Damn that Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk does things that should not work. There is a quality to his writing that is prima facie absurd. It shouldn’t work. Kurt Vonnegut was the same way. It is ridiculous to think you can end multiple paragraphs and sections with the refrain “So it goes.” But Vonnegut does it, and it works.

Regarding Palahniuk, who else could offer up the refrain, “I am Jack’s Raging Bile Duct” without sounding like a boob? Same with Lullaby – he does things on the printed page that should not work. For comparison, try to wade through a few short stories from the self-anointed “bizarro genre.” It has tried to associate its Mad Libs approach to the profane with Palahniuk. But it is only a wishful association.

And it is not as though Lullaby does not have its own thematic antecedents. The theme of “deadly art,” i.e., a killer poem or culling song, has been floating around the Noosphere for a while:

• Monty Python has a classic skit with “the deadliest joke in the world,” which the allies used as a weapon of mass destruction.
• Lovecraft imagined a world of ancient tomes where reading the words of certain ancient texts would drive one mad.
• Del Close and John Ostrander told the story of a root that gives the ultimate high before killing you, in the unfortunately named “Foo Goo,” from the comic-book anthology series Wasteland #1. (How’s that for an obscure reference?)
• The Ring had a killer videotape. In keeping with the limitations of that analog world, one has to wait a few days after watching the videotape to meet one’s demise.
• And of course, Infinite Jest.