club" by thelordofhell	Apr 28th, 2008 04:05:03 PM
Hoping "Choke" is just as unintentially funny as "Fight Club". This should be the best comedy movie of the year until "The Fountainhead" comes out.
a aholes thoughts... by mr ahole ramirez	Apr 28th, 2008 05:05:37 PM
...read Choke (and so far, the only book Ive read bein turned into a movie) and it was ok, but that endin was eh...but i am glad to see somethin bein turned into a movie...and I want a Haunted movie...just picture a 2 or 3 min scene, wit a boy, stuck to a air vent, underwater, tryin to jack off...man, that would be cinematic gold...of course, gotta show the intestine comin out his ass...SH'ROOK!...
...also... by mr ahole ramirez	Apr 28th, 2008 05:07:11 PM
...a 10 minute section of people killin themselves to transport to Venus...come on movie execs, greenlight this thing!...
I've read the first paragraph and I already know the reviewer is by silentbobafett2	Apr 29th, 2008 01:48:58 AM
Ooooh I've read a book! I've read a book! Fight Clubs ok for the plebs that have seen the film, but for those elite few like me who have read the book... oooh aren't we in on something great!

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One Reader’s Review From A Festival Screening Of CHOKE!

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