Meeting Chuck from Fight Club

This summer Lisa and really like harvesting strange autographs (like this one). To add another one we went to Munich on Wednesday to see Chuck Palahniuk, the novelist who wrote books such as Survivor, Choke or Fight Club, who held a reading there in the Café Muffathalle.

Although we had to queue up to get our tickets I bought over the internets we were lucky with the seat. Somewhat. You probably noticed that there’s no plural. But I didn’t mind standing because I had a better view and taking photos felt more natural. Additionally I was able to use one of the columns as cheap tripod. It turned 8pm and no Chuck there yet. So we kept on waiting among the people who took turns to order “two beers” at the bar. Book-groupies and The Cult members everywhere were eager to meet their idol.

But how do you pronounce Chuck Palahniuk? [Pah-lae-nik] the evening’s moderator said and a bald Chuck in a grey suit with flip-flops sat down between the moderator Bernhard Robben and the German (also voice) actor Johann Nikolussi who read out passages from Chuck’s latest book Rant.

Chuck is a very nice and very fun guy, we learned quickly, and he has a very distinct way of telling stories, especially when they involve himself. Usually he smirks, leans forward to the microphone and beams at the audience. Then he looks around beginning very slowly and emphasizing important passages and continues not much faster.

During the course of the first set of questions Chuck Palahniuk explained how he got into writing. “I wanted to become immortal, I wanted to become famous and I wanted to become rich. And with that in mind I began writing my first book that flopped.”. The more we learned about Chuck the more we realized that many of his books are composed of autobiographic details.

I was a driver for a hospice and drove dying people to their self-help groups and back to the hospice. And during those meetings I was sitting a little aside waiting to bring some of them back home. And because all the people were dying of some disease they thought that I was too, because I just sat there along with them. But, you know, you can’t tell them that you don’t. ‘No, I’m just a tourist’ – you can’t say that, that’s rude! And that was the starting point for my next book called Fight Club.

About the writing style of his latest book, which is an assembly of more than 50 different people’s points of view, Chuck said that it is much easier to create a fake “reality” by using bits and pieces rather than by a coherent narrative flow.

People nowadays grew up with movies and can read film language. You see a picture. And then another one. And another one. And you construct the narrative in your mind by yourself, you don’t want to get taken by your nose and guided through it. But today many people still write in this 19th century fashion: ‘She heard nothing of him. Two weeks later…’ etc. You don’t need this kind of connections.

[...]

Making people believe they are witnessing a documentary of any kind makes it much easier to give it a real touch. It’s the way Welles’ War of the Worlds works or The Blair Witch Project.

Another thing is that you can easily watch or read small pieces of a huge thing like some people’s personal view on a certain event instead of trying to recreate it as a solid whole. It’s just a small bit. And you don’t mind having another one. It’s like popcorn.

Palahniuk was asked what he thought about the local fight clubs that had emerged after his book and that, especially after the adaptation with Pitt and Norton, had popped up increasingly all around the world, and if he is afraid what will happen when people try out the things he invents in his books.

I don’t make things up. All the things I write about have happened somewhere to somebody. They are all around us, but we don’t want to know. But I think it is important to write about those things.

[...]

When I was in London a well-groomed guy in a suit came up to me and wanted to talk about Fight Club.
“The thing you wrote about in your book about urinating in people’s food in restaurants… I am a waiter in one of London’s finest restaurants… and we do it all the time!”.
I was like What? and he just smiled shyly. “What restaurant?” I asked him and he replied
“I can’t tell you or I will loose my job”. And I said:
“Then I am not going to sign your book!”. He stood there, looked at me, having a hard time and finally said: “There are two five star restaurants in London…” — pause —
“Margaret Thatcher ate my sperm.” – “WHAT?” – “At least five times”.

[...]

So you see those things are out there no matter I write about them or not.

After about ninety minutes and after hearing the complete chapter 16, a detailed description of “Party Crashing”, we were honored by hearing a new and unpublished short story from Chuck called Cold Calling only to be read out at this very place and not to be published anywhere. Could this be true? Of course it wasn’t according to an article in the Austrian newspaper Kurier that said he also read it out there the day before. What a charming son of a bitch!

