Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Strong Beginning
The most important line of the first chapter of Fight Club is: "Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die." This is also the first sentence of the book, which emphasizes it quite a bit more and makes it more memorable. Right off the bat, Palahniuk shocks the reader with this impacting line to showcase Tyler's personality. He is evil. Well, he turns evil because at the beginning of the narrator's story, he explains that they were best friends. This really engaged me from the beginning. I couldn't shake it from my mind because it kind of gave me chills. The author reaches out from the book and slaps the reader across the face, which really grabs their attention. I think this is a very strong and powerful beginning that I don't find in most books. Hopefully there will be more of these WOAH moments throughout the book to make it a very enjoyable read.
Character Symbols
Tyler Durden, one of the main characters from Fight Club is very similar to a cruise boat. This symbolizes him because a cruise boat is very tall and powerful. Tyler is very sturdy and able to "stay afloat." By this I mean that he is able to make ends meet. He is very powerful because he, along with the narrator started a club where members fight until they bleed. And then they fight some more. He is the leader of the club and everyone respects him to the point where they will do what he tells them to. Cruise boats are very sturdy and stay afloat, unless you count the Titanic. And all those other shipwrecks and stuff.
A symbol for the mainest of the characters, the narrator, is Squidward. He is bored with life. He is apathetic about everything. And he has insomnia. Squidward is very dull, always speaking in a monotone voice. He hates his job and just about everything else. Except his weird obsession with his clarinet. You could also say he gets very little sleep because Spongebob is always causing a ruckus that keeps him up late at night.
A symbol for the mainest of the characters, the narrator, is Squidward. He is bored with life. He is apathetic about everything. And he has insomnia. Squidward is very dull, always speaking in a monotone voice. He hates his job and just about everything else. Except his weird obsession with his clarinet. You could also say he gets very little sleep because Spongebob is always causing a ruckus that keeps him up late at night.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Chuck Palahniuk
Chuck Palahniuk (paula-nick) is the author of the book I am currently reading, Fight Club. He is a very famous author who has written 19 novels. Some of his more popular books are Invisible Monsters, Survivor, and Choke. However, definitely the most commonly known is Fight Club.
He was born February 21st, 1962, making him 52 years old at the time of writing this. He lived in a mobile home in Burbank, Washington until he was 14 and his parents divorced. This caused him to live with his mother's parents on their ranch. When Chuck's father was 3 years old, his father shot and killed his wife over the cost of a sewing machine while he hid under a bed. Then, he saw his father turn the gun on himself, all at such a young age. What an awful, horrible, tragic event. Palahniuk began writing for fun while in grade school, and in highschool was awarded "Most Wittiest". He graduated school at the University of Oregon with a bachelor's degree in journalism. For a while, he lived a normal life, until he began writing fiction in his thirties. He had his big break when he wrote Fight Club. After a few years, a movie was produced starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. This book and movie have achieved a 'cult following' and has won an many awards.
His writing style is very dark in almost all of his books. Maybe that had to do with his bad childhood, or maybe not. Either way I really enjoy his writing so far in Fight Club and will probably try reading Survivor after I finish. He also has his own website if you would like to take a peek at that, here it is.
He was born February 21st, 1962, making him 52 years old at the time of writing this. He lived in a mobile home in Burbank, Washington until he was 14 and his parents divorced. This caused him to live with his mother's parents on their ranch. When Chuck's father was 3 years old, his father shot and killed his wife over the cost of a sewing machine while he hid under a bed. Then, he saw his father turn the gun on himself, all at such a young age. What an awful, horrible, tragic event. Palahniuk began writing for fun while in grade school, and in highschool was awarded "Most Wittiest". He graduated school at the University of Oregon with a bachelor's degree in journalism. For a while, he lived a normal life, until he began writing fiction in his thirties. He had his big break when he wrote Fight Club. After a few years, a movie was produced starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. This book and movie have achieved a 'cult following' and has won an many awards.
His writing style is very dark in almost all of his books. Maybe that had to do with his bad childhood, or maybe not. Either way I really enjoy his writing so far in Fight Club and will probably try reading Survivor after I finish. He also has his own website if you would like to take a peek at that, here it is.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
New Book - Fight Club
I have just began a book titled Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. This great read has won 2 awards for its fabulousness and has been turned into an academy award winning film. I heard about the movie first, about a year or so ago, and my parents told me I shouldn't watch it. So I finished the movie and loved it. It is definitely one of my favs now up there with Office Space (Dog, check it out). I then learned that it was a novel before a movie after watching it a second time, and figured I'd check that out. Then, I didn't do that. But now I am doing that! So yeah. Cool.
I am only at the beginning and I am already greeaaatly pleased with my decision. Palahniuk has a very unique and amazing writer style. In this book, the tone is very dark and a little twisted. I kind of like that because it is almost never boring and very descriptive. He also uses very gruesome word choices instead of regular words to add some spice to the pages. I predict that when he is describing the fight scenes in their basement later, I'll want to throw up. But I won't, because I'm a man. A lot of times when I start to read a book, I never actually finish it unless I really, really enjoy it. Unless I really want to know how the book ends, I'll just put it down and eat some Cheerios. Now I already know how it ends, even though the book has some differences than the movie, but I have a feeling I am going to read this from start to finish because of the incredible author and how different from other books this one is.
By the way, I just figured out that the author has decided to make a sequel in graphic novel format. So if you're into that kind of stuff, you should check that out as well.
I am only at the beginning and I am already greeaaatly pleased with my decision. Palahniuk has a very unique and amazing writer style. In this book, the tone is very dark and a little twisted. I kind of like that because it is almost never boring and very descriptive. He also uses very gruesome word choices instead of regular words to add some spice to the pages. I predict that when he is describing the fight scenes in their basement later, I'll want to throw up. But I won't, because I'm a man. A lot of times when I start to read a book, I never actually finish it unless I really, really enjoy it. Unless I really want to know how the book ends, I'll just put it down and eat some Cheerios. Now I already know how it ends, even though the book has some differences than the movie, but I have a feeling I am going to read this from start to finish because of the incredible author and how different from other books this one is.
By the way, I just figured out that the author has decided to make a sequel in graphic novel format. So if you're into that kind of stuff, you should check that out as well.
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