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52 Novels (12): Survivor

My goal is to read a novel a week in 2015. I’ve made it to 12.

-Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor

Look in my eyes. What do you see? The cult of personality.

From a suicide cult, to the cult of celebrity, to the cult of personality. An ironic and fitting book for someone whose unofficial website is called The Cult.

This book will remain special to me for at least one reason. My wife got an autographed first-edition for me as a birthday present.

For me, it’s a book that will take time to appreciate. I didn’t enjoy it so much in the process of reading it. But, as I take time to reflect, I realize that it’s a very clever story with some interesting pictures of the world we live in.

The plot surrounds one of, if not the only, remaining member of a religious cult that committed mass suicide. We follow him on his journey from cult member, to housekeeper for the stars, to suicide hotline proprietor (who encourages people to commit suicide), to unwitting follower of a young woman with some sort of prophetic gift, to plane hijacker.

Some of the more interesting scenes, for me, involved the main Character (Tender Branson) receiving psychological counseling. Along the way, we learn quite a bit about the DSM (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). I studied the DSM a bit in college (I took 15 hours of psychology), which made it easy to giggle a bit while reading the book. Tender figures out that he can just study the manual and pretend to have the disorders it describes. As long as he does this his therapist will never actually ask him any really significant questions (since she’s obsessed with DSM diagnoses). I suppose that’s the big ’emotional scam’ of the book – Tender acts like everything in the world is wrong with him so that he won’t have to deal with what’s actually wrong with him. In the end it bites him. He’s escaped the life of the suicide cult, but he can’t escape the cult of personality.

He becomes one himself. As the last surviving member of the suicide cult, he becomes a spiritual celebrity and guru – even though he has nothing to teach, or even say. What really happens is that he becomes the puppet of a big corporation who is in the business of making celebrities. He just reads the script and plays the part. (Playing the part, by the way, includes taking steroids, amphetamines, and all sorts of other things).

Finally, as his celebrity is waning, he falls victim to a prophetic crush. The girl he desires turns out to be a dreamer of prophetic dreams. One of those dreams spells his doom, though he doesn’t realize it until it’s too late. Cue Living Colour.

52 Novels (11): Generation A

My goal is to read a novel a week in 2015. I’ve made it to 11.

– Douglas Coupland, Generation A

One of Douglas Coupland’s many claims to fame is that he likely coined the term ‘Generation X.’ 20 years later, he finally decided to do a little play on that title with Generation A. He says that he got the term from a quote by Kurt Vonnegut given at a commencement address in 1994:

Now you young twerps want a new name for your generation? Probably not, you just want jobs, right? Well, the media do us all such tremendous favors when they call you Generation X, right? Two clicks from the very end of the alphabet. I hereby declare you Generation A, as much at the beginning of a series of astonishing triumphs and failures as Adam and Eve were so long ago.

I believe this is essentially Coupland’s term for the group that has become known as the Millenials, but I could be wrong. It certainly refers to a group that has grown up in the midst of full blown post-modernity.

Anyhow, I have to confess that I have become an all out fanboy of Douglas Coupland (due in part to a common interest in Media Ecology). This is the second Coupland novel I have read this year and I’ve already purchased two more to read in the near future. I thought this particular novel was spectacular on a number of levels.

The story takes place in the not-so-distant future in a world in which bees have become extinct. This makes is quite astonishing when suddenly, within months of each other, five random people find themselves stung. Each of the five then find themselves in sterile rooms having gallons of blood drawn from their bodies in the name of science. What attracted the last remaining bees in the world to these five? Do they have anything in common? Is there a physiological answer?

It turns out there is an answer, and it is directly related to the hottest pharmaceutical product on the planet. It’s reminiscent of Huxley’s ‘Soma’ from A Brave New World in some ways. Ultimately, these five people find themselves drawn together, and then forced together, to find that they have a common narrative. They all, they find, have the same questions about the world. They all long, in the midst of the connectedness of an internet world to find the solitude in the midst of conversation that comes from reading a good story. They are longing to know if their lives are a story.

Is there a meta-narrative? Do our lives make sense? Is there a sense of story? Is there an arc to our lives? Those are the types of questions they are asking. And as they find that, indeed, there is some sense to be made, they end up alone on an island together.

The novel is told in a rotating fashion in which each character shares his or her own perspective on the events. At first, as you’re getting to know the characters, this can be a little difficult; but, after a while it makes the book more compelling in some ways. You find yourself needing to keep reading in order to get through the next series of chapters to get back to the character you were interested in. There is also a lot of humor along the way. Plus, you get the overarching idea that ‘Generation A’ is, above all, a generation looking for significance; looking to be part of a greater narrative.

Brilliant stuff. Great book.

52 Novels (10): Breakfast at Tiffany’s

My goal is to read a novel a week in 2015. I’ve made it to 10.

-Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

I don’t really have much to say on this one, other than the fact that I enjoyed the book. I haven’t seen the movie.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is similar to The Great Gatsby in the sense that it is what Chuck Palahniuk calls ‘apostolic fiction.’ That is, it tells the story of a lost hero (heroine in this case). She’s not completely lost. She lives on. Perhaps she is lurking around any given street corner waiting to be bumped into.

Holly Golightly is like so many memories: elusive, likely better in memory than actuality, and always intangibly lurking, waiting to be rediscovered. The question is, Would that Memory be better left as just that – a memory? And will the narrator allow that memory to haunt him to his own detriment? She is sort of anti-hero, yet with a mysterious positive allure. You must love her, even though you shouldn’t. If you don’t quite love her, you must at least be intrigued.

52 Novels (9): Generation X

My goal is to read a novel a week in 2015. I’ve made it to nine.

-Douglas Coupland, Generation X: Tales: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (1991)

I grew up in the 90s. Even though I wasn’t old enough to be a part of it, I remember the term ‘Generation X’ being thrown around quite a bit. Did you ever wonder where that term comes from? Some say that Coupland actually coined the term. He certainly coined the term ‘McJob;’ he even defines it in the margin on page 5:

MCJOB: A low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job in the service sector. Frequently considered a satisfying career choice by people who have never held one.

Once upon a time, McDonald’s even unsuccessfully sued the company responsible for The Oxford English Dictionary to try to get the term taken out. But I digress.

Generation X is a picture of young adults in the early 90s. These were the days of Nirvana and Grunge. The days described so wittily by Portlandia in The Dream of the 90s.

A couple of highlights: First, the definitions in the margins are priceless. I’ve already mentioned ‘McJobs.’ Some of my favorites include:

  • Personal Tabu: A small rule or living, bordering on a superstition, that allows one to cope with everyday life in the absence of cultural or religious dictums (p. 74).
  • Cafe Minimalism: To espouse a philosophy of minimalism without actually putting into practice any of its tenets (p. 107).
  • Air Family: Describes the false sense of community experienced among coworkers in an office environment (p. 111).
  • Anti-Victim Device (AVD): A small fashion accessory worn on an otherwise conservative outfit which announces to the world that one still has a spark of individuality burning inside…(p. 114).

Second, Coupland’s description of 90s Yuppies is interesting:

He embodies to me all of the people of my own generation who used all that was good in themselves just to make money; who use their votes for short-term gain. Who ended up blissful in the bottom-feeding jobs – marketing, land flipping, ambulance chasing, and money brokering. Such smugness. They saw themselves as eagles building mighty nests of oak branches and bullrushes, when instead they were really more like the eagles here in California, the ones who built their nests from tufts of abandoned auto parts looking like sprouts picked off a sandwich… (p. 81).

Finally, the stories told by the characters are great. At one point, Elvissa calls on the central group of the story to tell their own stories:

‘What one moment for you defines what it’s like to be alive on this planet. What’s your takeaway?
There is silence. Tobias doesn’t get her point, and frankly, neither do I. She continues: ‘Fake yuppie experiences that you had to spend money on, like white water rafting or elephant rides in Thailand don’t count. I want to hear some small moment from your life that proves you’re really alive (p. 91).

One of the more memorable stories is this:

‘I know my earth memory. It’s a smell – the smell of bacon. It was a Sunday morning at home and we were all having breakfast, an unprecedented occurrence since me and all six of my brothers and sisters inherited my mother’s tendency to detest the sight of food in the morning. We’d sleep instead…
I remember very clearly standing by the stove and frying a batch of bacon. I knew even then that this was the only such morning our family would ever be given – a morningwhere we would all be normal and kind to each other and know that we liked each other without any strings attached – and that soon enough (and we did) we would all become batty and distant the way families invariably do as they get along in years.
And so i was close to tears, listening to everyone make jokes and feeding the dog bits of egg; I was feeling homesick for the event while it was happening… (p. 95).

Anyhow, I really, really like the book. It has to rank as one of my favorite novels at this point. You’d have to read it for yourself. I can’t really describe it. Coupland is a great writer. He is also very interested in Marshall McLuhan and Media Ecology, which is a plus in my book. I’ve already added two more of his books to the list of novels I plan on reading this year.

52 Novels (8): Choke

My goal is to read 52 novels in 2015. I’ve made it to 8…

–Choke, by Chuck Palahniuk

Choke is not my favorite Palahniuk book (so far that would be Fight Club), but the plot is spectacular. The story is a prime example of what Palahniuk calls an ’emotional scam.’ An emotional scam is basically what a person convinces himself he needs in order to be fulfilled or affirmed or secure. The main character here is a choker. He feigns choking in restaurants so that other diners will perform the Heimlich on him.

This serves several purposes: First, he will experience the embrace of arms wrapped around him. He will enjoy the moment of having others surround him with unwavering attention. He will be told time and time again, ‘Everything’s going to be alright. You’re fine. Don’t worry.’

Second, he is setting up a situation in which dozens of people can become heroes. For the rest of their lives, they will be able to brag about the moment when they saved another human being’s life. He is like a messiah who is saving people by allowing them to save him.

Third, they will inevitably take an interest in his hard luck life. They will send him birthday cards on the anniversary of his salvation; the anniversary of his new birth. And there will be money in those cards.

The problem with all of this is that it is an emotional scam that is bound to be found out eventually. What will happen when two of his saviors meet each other? And what will happen when he really does begin to believe that he is a legitimate sort of messiah? That’s the story in a nutshell. It’s one of the better concepts for a story I think I’ve ever come across.

I’m left asking about my own emotional scam.

52 Novels (7): The Stranger, by Albert Camus

My goal is to read a novel a week in 2015. I’ve made it to seven.

-Albert Camus, The Stranger

Meursault, the main character of this story, is indifferent to life for the most part. He doesn’t really care if he’s married or single. He’s not overly invested in a career. He is simply surviving. He places his mother in a nursing home. She dies. He never sheds a tear. He goes on about his business. It’s just life. He’s not in the business of analyzing himself. He probably couldn’t if he tried. He is what he is.

Then, due to strange circumstances, he finds himself in the position to kill someone who had threatened the life of a friend. He shoots him in cold blood. His arrest and trial commences. He has no explanation for why he shot the man.

Camus paints the picture of a trial in which those who would prosecute Meursault are constantly imposing arbitrary motives and demeanor to him. He’s the type of man who doesn’t cry at his mother’s funeral. He must be evil. He is sentenced to death – a martyr of indifference.

Camus, by all accounts, is displaying his idea of the absurd. People don’t necessarily know why they do what they do. Perhaps they are trying to construct arbitrary meaning to their lives by doing so. In reality, for Camus, there is no rationality; there is no meaning. When someone acknowledges this, and lives accordingly, society imposes its own meaning upon their lives. The ‘stranger’ is one who lives life in accordance with reality, which is absurdity and meaninglessness, and finds himself a foreigner upon whom society must thrust its artificial constructs.

The story is a page-turner to be sure; more so than The Fall. Camus’ ideas are interesting. Though I believe firmly that his overall idea is ultimately wrong, I see truth in it. It is wrong ‘under heaven,’ but absolutely right ‘under the sun.’