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52 Novels (6): Doomed

My goal is to read a novel a week in 2015. I’ve made it to 6.

-Chuck Palahniuk, Doomed

Doomed is the second novel in what is going to be a three part series about the character Madison Spencer. I wrote about the first book, Damned, HERE. I am not going to get into any details about the plot. I’ll just share a few of my big takeaways.

The story is pretty much crazy. You have to have a fairly strong stomach to deal with Palahniuk. I happen to like his writing quite a bit, but I would be very careful in recommending him. The fact that I write about something doesn’t mean I necessarily endorse it completely or that I would want someone to rush out and pick up the book.

The book reads like a running blog, with virtually every entry beginning, ‘Gentle Tweeter.’ I found humor in this for some reason.

The series is in some sense following the paradigm of Dante. Damned covers Hell, Doomed Purgatory, and the third volume will deal with Heaven. Purgatory in this story ends up being the earth itself, as Madison doesn’t make curfew on Halloween (the one night out for the souls in Hell) and finds herself stuck roaming the earth.

The big idea of the series starts to take shape in this volume around an interesting thought-experiment. Palahniuk is playing with the idea of reconciling God with Satan. If the two were to be reconciled, his main character Madison hypothesizes, then Hell and suffering would be moot. It’s an interesting thought-experiment. Almost medieval, which is fitting since Dante’s paradigm comes into play.

Of course I wouldn’t recommend taking theology from a novel, though there are some novels that have quite good theology. The idea is about as theologically incorrect and impossible as it could be, but it’s an interesting thought nonetheless. It’s like Parent Trap, only God and Satan are the characters being drawn together. This doesn’t actually happen in Doomed, but the plot begins to take shape. We’ll have to wait for the next book to see how it develops.

Finally, the main plot of this volume is that Satan has used this little girl Madison, whose parents are super rich, super famous, global stars, and religious environmentalists as well, as the figurehead of a new religion on the earth. She is an unwitting Anti-Christ. The idea that someone could be unwittingly dragged into such a position is a fascinating one.

You can listen to Palahniuk talk about the story HERE. He’s always very, very interesting to listen to.

52 Novels (5): Here, There Be Dragons

I am trying to read a novel a week in 2015. I’ve made it to five.

James Owens, Here, There Be Dragons: The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica

My goal is to read 52 novels this year. But I never said I would have something profound to write about every one.

This book was recommended to me by a young lady because of my love for C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. She explained to me that they were actually characters in the story, and that the story provides, perhaps, a fictional backdrop for how they came up with ideas for their own stories.

Anyhow, I read the book with my 8-year-old daughter. She really enjoyed it, and has started reading the second volume of the series on her own. I wasn’t up for the second volume. I simply didn’t enjoy the book very much. The real Lewis and Tolkien are strangely more fascinating than the fictional version. And their own fiction is certainly better by a long, long way. I’d much rather read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Hobbit for the dozenth time than read this book. I’d rather my kids read them too.

My daughter is a big fan of The Sisters Grimm series. She mentioned that the hodgepodge elements of the book, as it blends together a number of myths and fables and characters into one story, reminded her of those books. That was a big plus for her.

I will say that if you plan to read this book with a child, and if that child knows who Lewis or Tolkien is, it would probably be better to keep the identities of ‘Jack’ and ‘John’ a secret until the actual revelation of their true identities at the end of the book. She knew ahead of time, and that took away some of the fun of the big reveal.

52 Novels (4): The Fall, by Albert Camus

I’m trying to read a novel a week in 2015. I’ve made it to four.

Albert Camus, The Fall (1956)

I have wanted to read some of Camus’ work for a while; I’m just now getting to it. I plan to read The Stranger in the near future as well (I’ve already checked it out from the library).

The Fall reads like a conversational version of the Book of Ecclesiastes. It takes skill to pull off a long conversation with only one voice present; Camus pulls it off to be sure. It even seems fitting that the voice of the main character, Jean-Baptiste Clamence, is the only voice heard. Why should any other voice be heard? He has risen to judge-penitent.

He is guilt-ridden. He is a self-worshipper who has to come to grips with the fact that he essentially witnessed someone jump off a bridge and, for the sake of self-preservation and apathy, did nothing to help. And so now, in his own guilt, he pronounces his perspective and judgment on the world to any and all who will listen. He gives us some gems:

In solitude and when fatigued, one is after all inclined to take oneself for a prophet. When all is said and done, that’s really what I am, having taken refuge in a desert of stones, fogs, and stagnant waters – an empty prophet for shabby times, Elijah without a messiah, choked with fever and alcohol, my back up against this moldy door, my finger raised toward a threatening sky, showering imprecations on lawless men who cannot endure any judgment…He who clings to law that does not fear the judgment that reinstates him in an order that he believes in. But the keenest of human torments is to be judged without a law. Yet we are in that torment. Deprived of their natural curb, the judges, loosed at random, are racing through their job. Hence we have to try to go faster than they, don’t we? And it’s a real madhouse. Prophets and quacks multiply; they hasten to get there with a good law or a flawless organization before the world is deserted. Fortunately, I arrived! I am the end and the beginning; I announce the law. In short, I am the judge-penitent (pp. 117-118).

The idea that we all take ourselves to be prophets at times is intriguing and worth some thought. That idea relates to this one:

We are all exceptional cases. We all want to appeal against something! Each of us insists on being innocent at all costs, even if he has to accuse the whole human race and heaven itself. You won’t do I delight a man by complimenting him on on the efforts by which he has become intelligent were generous. On the other hand, he will be home if you admire his natural generosity. Inversely, if you tell a criminal that his crime is not due to his nature or his character but to unfortunate circumstances, he will be extravagantly grateful to you (p. 81).

