if you havent read the book choke by chuck palahniuk. i suggest it. yes, there is was a movie made based off the book.. but lets be honest here, the movies are never as good as the books are. i was reading a bit today and after i was done i started looking thru my bookcase and picked up my copy of choke. i flipped thru it and read bits and pieces.. until i came across one entry that i had marked off. its one of my favorite bits in the whole book and for one reason or another really hits home with me.. i think its just that i can relate to it.. anyway, if youre looking for a good book, check it out.
the unreal is more powerful than the real.
because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it.
because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. stone crumbles. wood rots. people, well, they die.
but things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.
if you can change the way people think. the way they see themselves. the way they see the world. if you do that, you can change the way people live their lives. and that’s the only lasting thing you can create.
besides, your memories, your stories and adventures, will be the only things you’ll have left.
-Choke-
by Chuck Palahniuk
ill post a longer blog tomorrow, for now i need sleep. i have a doctors appointment very early and im very tired.
June 11th, 2009 - 8:22 am
I didn’t really care for Choke, especially having already read Fight Club. Not only is Fight Club so much better, but there’s a lot of overlap between the two books (such as someone going to meetings for groups he doesn’t actually belong to). Palahniuk is very clever, but he’s like a stand up comedian who repeats old jokes in his new act. It’s funny the first time, but just the first time.
I haven’t seen the movie for Choke, but I wouldn’t discount it too much. The movie for Fight Club was as good as the book, if not better. Though, it really helps when you have such a solid group of actors as Brad Pitt, Ed Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter bring a lot to the table. Same thing with the movies for Shawshank Redemption, The Body/Stand By Me, Office Space and The Devil Wears Prada (okay…bar was kinda low on the last one).
June 11th, 2009 - 3:29 pm
the overlap youre talking about doesnt happen. in choke he goes to the meeting that he does actually belong to. as far as any other overlap, i cant think of any to be honest. and i am by no means discrediting fight club. i liked it as well, but none of it stuck out at me like the passage i shared earlier.
and of course it helps when you have strong actors for the movie.. tho none of which you listed had anything to do with palahniuk. oh, and i dont think id throw the devil wears prada into that group. streep was great, but as for the rest.. i dunno, it could have had a stronger cast.
lastly, as far as the stand up comedian thing goes.. maybe you havent been to many shows, but the same jokes can be funny more than once.. now if it keeps getting repeated, id agree with you.. but i can watch some of my favorite comedians and laugh like i ddi the first time i heard it. just saying.
June 12th, 2009 - 6:36 am
I didn’t think Victor himself was a sex addict, just that he went to the meetings for an easy hookup.
He’s reused other things though, such as laugh tracks being so old that all the people you’re listening to are probably dead now.
I didn’t mean that jokes can’t be funny the second time around, but rather that they’re not funny in a new act when the comedian is supposed to be delivering something fresh. It especially feels like a ripoff if you’re paying to see the comedian live or bought their new DVD. It would be like if Doyle was still around and released a new Holmes mystery, but the hook was a dog not barking because the criminal is its owner. Doesn’t diminish the novel where the idea first appears, but it sure as hell brings the second one down.
PS: The Devil Wears Prada movie was WAY better than the book, but only because the writing was so weak to begin with, which is what I meant by the bar being set so low.
June 12th, 2009 - 1:39 pm
if he wasnt, why would he be working on the 12 steps? granted, yes.. he did go there to hook up, but that was just part of it.