CHUCK PALAHNIUK

Adolescence Is Hell

The famed author of cult hits Fight Club and Survivor, Seattle based writer Chuck Palahniuk’s latest novel explores the literal pits of Hell. Damned is available now via Random House.

Damned is an account of Hell as told from the point of view of 13 year-old Madison, a new occupant of the cesspool reality. After dying of what she can only assume is a marijuana overdose, she contemplates her short life while walking the waste lands of Hell; the Great Ocean of Wasted Sperm and the Dandruff Desert, all told only like Palahniuk can. Damned is described by the man himself as, “If the Shawshank Redemption had a baby by The Lovely Bones and it was raised by Judy Blume.”

“I am still 13 years old. So are you. We’ve just forgotten that fact,” explains Palahniuk when asked about writing for 13 year-old protagonist Madison.

“My goal was to write from a pre-gender, pre-adolescent place. It’s difficult to recall all the confidence and certainty you had before it was wrecked by puberty, but that smart androgynous person was my model for Madison. If I may add, my original age for her was 11, but the publisher felt she was too smart to be that young. In response I’d like to mention Jane Eyre, who was brilliant and well spoken from her earliest childhood, and whom we accepted instantly. In recent decades readers have come to expect child characters to be vacuous idiots. In the next book about Madison Spencer she will be 11, and she will be even smarter.”

In Damned the residents of Hell can recall quite a lot of knowledge about their demon and demigod oppressors; a style of folk writing that threads through nearly all of Pahalniuk’s work.

“The type of name-dropping demonology you mention is easy. There are shelves full of books devoted to it,” explains Palahniuk. “The trick is to use the names like a strange poetry and to establish some intellectual authority – in a way to ‘prove’ you did your research – but not refer to them so much that you bog down the story’s plot.    “In other books I’ve used medical terms or fashion terms for the same purpose: to provide scenery and atmosphere. In my novel Tell-All I used the names of thousands of dead actors and other celebrities as this same kind of set dressing.”

This style of folk tale recall, and the use of seemingly random bits of knowledge, keeps Palahniuk’s writing unique and always personal.

Palahniuk laughs at the notion of him absorbing these facts through out his life. “Absorb? You make me sound like a diaper or a Kotex. The reality is that I come from poor people who’ve never held power, and such people always watch for signs that will give them some sense of control over their destinies. A change in the weather might mean life or death for my farming ancestors so they invented countless ways to seemingly control or anticipate rain, wind, sunshine. I was raised with a million superstitions, but don’t ask me to add two fractions together.”

While Judy Blume’s novels help young girls conquer puberty, would Chuck recommend Damned be put on high school curriculum?

“Hardly, I’d recommend Damned to all adults to remind them of how smart and brave they once were. Perhaps adults can re-attain that confidence if they can remember it. Besides, children seldom have the money to buy books. Nor are they in a position to get a writer nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Also, children make terrible groupies.”

Since 2007’s Rant the prevalent author has been releasing a novel a year, quickly filling out his body of work.

“With Damned I’ll be slowing down,” Palahniuk reveals.

“I’ll still be writing; I love to write, and I’d go crazy without it. But the release and promotion of each book is too exhausting. When I recognised that I spent more time doing interviews than researching or writing fiction, something had to change. At most, I’ll be releasing a new book every other year. Writing is my leisure and my vocation. I will be happy to work madly until I die. When the film version of Rant is released, I’ll release the second book.”

Most writers have a ritual to their method. A certain mug of coffee starts the day or a late night, writing fueled frenzy that births their novels. Palahniuk explains his own routine.

“Every morning, before talking or listening to music or switching on the radio or computer, I always read something that’s been written in a good, clear voice. This patterns my thoughts in language for the rest of the day, and as good lines occur to me I collect them in a notebook. At five o’clock I have a cup of coffee and transfer my day’s notes into my current project on the computer. That’s every day, unless I’m traveling.”

Try as I might with sneakily worded questions, I can’t wrangle any new information out about the rumoured Lullaby HBO TV series. But a denial can be just as strong a hint and it sounds like some sort of Palahniuk TV adaptation is finally in the works.

“There are plans but I can’t mention any specifics. No one likes a blabbermouth who announces details early and steals everyone’s thunder.”

Damned is available now from all good, and remaining, book stores.

_TOM VARIAN