Monday, February 27, 2012
(A Rather Belated) When Rant Met Jacob
I've been putting off this blog post. Partly because I was hospitalized for a week. Mostly because I couldn't come up with a comparison to Buster Casey, aka Rant, aka the protagonist in Palahniuk's novel Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey (2007).
The closest character to whom I could equate Rant's traits is the island deity, Jacob, from every self-respecting person's favorite TV show (or at least top ten), LOST.
Rant enjoys seeking venomous creatures to bite him, as well as engaging in other reckless behaviors.
See also: infecting citizens with rabies
See also: a variation of demolition derby aka "Party Crashing"
I just stole the "see also" thing from Palahniuk's Choke (2001). I now understand why he used it, it rolls off the tongue--or rather, fingers--nicely. But I digress.
Aside from Rant's other abundant,psychotic special qualities, he is, at heart, a mama's boy. He is known to only have a sparse handful of shirts and jeans to wear, despite his closetful of other clothing. Rant's mother wasted half of her life in embroidery-ing (106) Rant's shirts, vests, pants.
Now all-holy, all-knowing Jacob had a bit of a rough past too. Like the mother he identifies with murdered his birth mother and his twin became an evil smoke monster known as The Man in Black (ticka ticka). But let's get back to the point.
Jacob lives in obliviousness to the murder and accepts his new mother as his one and only. While his evil twin runs off (er rather...how does smoke move?) to join wreck survivors and attempt to bring Jacob with him , Jacob remains faithful to his mother. Even after learning the truth of his origins, Jacob still stays by his mother's side for thirty years.
Basically, Jacob has his share of issues, being a god and all, but bottom line, he cares for and knows who raised him--the only mother he ever knew.
For extra fun, Rant and Jacob share certain supernatural qualities.
Rant is also his father Chester and his friend Green Taylor Simms. The three of them coexist at the same time and interact with one another, but they are all one person who no longer possess a beginning or end. It's kind of a long story (319 pages long to be exact).
Jacob has been enchanted by his mother so that he and his smoky brotha cannot kill each other. He also defies age after he reaches adulthood. He protected the island for at least 2,000 years and also seems to be able to be in multiple places/times at once. "It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress (5x16)."
Jimmy Fallon said it best during his "Good Riddance" spoof at the 2010 Emmys:
"The island, it was mythical, but in the end they died. I didn't understand it but I tried."
That's LOST for ya.
On an added note (I'm aware this post is getting dreadfully long and possibly hard to follow), I find it somewhat important to state that every time I tried to pick a certain aspect out of Rant to compare to another literary, theatrical, political, or other figure, I wound up relating back to Palahniuk's other works.
The mother complex thing is also apparent in Choke (2001).
See also: Diary (2003)
The reckless, thrill-seeking behavior: Fight Club (1996)
See also: Survivor (1999)
See also: Choke
See also: Snuff (2008)
The idea of one person being reincarnated in a vicious cycle: Diary
Secretive counter-culture groups: Fight Club
The closest character to whom I could equate Rant's traits is the island deity, Jacob, from every self-respecting person's favorite TV show (or at least top ten), LOST.
Rant enjoys seeking venomous creatures to bite him, as well as engaging in other reckless behaviors.
See also: infecting citizens with rabies
See also: a variation of demolition derby aka "Party Crashing"
I just stole the "see also" thing from Palahniuk's Choke (2001). I now understand why he used it, it rolls off the tongue--or rather, fingers--nicely. But I digress.
Aside from Rant's other abundant,
"Wouldn't hurt Rant's pride to wear rainbow glitter and embroidery to high school, but he couldn't tolerate what kids said about his ma's work. Kids saying she was a terrible artist. Saying she had no kind of talent. He wasn't wearing his heart on his sleeve. It's more like she'd sewn her own heart on Rant's sleeve (100)."Basically, Rant is a guy of many quirks, some dangerous, some cruel, but bottom line, he still cares for his mother an awful lot.
