Chuck Palahniuk (Pasco, USA, 1962) can’t be stopped by wind or tide if he’s asked to talk about literature. The author of Fight Club tries to overcome the inclement weather that these days affects a large part of the United States and devotes the little and intermittent connection he has to answer this interview, with which he brings the reader closer to his new novel, The Invention of sound, in which he exposes the commodification of suffering.
It’s in Portland, in the middle of a snowstorm. are you well
I’ve been stuck at home for eight days with no electricity or water and limited internet access.
what madness Talking about his new novel might help distract him. What interested him in the world of sound and pre-recorded screams?
Today, the most intimate aspects of our lives have been monetized. Sex cam shows, people putting a price on their eggs and sperm or people selling their own blood. It can be deduced that someone wanted to harvest and sell the dying screams of other people. There is money to be made!
Mitzi Ives, the protagonist, does. Is it inspired by someone real?
I care very little about my characters. I’m more interested in the dynamics they represent. Mitzi is a girl who was born into an evil system that traps and kills people in order to record the sound of their death and sell it. The dynamic is compelling. Mitzim herself is less interesting. He was born to suffer and inflict suffering. If this were cinema, she would be played by Audrey Hepburn.
Do you tend to obsess over your characters?
I’ll tell you a secret. Every time I get sexually involved with a pretty person and she rejects me, I portray her as a character in a new book. Oh, and in fiction I kill him, obviously. It’s the only way I’ve found to overcome rejection.
Do you suffer from insomnia? The drug Ambien is present throughout the novel.
The writer John Updike claims that the rabbit must have very little memory. He theorized that they escape death so often that unless they could forget every moment of danger, they would go insane. For me, the charm of Ambien is not that it makes you sleep, but that it causes amnesia. And this lessens the burden of remorse and regret.
With what happens in this book, it is not very clear whether he likes cinema or hates it with all his soul. What happens at the Oscars…
You tell me. I have never been to one of the ceremonies. I live in an isolated house in the mountains.
Has the way you perceive sound changed after writing this book?
Delving into any topic always makes me appreciate the world and the work people do. She is inspiring. The amazing work they do makes me want to improve my skills and take the art of fiction to a new frontier.
Did you run into any other interesting secret Hollywood rituals while researching?
When producers present their work to a review board (the people who decide whether a film is suitable for children or adults only), filmmakers often don’t show the most extreme soundtracks. When they omit these sounds, they make the film seem less disturbing than it actually ends up being. The idea is to get a better grade.
Is it true that, every time he writes a book, he signs an insurance in case he is sued by those mentioned? Do you think anyone could be offended by this story?
In the past, publishers always offered insurance that protected both the publisher and the author for added legal protection. Since the attacks of September 11, publishers have stopped offering this insurance, and I have wondered more than once if it is not a passive way of urging authors to self-censor.
Is it exhausting that, no matter what book you write, you end up being asked about Fight Club?
Truman Capote once said that turning a best-selling book into a movie is like in baseball all the players on the bases hit home runs and the game is won. Also, people love Brad Pitt and they can’t even pronounce my name right. I think this is absolutely wonderful as it allows me to stay home and gain weight.
He always talks about new challenges. What is left to do?
Starting next week I will be working on my first science fiction novel. As always, it will be an adventure.
