When someone says the name Chuck Palahniuk, if it’s even
pronounced right, the first thing that comes to most people’s
mind is “Fight Club.”
Palahniuk, who gained fame with the 1996 breakthrough novel
turned film and became a cult phenomenon, is pushing his latest
book, “Lullaby,” today at a free signing in the
Ackerman Grand Ballroom at 1 p.m.
But he says that today’s appearance will not just be
another run-of-the-mill-author-appearance-reading signing.
“It’s always a challenge to see what weird thing I can
give away at (these events),” he said, “or how I can
mix it up so that people are a little more
participatory.”
“Lullaby” features Carl Streator, a reporter who
discovers that a culling song in an anthology of children’s
poetry has the power to kill anyone who hears it.
When asked why he chose a journalist as a protagonist, Palahniuk
said “they have exposure to a lot of different things, and
because I wanted to play with that whole ethics thing.” The
“ethics thing” questions how involved a reporter should
be in his own story.
This becomes complicated when Streator finds himself more
connected to the book he is investigating than he realized.
Other than Palahniuk’s fiction, he also writes as a
journalist for magazines like Gear. It is this connection to the
protagonist that separates “Lullaby” from earlier works
like “Survivor,” “Invisible Monsters” and
“Choke.”
“The other four books really deal with the whole American
archetype, living in a country where you have no established social
structure and no caste system ““ you’re free to invent
yourself,” he said. The character, Tyler Durden, from
“Fight Club,” is an obvious example.
In “Lullaby,” there is no doppelganger. The
journalist has to deal with a mess he didn’t create himself.
This time it’s eight lines of poetry that can kill.
Palahniuk has found exploring the world between fiction and
non-fiction fulfilling. “One is the antidote for the
other,” he said, “because when you write fiction, you
burn out a little bit, you end up using everything in your
experience.”
“But with non-fiction, what you have to do is just sit
back and listen,” he said, “and allow something to
occur, and then document it.”
On top of touring, Palahniuk has managed to keep himself busy
with two more pieces. One is a traveller’s guide to Portland,
Oreg., his home town. In it, he interviewed people involved in
strange activities that tourists can take part in.
“And so Portland seems to be this collection of weird
people,” he said, “rather than buildings.”
The other project is his next novel, due out summer 2003.
Tentatively titled “Period Revival,” Palahniuk
described it as “my shot at conspiracy horror.”
When he’s not writing, Palahniuk keeps busy. “I
think it was yesterday I sent off 30 boxes full of stuff to people
““ toys and gifts and gags,” he said.
Palahniuk is notorious for exchanging random bric-a-brac with
friends and associates.
He is not shy when it comes to correspondences. “I make it
a point to return all of the first letters (from fans) I
get,” he said. “Unless the first letters are really
scary and abusive. Those go right in the trash. I get some really
insulting, kind of death threaty letters.”
When the name Chuck Palahniuk is mentioned, the first thing that
may come to mind is Tyler Durden, Project Mayhem and soap. But that
is not Chuck Palahniuk.
This is Chuck Palahniuk: “I collect snowglobes from every
place I go on tour. Only the cheapest, tackiest snowglobes I can
find. I think I’ve got a dozen L.A. ones. I’ve got
Phoenix and Dallas snow globes.”