Now all-holy, all-knowing Jacob had a bit of a rough past too. Like the mother he identifies with murdered his birth mother and his twin became an evil smoke monster known as The Man in Black (ticka ticka). But let's get back to the point.
Jacob lives in obliviousness to the murder and accepts his new mother as his one and only. While his evil twin runs off (er rather...how does smoke move?) to join wreck survivors and attempt to bring Jacob with him , Jacob remains faithful to his mother. Even after learning the truth of his origins, Jacob still stays by his mother's side for thirty years.
Basically, Jacob has his share of issues, being a god and all, but bottom line, he cares for and knows who raised him--the only mother he ever knew.
For extra fun, Rant and Jacob share certain supernatural qualities.
Rant is also his father Chester and his friend Green Taylor Simms. The three of them coexist at the same time and interact with one another, but they are all one person who no longer possess a beginning or end. It's kind of a long story (319 pages long to be exact).
Jacob has been enchanted by his mother so that he and his smoky brotha cannot kill each other. He also defies age after he reaches adulthood. He protected the island for at least 2,000 years and also seems to be able to be in multiple places/times at once. "It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress (5x16)."
Jimmy Fallon said it best during his "Good Riddance" spoof at the 2010 Emmys:
"The island, it was mythical, but in the end they died. I didn't understand it but I tried."
That's LOST for ya.
On an added note (I'm aware this post is getting dreadfully long and possibly hard to follow), I find it somewhat important to state that every time I tried to pick a certain aspect out of Rant to compare to another literary, theatrical, political, or other figure, I wound up relating back to Palahniuk's other works.
The mother complex thing is also apparent in Choke (2001).
See also: Diary (2003)
The reckless, thrill-seeking behavior: Fight Club (1996)
See also: Survivor (1999)
See also: Choke
See also: Snuff (2008)
The idea of one person being reincarnated in a vicious cycle: Diary
Secretive counter-culture groups: Fight Club
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Fictionary
Fiction: fictitious, fabricated, made-up material
---------------------------------------------------
Nonfiction: not fiction
It's a pretty clear line to me.
For a story to be considered nonfiction, I think it should be 100% real. If an author takes liberties with a nonfiction story in order to increase sales, the genre should also change. It's like when you read advertisements that sound
REALLY PROMISING AND EXCITING*
and then you see this guy right here ^
and your expectations are lowered considerably.
Darn you, formatting.
I do think there is something to be said for putting creative twists into what would otherwise be plainer. In that case, such as Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, giving a different genre such as the ever-paradoxical "nonfiction novel" would be appropriate.
But taking Mortensen and Frey's works into consideration, too much has been changed to even bother using up the space to type "non." If the author has to add and change details to make a story more marketable, maybe they shouldn't write it in the first place.
While fiction and nonfiction might seem like just genres, if a person is really trying to research something and is being intelligent and using nonfiction sources, it's important that it is nonfiction. Fluff might get you money, but it'll also bring you shame.
---------------------------------------------------
Nonfiction: not fiction
It's a pretty clear line to me.
For a story to be considered nonfiction, I think it should be 100% real. If an author takes liberties with a nonfiction story in order to increase sales, the genre should also change. It's like when you read advertisements that sound
REALLY PROMISING AND EXCITING*
and then you see this guy right here ^
and your expectations are lowered considerably.
Darn you, formatting.
I do think there is something to be said for putting creative twists into what would otherwise be plainer. In that case, such as Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, giving a different genre such as the ever-paradoxical "nonfiction novel" would be appropriate.
But taking Mortensen and Frey's works into consideration, too much has been changed to even bother using up the space to type "non." If the author has to add and change details to make a story more marketable, maybe they shouldn't write it in the first place.
While fiction and nonfiction might seem like just genres, if a person is really trying to research something and is being intelligent and using nonfiction sources, it's important that it is nonfiction. Fluff might get you money, but it'll also bring you shame.
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