Many people have a visceral reaction to Palahniuk’s Guts, but it never hit me particularly hard. That and the underage incest impreg fantasies, it was always a bit of a turn off.
Honestly, for me, nothing beats good old Edgar Allan Poe, and he’s already in the syllabus.
I had started reading his short story collection (that contains Guts, forget what its called) back in high school after reading like three of his other books in a row (Lullaby, Survivor and Fight Club), and I was just burnt out on the shock factor thing.
That would probably be Haunted. Yeah, I see what you mean.
That said, Palahniuk will always have a special place in my heart for introducing me to one of my favorite authors, Amy Hempel. (See eg https://www.csub.edu/~mault/palahniuk.htm )
Also, from a Reddit AmA, my favorite quote about the writing process. Someone asked a question along the line of, how do you know when you are done writing? When it’s polished enough?
And he answered something along the lines of “I have a simple rule. A writing project isn’t done until I want to kill myself and everyone else involved with it”.
I was in the final stages of writing my doctoral dissertation back then, and boy did it resonate with me.
Many people have a visceral reaction to Palahniuk’s Guts, but it never hit me particularly hard. That and the underage incest impreg fantasies, it was always a bit of a turn off.
Honestly, for me, nothing beats good old Edgar Allan Poe, and he’s already in the syllabus.
My head immediately went to tell tale heart.
Poe had lots of fucked up stories. The red death is another that stuck with me.
I had started reading his short story collection (that contains Guts, forget what its called) back in high school after reading like three of his other books in a row (Lullaby, Survivor and Fight Club), and I was just burnt out on the shock factor thing.
Never finished the collection.
That would probably be Haunted. Yeah, I see what you mean.
That said, Palahniuk will always have a special place in my heart for introducing me to one of my favorite authors, Amy Hempel. (See eg https://www.csub.edu/~mault/palahniuk.htm )
Also, from a Reddit AmA, my favorite quote about the writing process. Someone asked a question along the line of, how do you know when you are done writing? When it’s polished enough? And he answered something along the lines of “I have a simple rule. A writing project isn’t done until I want to kill myself and everyone else involved with it”.
I was in the final stages of writing my doctoral dissertation back then, and boy did it resonate with me.