Chuck Palahniuk's Blog, page 18

Video: 'Fight Club' Presented by The Girls on Film

Somehow I missed this one. I guess I shouldn't beat myself up since Fight Club continues to become one of the most spoofed and homaged films of the past 15 years. This spoof comes by way of The Girls on Film.  Here's their bio from their YouTube channel:

The Girls on Film is the earth-shattering, mind-blowing trio of professional actors Ashleigh Harrington, Cat McCormick and Jeff Hammond.

We're recreating awesome movie scenes between men, with women playing their parts. Its our innovative way of sharing our passion for storytelling and injecting our own personal cocktail of fun and friskiness throughout the galaxy.

We are in the process of remaking all of our favourite guy-on-guy movie scenes for your viewing pleasure. Please share with us your favourite male scenes so our fabulous team can make them too.

For more information, join us at our blog: http://www.thegirlsonfilm.com read more »

St. Helen's Books Promotion - Chuck Palahniuk Foreign Language Books & Pre-Order of 'Damned' Signed & Personally Inscribed!

Our favorite affiliates and friends, St. Helens Book Shop are having a very awesome and unique promotion.  They have recently acquired a number of foreign language books, signed by Chuck, and they are now offering them up for sale!  They are new/unread books, but have been sitting in storage at Chuck's place for several years, so they vary in condition.

The books have been graded them into 4 price categories of $5, $10, $15, and $20, based on quality and condition, and they are grouped by language within the price category.They  have cover images for many of them, but not all, so if you have any questions about the details of a particular book, feel free to email their Orders Manager at order at sthelensbookshop dot com.

So what are you waiting for?  Get over to St. Helens today!  The cut-off for this promotion is April 10th!

Order Signed Foreign Language Books Here!

St. Helen's has also launched their promo on signed pre-orders of Chuck's upcoming novel Damned!  Damned will not be out until October 18th, but Chuck will sign and personally inscribe (you have this option on the St. Helen's site) your pre-order for you and when it ships, it will be signed to you, with your personal inscription included!

Pre-Order 'Damned' Signed & Personally Inscribed Here! read more »

Jeff Wise

Fear is the mind-killer; it is the little-death that brings total obliteration. Whether you are a soldier on the battlefield or a housewife cornered by a cockroach, it is a formidable foe. It can heighten your senses, providing a performance enhancing jolt of adrenaline, yet it can also cause your body to completely shut down on itself. They say only the strong survive, but the many x-factors associated with the fear response pose a danger to even the most well prepared individual. Despite this, good old fashioned knowledge is still your best defense in a dangerous situation. And nobody is more aware of that fact than science writer/outdoor adventurer Jeff Wise.

Wise is currently a contributing editor at both Travel + Leisure and Popular Mechanics. He has also written for the likes of Details, Esquire, National Geographic Adventure and The New York Times Magazine, to name an illustrious few. Throughout his career he has repeatedly put himself in harms way for the sake of a good story (not to mention his own personal enjoyment), tackling everything from skydiving to dog sledding to piloting a WWII fighter plane. He recently distilled his years of experience and turned a critical eye towards the science behind the adventure. The result is Extreme Fear: The Science Of Your Mind In Danger, an investigation into what H.P. Lovecraft called the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind. read more »

Fan Artwork: 'Invisible Monsters' Book Cover

Check out this awesome book cover for Invisible Monsters designed by Elyse Boutall.  This was part of an art project where Elyse had to read the book and then create a book cover illustration for it.  See a high res version of Elyse' design here.  And check out more of her work on her official site.

I have a soft spot for fan submitted artwork.  In the early days of The Cult, the largest section we hosted on the site was the Fan Submissions section.  It was loaded to the core with banners, portraits, wallpapers, and my favorite... book covers & dust jackets.  

Check out some of them in our Fan Submission Gallery.

And as always, if you have a Book Cover you designed that you'd like to submit, send it to submissions @ chuckpalahniuk. net.

Book Vs. Film: Let The Right One In

"Ah, let the right one slip in, slip in, slip in.

And when at last it does, I'd say you were within your rights

to bite the right one and say, what kept you so long?,

What kept you so long?"

If you ever just see Let the Right One In, you've had a nearly perfect film experience. If you've also read the book, you've had the whole enchilada. It's not necessary, but it never hurts. The democratic whole shebang. Look, allow me to illuminate, readers: I will just tell you what the book adds, where it differs in a way that would interest you, probably crush a little hard on the movie, and Matt Reeves is a douchebag.