But today’s session was no traditional reading. After hearing chapter 16 read out flawlessly by Nikolussi it was the audience’s turn to ask Chuck some questions while he smiled and took out a couple of envelopes with something written on them. It took people nearly a minute to become bold enough to ask.

“Thank you for asking me a question” Chuck said “I just handed you an envelope with a card on which my address is written. If you send it to me I’ll send you back a little surprise present as a way to thank you.”
“Any more questions?” Bernhard Robben asked and now more hands were raised, eager for that surprise from Chuck.

“I just hope it’s not a cut-off ear or something” I said to Lisa afterwards. “That wouldn’t surprise me from this guy”

The question asker stated that he writes on parties too, like Chuck wrote portions of Fight Club. He wanted to know if it had ever happened to Chuck that he couldn’t remember the next day what he had written the day before. Chuck took a deep breath and started another story:

I take these pills called Ambien when on a long flight. They make you forget, it’s like you have a hole in your memory. And before checking into the hotel there was a long line on the airport waiting at the security check. So I took a pill that I would forget about it. And after a couple of minutes I didn’t feel anything so I took another one.

The next day I woke up in my bed. And somebody had scattered sandwiches across my bed, mayonnaise, salad, bread, the whole stuff, and had only eaten out the ham and the cheese… And I suspected that it was me. And I couldn’t remember a thing. I called the reception if I had ordered room service the night before. ‘Not after 10pm’ the receptionist said ‘but the bar sells sandwiches. Well, I went to talk to the barkeeper whether I had bought any sandwiches last night. ‘You bought all of them’ he said.
I have to add at this point that I like to sleep naked.
‘Was I wearing any… shoes?’ I asked him. ‘No.’
‘Was I wearing any… clothes?’ – ‘No.’
And I learned that I didn’t use the elevator and walked fourteen floors naked with eight sandwiches to my room where I ate only the good parts.

“So do you still take these pills?” the guy with the question asked.
“Yes!” Chuck said with glowing eyes.
“But now I sleep in my underwear”

Wie geht es mit Sie?

After the session many people brought their books to Chuck’s table and wanted him to sign them as the highlight of the (rather short) evening. Lisa and I carried two Fugitives and Refugees and one Survivor with us. But shame on us: We purchased the books the day before in Graz and only knew their beginnings. And Fight Club was out of stock everywhere.

So we cued up, were asked for our names by an assistant to Mr. Palahniuk who wrote them on slips of paper in big letters and placed them on the page where Chuck would sign. He seemed rather familiar with signing books and got ready by unpacking a bouquet of fake flowers, a veil and a big box with a lot of ball-pens out of his bag and placed them in reach. Lisa and I giggled and wondered about the mysterious flowers and veil.

I was first and because Chuck is a nice guy he wrote something different in their books for everybody along with his signature. He even knew a few German phrases and signed Survivor with “Für Phil – 1-2-3 Testen Sie sich. Chuck Palahniuk” (“For Phil – 1-2-3 test yourself”). because the book starts with “Testing… 1-2-3… testing 1-2-3″.

On the cover of Fugitives and Refugees a bunch of Santa Clauses are pictured — I don’t know why yet. Chuck wrote “Ho, ho, ho Santa Phil – You. Chuck Palahniuk”. I thanked him and smiled and then it was Lisa’s turn. He signed “Für Lisa – Wie Geht es mit Sie? Chuck Palahniuk.”, (“For Lisa – How is it going with you?”) grammatically completely wrong and hence just adorable. Lisa bravely asked for a photo.
“Sure!” he said and pulled her behind his table where he handed her the fake bouquet, equipped her with the veil and smiled like James Bond next to her. Lisa just married Chuck Palahniuk ¹! I took two photos, shook his hand and we thanked each other.
“One second longer and I would’ve gotten majorly jealous!” I said to Lisa while walking out.

What a great day!

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This summer Lisa and really like harvesting strange autographs (like this one). To add another one we went to Munich on Wednesday to see Chuck Palahniuk, the novelist who wrote books such as Survivor, Choke or Fight Club, who held a reading there in the Café Muffathalle. Although we had to queue up to ...

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