Trisa and I went to Borders yesterday, where we and about three hundred other people listened to Chuck Palahniuk read "Guts".
If you've ever read "Guts," then right now you're likely raising your eyebrow at the idea of this piece being read aloud in a public bookstore where there were in fact five year old children wandering around. Yes, it was glorious.
This story, which made even Poppy Z. Brite uncomfortable, has, according to Mr. Palahniuk, made more than twenty people black out, six of which occured last night at the selfsame Borders' reading. One elderly man, in another city, was even found in a pool of blood after having passed out, hitting his head against a shelf. I assume he didn't die, but Palahniuk didn't say.
It even made me uncomfortable, and has had some lingering effects as occasionally I catch myself to-day wondering about things that might be shoved up my ass for various effects.
The story has to do with guys experimenting with different ways of masturbating. Palahniuk's stated intention with this story, as well as with a number of others that shall be included with it in a forthcoming collection, was to attempt something like what Edgar Allen Poe was most famously concerned with in his tales--to make us uncomfortable by using subject matter that we all deal with in some way or another in our lives but never, ever talk about. Honestly, when Palahniuk said this, I don't think it was seriously possible for him to carry it off. But, well. He did.
If you want to read it, it's online in a number of places, including here. I don't know if it's with proper permissions anything but, then, I don't know if it isn't . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment