Chuck Palahniuk, author of 'Fight Club', during a book signing, years ago in Barcelona.
Without at doubt it is one of the contemporary authors who best capture the feeling of his time. When last January hundreds of supporters of former United States President Donald Trump stormed the headquarters of Congress in Washington, there were those who said that the new novel by Chuck Palahniuk, one of America's best-selling writers, was prescient. “I would love to say that I predicted the assault on the Capitol, but I think that would be saying too much,” says the author of The Fight Club with his almost imperceptible sarcasm during the presentation of The Day of Adjustment (Random House). Publicized as the author's most controversial work –Which being Palahniuk, that is to say–, the one that his publishers did not dare to publish, its plot shows echoes of George Orwell, Stephen King and William Burroughs.
The pandemic also postponed the publication of this fiction about a new order that emerged after a purge of journalists, politicians and academics, in which ears are cut to accumulate merit. This dystopian world remains divided into Negrotopia, the homeland of blacks; Gaysia, for the LGTBI collective, and Caucasia, the land of white supremacy. The book – a cursed one, jokes Palahniuk, alluding to a scam he suffered from his literary agent Darin Webb, who embezzled the profits also from this title, published in 2018 in the US– It's as off-putting and awkward as fans of the writer could want. and shows his usual brushstrokes of black humor.
Edward Norton in the famous 'Fight Club' (1999, Daviv Fincher).
To Palahniuk he has been called provocative, radical and nihilistic, among many other adjectives, but no one disputes that Fight Club –adapted to the cinema with the same title in 1999 by director David Fincher– is a landmark of popular culture that has created a school. The day of adjustment aspires to be the worthy heir of it: a violent satire that reflects in a deformed way (or not so much) American society. Why do you write such wild things? "I make many people's fantasy come true, including mine," Palahniuk asserts. When asked if he identifies with the adjective ambiguous that is often applied to his work, he answers bluntly but politely: “I really hate having to tell people how to figure out my books. Nobody wants the author to come and tell him that he is an idiot, I have never wanted to hurt like that”.
The issue addressed by Fight Club –Do we have the right to be rich and famous?– continues in this new fantasy. “There are many young people, with studies and training, who cannot find their place. Those youngsters who don't get what they want often ride a revolution that alters the world, to find its place. There is a lot of unrest right now. Boomers (those born between 1949 and 1968) they do not want to relinquish power, that is why there is so much conflict. It is a very selfish generation”, he comments impassively. "I don't care who's in the White House," he says. I ignored Trump for years and now I will do the same with Joe Biden. Politics in the United States reminds me of when my parents argued, being me small. They were very uncivilized among themselves and then they expected us to be."
Cover of 'The Day of Adjustment' (Random House Literature).
His political views, which he often seem to arouse more interest in the press than the purely literary aspects, could be described as cynical: “Change comes from experimenting, not from wanting to fix anything. It's about creating an alternative." He gives us an example: where he lives, on the west coast of the United States, the beaver population was almost zero, because they were killed for their fur, to make hats. "After silk hats became fashionable and that population recovered, but not because people cared about beavers. This is how social changes take place. he holds.
THE OTHER
"My parents are dead. I can write whatever I want”, Palahniuk asserted. occasionally. In order to avoid any type of self-censorship with The Day of Adjustment, he even stopped attending the writing workshop that he had been a regular at since 1990. “My longtime publishers rejected the book, saying it would be too dangerous post it. A dozen other labels followed his example under the same premise. I was already determined to publish it in command plan, through Amazon, when W.W. Norton came to take the chestnuts out of the fire."
“I write about what others tell me. I collect terrifying, scandalous and crazy stories. I want to be able to recount them so that they are not forgotten. It is a higher objective, what I tell is part of other people's lives”, which undoubtedly fits with his journalistic training. “Right now everyone chooses their truth on the internet. The only informative authority is the emotional appeal of the information, that is why people choose one or the other. It's not pamphlet books that make someone change their mind, but those stories that achieve empathy. It happened, for example, with Uncle Tom's Cabin or To kill a nightingale, which marked a before and after in the fight for equality. Fiction is more emotionally absorbing and that works better than an essay. People can't argue with their emotions. Science fiction books also have that power.
