Haunted…sick & twisted “real” people…
…The difference between how you look and how you see yourself is enough to kill most people. And maybe the reason vampires don’t die is because they can never see themselves in photographs or mirrors…This is one my favorite lines from a short story titled Post-Production by Chuck Palahniuk. It is framed within Palahniuk’s novel Haunted along with 22 other stories. The novel itself reminds me a bit (in its own sick and twisted way) of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Twenty-three strangers (and self-proclaimed writers) find themselves stuck if not completely trapped together, self-absorbed egoes and all, in a delapitated old theatre building. They have come together under the pretext of a writer’s retreat. Each is to abandon their lives for three months so that the masterpiece within them can emerge without distraction. It seems however, that everyone’s own worst enemy, that goes by the name of ego, will in due time kill everyone off. And the one left standing, if any, will be the hero in the movie version of the story that will be told by this survivor. To either pass the time, or to give people small windows of opportunity to sabatoge each other, one by one these “authors” spin their own tales each one outdoing the last. With every story I read, I felt as if I was reading stories spun off from the based-on-real-life column News of the Weird. Then I find out that among Palahniuk’s writing accomplishments he is also the author of the nonfiction collection Stranger Than Fiction…that figures. So far, I’ve read stories of self-mutilating mastrubation, massage-therapist assassins, and wealthy folks who disguise themselves as homeless for kicks and escape from the public eye to name a few. I’m thinking the word that describes the thread that connects these stories would have to be INTEGRITY. Just what is your integrity worth?
I will be putting this book down temporarily though. I just received through inter-library loan the Palahniuk novel I originally went into my public library for which is titled Fight Club. Yes, it is the book the movie of the same title is based on. Years ago, after viewing the film, I thought to myself, “I’d love to write a story like that.” Well, I’m finally going to read it, and from the looks of the stories in Haunted, I don’t believe I’ll be disappointed. Stay tuned for news on that progression…
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