Diary of an up and coming sociopath

• Nikki and I used a free trial of Amazon Prime. 2 orders made reasonably in advance, neither arrived “next day”. Fail, Amazon, massive fail. #

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• Hey everyone! Seb and I interviewed the excellent comic artist & writer, Marc Ellerby: http://tinyurl.com/6lza8u READ IT. #

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• Still deeply undecided about the new Ben Folds album. The humour’s back, but the best songs are the ones without it… #

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I finally got around to reading Chuck Palahniuk’s new book “Snuff” recently, but I actually found a little disappointing. It took me months to get around to reading his last book, “Rant”, which wasn’t without its problems but at least had a strong mystery and compelling characters at the centre. Snuff read more like a writing exercise.

The book features 4 characters, all of whom are in some way associated with the making of a porn film in which the female star is attempting to set a record for the number of men she can have sex with, with the understanding that she’ll also die during the performance. Three of the characters are men waiting for their turn, and the 4th is the “talent wranger”, and each chapter assumes a different viewpoint.

Gratifyingly, Palahniuk has finally started writing characters with distinct voices. In any of his previous books that features multiple narrators, the tone and speech of every character was near-identical to Palahniuk’s own voice, and it got really distracting after a while. That aside, the twist in Snuff felt like it was telegraphed a mile off, and the content wasn’t half as shocking as I’d been led to believe. I found myself entertained, but largely indifferent.

It’s a strange reaction to have for a book I was looking forward to. Rant had me almost wretching at some points with its more graphic moments, and his book before that, Haunted, actually was a disturbing read at times, and I say that as someone with a deeply cynical view of the world. Snuff isn’t just tame by comparison, it’s uninteresting on a technical and intellectual level, and I’m not sure I got anything out of it beyond some of Palahniuk’s trademark “hidden knowledge” moments. Oh well. Maybe next time…

• @nicepaul Nice try, but you’re clearly typing “PORN”. No wonder the keys are dirty. #

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• My work whiteboard is jammed full of stuff to write. Good for my bank account, bad for my sanity. #

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• I appear to have caught convention flu, which is pretty good going considering I was only there about 4 hours. #

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• @radiomaru Some of those tracks are actually pretty good, too! Free Coffee might even be better than the actual version. #
• @rellyab care to share some of it with the class? #
• This decaying lamb should keep that woman quiet until she goes to sleep. #

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