His work, which It arouses passions and hatreds, it undoubtedly fulfills a similar objective. “Fight club made people think about what damage they were capable of inflicting and how much they could take. In The Day of Adjustment I use the reverse model, unhappy people united by a mission”. We ask him if he writes to connect with others and he laughs out loud. “Yes, with a small number of people. Not many write, not many read either. But I suppose that on a large scale that is no longer achieved. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were general magazines that reached millions of people; with the television they were disappearing, magazines specialized. It's the same with movies. there are no longer massive films, audiences are highly fragmented. I don't think that's all bad. Streaming platforms have done away with the big screen.” if they carried his life to the big screen, he confesses, he would like to be played by ... Anthony Perkins.
Portrait of Chuck Palahniuk, one of America's best-selling authors.
A ROMANTIC... AND A TRAVELER
Does he consider himself more rebellious, irreverent or romantic? "A romantic, always, always," he asserts. I grew up in the '70s, when there was a school of romantic fatalism in the movies. In those movies, the protagonists had an objective that they did not achieve but, instead, they obtained something deeper, that used to have to do with love or community. This was the case in Rocky or Saturday Night Fever. Maybe that came from the failure in Vietnam, I don't know, and from punk music. In my novels the characters always lose, but the connection with others wins. Billy Idol said that punk was fast and ended abruptly, when I heard that I started writing my stories like that”.
Wilhelm Memorial Mausoleum in Portland, one of the places that Palahniuk recommends us to visit.
Traveling is essential for him. “It is one of the great rewards of my work, traveling and being able to listen to readers, that they tell me about their lives, their ideas... that inspires me. It is curious how similar the experiences are, sometimes We think that things only happen to us and it is not like that. I think that's why Fight Club inspired so many people." In fact, The Day of Adjustment began to take shape in Madrid, where he rented an apartment for a few months to make the final revisions to his collection of stories. The only news that reached him was through websites and he found it strange to observe to the United States from abroad; his compatriots seemed to him "some idiots", analyzed from Spain.
Why do you like Madrid so much? "Because people work, I like productive people. Barcelona is beautiful but everyone is on vacation”, he smiles Palahniuk, who is currently reading Vulgar Favors, the book on which the second season of American Crime Story was based on the Versace murder. He also plans, he tells us, to do some podcasts. "I'm trying to do half-hour comedies with actors, the sound has many narrative possibilities", comments the writer, who has also been working on a novel about people who buy cries from human beings, “about how human suffering is bought and sold”.
Brad Pitt in the film adaptation of 'Fight Club', Palahniuk's best-known novel.
TRAVEL NOTEBOOK: PORTLAND
Chuck Palahniuk was born in Washington State in 1962 and he lives on the Northwest Coast of the United States. We asked him for some recommendations in his area and his response couldn't seem more like... Palahniuk. "For sightseeing in Portland, there is no nothing better than death and fantasy. For the former, I recommend visiting Wilhelm's Portland Memorial Mausoleum (6705 SE 14th Avenue), the largest building of its kind in the United States and more than a century old. It is a labyrinth of tombs and crypts that venture underground and also rise on high-rise concrete towers. A nightmare come true, which became the favorite place for goths to have sex after hours and/or commit suicide. Now it is very difficult to get in and wander around, but not impossible.”
Wilhelm's Portland Memorial Mausoleum.
This funeral enclave that recommends us It was the first crematorium west of the Mississippi River, beginning construction in 1901. His mausoleum is the largest on the West Coast and has some old stained glass windows that were designed, built and installed by the famous Povey and Gerlich brothers, as well as by Louis C. Tiffany. Also features a vast collection of marble statues, hand-carved from Carrara marble at Taverelli Studios, in Italy; the most famous is an impressive replica of Michelangelo's Pietà, created from marble from the same quarry that the legendary artist used. There are free guided historical tours every Wednesday and Friday at 3 p.m.
Kidd's Toy Museum, Portland.
“For the fantasists, I recommend going to Kidd's Toy Museum (1301 SE Grand Avenue), his inventory is among the best collections world histories. And if you want to have the opportunity to cross paths with me, take a beer or wine at Hindsight Beer Cart (4255 SE Belmont Street), and say hello to bartenders Karyn or Gina from my part. I'll be the drunk eating some Boston Terrier nachos."