Chuck Palahniuk

Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk (born February 21 1961 in Pasco, Washington, USA) is an American satirical novelist and freelance journalist living in Portland, Oregon. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher. He has one of the largest centralized followings of any author on the Internet, based around his official web site. His writings, similar in style to those of such peers as Bret Easton Ellis, Irvine Welsh, and Douglas Coupland, have made him one of the most popular novelists of Generation X.

Biography

Palahniuk (pronounced PAUL-ah-nik or Pôlənĭk) is the son of Carol and Fred Palahniuk, and grew up living in a static caravan in Burbank, Washington, with his family. His parents later separated and divorced, often leaving him and his three siblings to live with their grandparents at their cattle ranch in eastern Washington.{{ref|jenkins}}

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In his twenties, Palahniuk attended the University of Oregon's School of Journalism, graduating in 1986. While attending college, he worked as an intern for National Public Radio's KLCC in Eugene, Oregon. He moved to Portland soon afterwards. After writing for the local newspaper for a short while, he began working for Freightliner as a diesel mechanic, continuing in that job until his writing career took off. During that time, he also wrote manuals on fixing trucks and had a short stint as a journalist (a job he did not return to until after he became a successful novelist). After casually attending an Erhard Seminars Training seminar held by an organization called the Landmark Forum, Palahniuk quit his job as a journalist.{{ref|frightclub}} Wanting to do more with his life than just his job, Palahniuk did volunteer work for a homeless shelter. Later, he also volunteered at a hospice as an escort; he provided transportation for terminally ill people and brought them to support group meetings. He ceased volunteering upon the death of a patient to whom he had grown attached. (Palahniuk, p.195-199){{ref|stf}}

Related Topics:
University of Oregon - National Public Radio - Eugene, Oregon - Freightliner - Erhard Seminars Training - Hospice

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Palahniuk would also become a member of the rebellious Cacophony Society in his adulthood. He is a regular participant in their events, including the annual Santa Rampage (a public Christmas party involving pranks and drunkenness) in Portland. His participation in the Society inspired some of the events in his writings, both fictional and non-fictional.{{ref|stf}} Most notably, he used the Cacophony Society as the basis for Project Mayhem in Fight Club.

Related Topics:
Cacophony Society - Santa Rampage - Christmas

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Palahniuk began writing fiction in his mid-thirties. By his recount, he started writing while attending writer's workshops, hosted by Tom Spanbauer, which he attended to meet new friends. Spanbauer largely inspired Palahniuk's minimalistic writing style. His first book, Insomnia: If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Already, was never published due to his disappointment with the story (though a small part of it would be salvaged for use in Fight Club). When he attempted to publish his next novel, Invisible Monsters, publishers rejected it for being too disturbing. This led him to work on his most famous novel, Fight Club, which he wrote as an attempt to disturb the publisher even more for rejecting him. Palahniuk wrote this story in his spare time while working for Freightliner. After initially publishing it as a short story in the compilation Pursuit of Happiness (which would become chapter 6 of the novel), Palahniuk expanded it into a full novel, which – contrary to his expectations – the publisher was willing to publish.{{ref|tomlinson}} While the original hardcover edition of the book received positive reviews and some awards, it had a short shelf life. Nevertheless, the book made its way to Hollywood, where interest in adapting it to film was growing. The film was eventually completed in 1999 by director David Fincher. The film was a box office disappointment (although it was #1 at the U.S. box office in its first weekend) and critical reaction was mixed, but a cult following soon emerged as the DVD of the film was popular upon release. Two paperback re-releases of the novel, one in 1999 and the other in 2004, were later made (the latter of which contains a new introduction by the author about the success of the film adaptation).

Related Topics:
Tom Spanbauer - Invisible Monsters - Short story - 1999 - Cult following

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While not all fans of the film realized that it was based on a novel, many fans did, and a fan base for the author's work soon began to form. A revised version of Invisible Monsters, as well as his fourth novel, Survivor, were also published that year, allowing Palahniuk to become a cult figure himself. A few years later Palahniuk managed to make his first New York Times bestseller, the novel Choke. From then on, Palahniuk's later books would often meet with similar success. Such success has allowed him to go on book tours to promote his books, where he reads from both new and upcoming works.

Related Topics:
Survivor - Cult figure - ''New York Times'' bestseller - Choke

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The year 1999 affected Palahniuk's later writings. At that time, his father Fred Palahniuk had started dating a woman named Donna Fontaine. Fontaine had recently put her ex-boyfriend Dale Shackleford in prison for sexual abuse. Shackleford had vowed to kill Fontaine as soon as he was released from prison. After his release, Shackleford followed Fontaine and the senior Palahniuk to Fontaine's home in Kendrick, Idaho, after they had gone out for a date. Shackleford then shot them both and dragged their bodies into Fontaine's cabin home, which he set on fire immediately afterwards. In the spring of 2001, Shackleford was found guilty for two counts of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. In the wake of these events, Palahniuk began working on the novel Lullaby. According to him, he wrote the novel to help him cope with having helped decide to have Shackleford get the death sentence.

Related Topics:
Kendrick, Idaho - Lullaby - Death sentence

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In September 2003, Palahniuk was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly's Karen Valby. During the interview, Palahniuk confidentially mentioned information pertaining to his spouse. While it had been previously believed by many that he was married to a woman (some members of the press had claimed he had a wife), Palahniuk had in fact been living with his boyfriend. Some time later, Palahniuk believed that Valby was going to print this information in her article, without his consent. In response, he put an angry audio recording of himself on his web site, not only revealing that he is gay, but also making negative comments about Valby and a member of her family. However, Palahniuk's fears turned out to be ungrounded, and Valby's article did not reveal anything about his personal life outside of the fact that he is unmarried. The recording was later removed from the web site, making some fans believe that Palahniuk is embarrassed of his homosexuality. According to Dennis Widmyer, the site's webmaster, the recording was not removed because of the statements regarding his sexuality, but because of the statements about Valby. Palahniuk would later post a new recording to his site, asking his fans not to overreact to these events. He also apologized for his behavior, claiming that he wished he had not recorded the message.{{ref|chalmers}}

Related Topics:
2003 - Entertainment Weekly - Gay

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While on his 2003 tour to promote his novel Diary, Palahniuk read to his audiences a short story titled Guts, a tale of accidents involving masturbation which appears in his book Haunted. It was reported that over 35 people fainted while listening to the readings (although it is possible that many of these incidents were staged by Palahniuk's fans for humorous effect).{{ref|dare}} Playboy magazine would later publish the story in their March 2004 issue; Palahniuk offered to let them publish another story along with it, but the publishers found the second work too disturbing. On his tour to promote ' in the summer of 2004, he read the story to audiences again, bringing the total amount of fainters up to 53, and later up to 60, while on tour to promote the softcover edition of Diary. The last fainting occurred in November, 2004, in Durham, North Carolina. Palahniuk is apparently not bothered by these incidents, which have not stopped fans from reading "Guts" or his other works.

Related Topics:
Diary - Masturbation - Haunted - Playboy - 2004 - November - Durham, North Carolina

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