nuzzaci - an online journal

Unlike other Chuck Palahniuk books, it has taken me a few months to actually get my teeth into this one. I received Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey already back in May, but it wasn’t until last week that I actually started reading it. One of the reasons for the delay was due to the form in which the book was written — an oral biography.

Author’s Note:

This book is written in the style of an oral history, a form which requires interviewing a wide variety of witnesses and compiling their testimony. Anytime multiple sources are questioned about a shared experience, it’s inevitable for them occasionally to contradict each other. For additional biographies written in this style, please see Capote By George Plimpton, Edie by Jean Stein, and Lexicon Devil by Brendan Mullen.

So, unavoidably, the biggest talking point on Rant is not the actual story, but in the form it’s been written. This can also form the result that the story itself (cough) maybe doesn’t have the equal depth as Chucks previous books… but the new format does keep it interesting.

As an ongoing Chuck Palahniuk reader, I found this book as a step backwards — back to 2001 — which in Mr Palahniuk’s case (in my opinion) is a good thing. Rant is more in line with his first books released pre 9/11 (Fight Club, Survivor, Invisible Monsters, Choke) than the ones released post (Lullaby, Diary, Haunted).

So if you have read other books by Chuck Palahniuk, and liked them, you will definitely enjoy this one. If you’re new to Mr Palahniuk, I would recommend any of the four books released before 2001 instead of Rant. Maybe Choke or Invisible Monster, since both are on their way to the big screen (Choke and Invisible Monsters on IMDB), and it’s always good to have read the book before you have seen the movie.

Due to the format of Rant, I do believe it would be a really interesting film… too.

Hoaa! I’m beginning to feel a bit bad about leaving this weblog with a super-long-and-super-geekie formula one post as a welcome for over a week. But hey, the weather has been all time record great and I have had better things to do:

Besides spending some time with my guitars and loving my new bike, I have changed mobile-phone, been to the cinema, ordered a washing machine, works some on the next version of the welookgoodontv and Social Suicide website, begun to transfer some of my domains to a new host, played some on our new Nintendo Wii etc and so on, you know — general stuff.

I have also started to tidy up a bit around this weblog… after all — it’s been 1 year and 1 day since it launched! So, a small tidy up for the occasion. As you can see, the blue line is gone (when CSS can deal with baseline better I might put it back), the typeface has changed (so now even PC users can read without getting a headache), the line-height is changed. I’m also working on the Tags page, the Archive page, the About page. We’ll see, maybe one day it will be complete.

OOOOOOOO, I almost forgot — Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey, the latest book by my favorite author Chuck Palahniuk, is on it’s way! It’s always a bit special when a new Chuck Palahniuk arrive in the mail box. Now, I really hope this book is getting a bit more like his first books. Haven’t been a huge fan of his latest; they have been ok, but not as good as the first (pre 9/11).

Joakim Jansson is coming to London tomorrow. He’s stopping by to say how amazing the Coachella festival was.

And, it’s bank holiday weekend this weekend! So, Willow and I might jump on a train on Saturday and head over to Bath.

Aaa, time for bed (and I need to tighten the chain on my bike).

Anatomy of Attention is a great post over at vvillovv’s. It’s about the ‘Me Me Me and I’. About the spotlights of the world. The world where I is definitely more important then us, we or them.

This article, titled: People Over 35 Should be Dead, got me thinking of, and reminded me of, a chapter in a Chuck Palahniuk book called Survivors (both of them, the article and the book are brilliant and I suggest you read them both). They aren’t very similar. The article just brought a chapter of the book back into my memory.

They both are about how society evolves into different eras, that later on will be looked upon as something stupid. It’s about different cultures at different times and different reference points which place different weights upon different values. The only common factor is the fact that we are dealing with people - humans.

The book is about a guy called Tender who’s brought up in a cult called Chreedish. In this cult, only the first born son can stay in the church district colony, the others must leave and work in the outside world.
On chapter 45, starting on page 276 (the book is a countdown, the chapters are structured in reverse so it is actually chapter 2 page 13) Tender is getting a haircut done by his older brother Adam. This is the last thing before Tender leaves the church district colony for the outside world. Adam, being the first born son and allowed to stay in the church district colony, has also been allowed outside the colony to do some errands. So during these last moments together, Adam tells Tender a few things about the outside world. Here are some of quotes from that chapter:

In the outside world, he said. women had the power to change the color of their hair. And their eyes. And their lips.

In the outside world, he said, people kept birds inside their houses. He’d seen it.

In the outside world, he said, people were visited in their houses by spirits they called television.
Spirits spoke to people through what they called the radio.

People used what they called a telephone because they hated being close together and they were too scared of being alone.

People in the outside world said something stupid with their every breath, and when they didn’t talk their radios filled the gap with the copied voices of people singing the same song over and over.

Evil flowed through electric wires to make people lazy.

Water in pipes carried away their garbage and shit so that it was someone else’s problem.

…in the outside world, people looked in mirrors. Right in front of him on the bus, he said, people had mirrors and everyone was busy seeing how they looked. It was shameful.

A hotel, he told me, was a big house where a lot of people lived and ate and slept, but no on knew each other. He said that described most families in the outside world.

Churches in the outside world, my brother told me, were just the local stores that sold people lies made up in the distant factories of giant religions.

Sure - some of these are a bit exaggerated - but he makes a good point. If we look upon ourselves (at least here; in rich and other rich and priviledge societies) with a bit of an objective eye and a bit of distance - we are pathetic. Religion. Culture. Modern sociality. These blocks have shaped, over time - ridiculous value stones, which we all have bought shares in.