While we are on the subject, and since you asked for my opinion, I have never seen the American remake, Let Me In. And I won't be, ever. And I'm only half a snob when it comes to Americanized versions: I prefer the American version of the Japanese Ringu, for example, and enjoyed Haneke's shot for shot remake of his own German Funny Games. I liked it the first time, too, and his bristled contempt for an American audience was gleeful. For every Ringu there is a Grudge, and for every Funny Games there is a painful The Vanishing. To remake a beautiful film for Western audiences just so they don't have to do any of that bothersome reading stuff or look at an albino for 90 minutes, and will pay handsomely for anything vampire related, especially if it already has great word of mouth, is a dreadful grab for ducats. I knew that they were just giving people lip service when they changed Eli's name. Eli. Yeah, it's weird to the Swedish kid, too, but there's a reason it's a strange name for a girl. Reeves was all, yeah, I want to be true to the book and stuff, faithful to the source and stuff, and yeah we're changing Eli's name to Abby. One of these things is not like the other. He had a good cast. There are my $.02. So, feel free to discuss your opinions down yonder re: Reeves's gilded lily bastardization. Moving on to the good stuff! read more »

Chuck Palahniuk Starring In The Short Film 'Georgie's Big Break'

Georgie's Big Break is a short film directed by Andy Mingo, based on a story by Monica Drake (Clown Girl).  And guess who's in it?  I'll give you a hint: his name is this website.  Yep, Chuck, along with a host of other local writers (Chelsea Caine, Lidi Yuknavitch) play themselves in the film.

Here's the IMDB summary for Georgie's Big Break:

Featuring Northwest literary stars Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club), New York Times bestselling author, Chelsea Cain (Heartsick), and Willy Vluatin (The Motel Life), Georgie's Big Break is about the high hopes of a single mother, a woman living the life of the body as she raises her infant. She makes a fresh foray back to the world of ideas through Portland's largest literary festival. With a mix of comedy and genuine emotion, this film offers a showcase of some of Portland's hottest talent. Based on a story written by Monica Drake (author of Clown Girl) and adapted and directed by Andy Mingo.

Andy is gearing up for the festival circuit, but the film is still listing as 'In Post Production' so I'm not sure yet where it's playing or where you can see it.  I was curious to get some words from Chuck himself on it though.  Here's what he had to say: read more »

Book Vs. Film: Howl

In the wake of all the tragedy and sadness that occurred in in Japan last week, we're going to attempt to kick off this week with a new feature here at The Cult.  So turn off CNN for ten minutes and read something that hopefully makes you a little happier for the hour.  

This idea is something that's been at the back of my mind on and off throughout the years, but it took Tina Estlin Page, one of our more reclusive journalists, to jolt it back into the forefront.  She put forth the idea of reviewing the 2010 adaptation of Allen Ginsberg's controversial writing piece Howl, which was directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and stars James Franco as Ginsberg. And thus, the idea for this feature was born.  

I'm going to call this new feature Book Vs. Film, but as you know, Howl is not a book at all, but a poem.  Now, I'd love to actually call this a column, but I don't know with what sort of frequency we'll be able to keep up with.  A lot of that will depend on you, the readers, and how well you respond to it.  So here we go! - Dennis read more »

'Invisible Monsters' Is Finally Coming To Hardcover

For several years now, there has been an underground movement to get Invisible Monsters released in hardcover.  Believe it or not, this beloved book of Chuck's is the only novel of his that was never released in this format.  At the time, this was Chuck's specific wish. Invisible Monsters (originally titled Manifesto) was written before Fight Club but was never originally allowed to see the light of day because his publishers rejected it, due to its disturbing content.  Rather than let this news set him back, Chuck did the opposite of what everyone expected and amped things up even further with Fight Club, which then ironically got published and become his "first" novel.  

Three years later in 1999, the same year Chuck published Survivor, he got to finally see the release of Invisible Monsters, as a slightly revised edition.  He then insisted that this novel only be released in paperback, as he hated the idea of charging his fans too much for it.  

Little did Chuck know that this would turn out to be, perhaps, his most universally loved novel. So it will come as no surprise that a few years later, in the early days of this website, a movement began to get Invisible Monsters re-released in hardcover.  The fans were demanding it.  We even started an online petition. read more »