Tonight I stopped by our local Boarders Books to see Chuck Palahniuk who was appearing as part of the book tour for his new novel Diary. Earlier this year I had read his first novel, Fight Club, and really enjoyed it. I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to meet him in person and hear him discuss his latest work.
Instead of giving a reading from Diary he decided to read a piece entitled “Guts” that will be featured in an upcoming work. He explained that he had submitted it to Playboy after receiving a request for a story but it had been rejected since they found the subject matter rather graphic for their readers. He also mentioned that when he gave a reading of this piece last night at Powell’s Books that two members of the audience fainted. At this point I figured he was just being overly dramatic.
Unfortunately I too became a statistic – about three minutes into the reading of “Guts” I felt pretty light headed as the imagery he was reading actually made me start to feel ill. This is not to say it was a bad piece – if anything it is a testament to his ability as a writer that by simply reading some words he could evoke such a physical response from me. I ended up having to step out and get some air so I ended up missing the second half of his talk.
I did return later to get him to autograph a copy of Choke and Diary for me. I found him to be very personable as he took the time to briefly talk to each person he was autographing a book for. I hope to start reading Diary this weekend.
glad you made it too. did you see the girl actually faint i was sitting near her. I was at the powells reading last night but didnt see anyone faint i tend to wonder if chuck likes to embilish things:)
I missed the girl in the audience fainting – granted I was too busy trying not to visualize the candle wax he was describing. I feel like such a dumb ass since this is the first time in my life that seeing / hearing something has triggered such a physical reaction from me. I’m pissed that I missed the ending of the story.
I just got back from a reading. Yep, I passed out. Not cold, but I went down to my knees and had to stay there a few minutes until I recovered enough to stand. It was a surreal experience.
if you folks got queasy during the middle of the story, you would have passed out cold when he told the third kid’s tale. one of the people i was with said she nearly threw up, but was laughing too hard.
i saw him last night at union square in nyc, and the 23rd person during this tour passed out during the reading.
another thing he mentioned last night was that playboy changed their minds, and will be picking up the story. not sure which issue it will be published in. but presumably, guts will show up in his upcoming collection of short stories.
That is more or less what I experienced EthelElcohol – one minute I was standing up and trying not to puke and the next thing I recall was a lady in front of me offering me a chair to sit down on. Apparently I blacked out for a few seconds. Fortunately for me my wife was kind enough to keep me on my feet. After sitting a moment we ended up leaving for a while so I could get some air.
I made it part way through the third kids tale – I lost it when he described the incident with the candle wax that necessitated a trip to the hospital. I’m glad Playboy is picking it up as I’d like to know how the story ended.
man its crazy how many people are searching for this story. I am getting crazy hits for it and a lot are coming from your site, i think nearly 100. maybe its because we were the first couple of people to write about it?
Yeah that is weird. I checked my referrer logs and there have been just shy of 500 people that found this page by searching.
Yeah, Chuck dropped by the Univ. of Pittsburgh tonight and read the now infamous story. I seriously broke into a sweat and felt like keeling over and vomiting on the dress of the nice girl sitting next to me.
It just proves how good of a writer he is, even though i almost blacked out
Also at the Univ. of Pittsburgh reading last night. He described “Guts” as what Poe might write, but weren’t we in de Sade or Bataille territory? (Or, what Poe would write if he landed in Florida, with a brother in the military.) –
Anyone consider that, given his book “Lullaby” (about physically ending someone’s life via words), it is interesting that he can now write something which makes people throw up and pass out? –
I ate too much pizza before the talk and damn near lost it when he realized why he couldn’t swim to the surface of the pool.
i saw chuck in pittsburgh. amazing story. its all real! ive seen it! check out my pittsburgh account over at the official chuck palahniuk site:
http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/community/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4714
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