God says to Job, “Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?” (Job 40:7). Job repented in dust and ashes. But this is not so for most of humanity. We will often accuse anything and anyone to get ourselves off the hook. If we do wrong, we want to blame it on our culture and upbringing and bad genetics. If we do right, we want full credit as bright and brilliant individuals. Camus has established that we want to be prophets; here he establishes that we want to be kings. Only the office of priest is left:

But too many people now climb onto the cross merely to be seen from a greater distance, even if they have to trample somewhat on the one who has been there so long (p. 114).

‘Take up your cross and follow me’ has been taken up by harlots who interpret it as ‘Climb up the cross so that everyone will look at thee.’ Our strange modern priesthood of personality. So far have we risen. So far have we fell. The good news is that, contra Camus, Jesus is no longer on the cross. He is risen.

52 Novels (3): Damned, by Chuck Palahniuk

I’m trying to read a novel a week in 2015. I’ve made it to three.

This book is about a 13-year-old girl, Madison Spencer, who goes to hell. It is the first book in what is meant to be a trilogy. So, you get maybe a hundred pages of The Breakfast Club in Hell. It’s an interesting concept. I almost wish that concept would have come full circle throughout the course of the book. It gets dropped at some point. It would have been interesting to see the hellish prisoners raising back to their cells, trying to get back before some demon caught them out frolicking. But that doesn’t happen.

Instead, Madison becomes a telemarketer. Yes, we find out that dinnertime telemarketing calls comes from the inhabitants of Hell. From there, she has a major run in with Satan himself. Her encounter with Satan will shape the rest of the story as it unfolds in the second volume of the trilogy (Doomed) and the third, which is yet to be released.

There’s some unnecessary vulgarity (vulgarity could probably be in all caps). But you expect that from Palahniuk. I call it unnecessary if it doesn’t advance the plot. And there’s certainly one blatant incident that adds nothing to the plot.

The digs at wealthy modern environmentalists are amusing. For instance,

If there was a Hell, my mom said you’d go there for wearing fur coats or buying a cream rinse tested on baby rabbits by escaped Nazi scientists in France…

There are many, many good little jabs akin to that one. The book also provides some jabs at the over use of anti-depressants. So, if you’re a big-time environmentalist or a big-time user of anti-depressants, this book my provide you with some food for thought, if it doesn’t blind you with rage.

The major refrain of the book is,

No, it’s not fair, but what makes earth feel like Hell is our expectation that it should feel like Heaven. Earth is earth. Dead is dead. You’ll find out for yourself soon enough.

This reminded me of something Chesterton wrote:

It is commonly in a somewhat cynical sense that men have said, ‘Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.’ It was in a wholly happy and enthusiastic sense that St. Francis said, ‘Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall enjoy everything.'(St. Francis of Assisi, p. 87).

This book is nowhere near being as good as Fight Club. That almost goes without saying. Would I recommend it? Only if you meet the two requirements I listed above and were mentally equipped to handle some raunchy stuff.

52 Novels: (2) The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

The past drives Christians.

In Scripture, past deliverance and grace drives us to present obedience and future hope. We are called to remember what, and who, we once were. We are called to remember what Christ has done for us. We are called to remember the mighty deeds of God. We are called to remember the saints of old who set an example of perseverance and faith. We are called to remember the history of the church.

We are also called to forget the past: Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13-14).

The past drives everyone. It can drive us in positive ways and negative ways.

It’s said the Michael Jordan not making the varsity basketball team as an underclassmen spurred him on to greatness. How many stories have you heard of someone being driven to greatness by the ‘You can’t do it’ comments of the past?

How many men and women have forever been emotionally and romantically ruined because of lost love? Because of the inability to move on? Because of inability to move beyond the hurt and find healing? Cat Stevens said ‘the first cut is the deepest.’ All cuts hurt and take time to heal. Someone has said that there is a presence in what is missing. That’s what we see in the life of Gatsby. He is a haunted man. The presence of what is missing dominates his life, and ultimately destroys his life.

Gatsby is a man who is haunted by the past. He is a man consumed by the past. He is consumed by the idea of a woman he once knew and loved. It drives him to greatness financially, as he strives to amass a fortune that will impress his lost love. It drives him to ruin in every other way.

I wonder how different Gatsby would look in the age of social media. Would he simply anonymously stalk Daisy on Facebook? Would he flaunt his great possessions on Instagram? I wonder if his lust would last if he could see pictures of her young child in an online photo album. I wonder if his lust would have died in an age in which technology takes away the imagination. He wouldn’t have to ask, I wonder what she looks like? I wonder what she’s doing?

I wonder how many men and women are still haunted by past events to the point that those events have a determining impact on their present and future.I wonder how many folks are emotionally and spiritually crippled by memories. I wonder how many men and women hold on to past imaginary ideals instead of living in the now. It’s always easier to love an idea than a person. Ideas don’t argue or contradict the thinker. Ideas aren’t entangled in marriages that must be broken up if we are to achieve our goals.

If nothing else, Nick, Gatsby’s apostolic biographer, warns us that the ghosts of the past can destroy us if we do not exorcise them. Be careful what memories you let dominate you. Those memories may even drive you to greatness is one area or another while causing ultimate spiritual ruin.

You could pick up all sorts of themes in Gatsby. But for me, the inescapable themes involve the crippling effects of idolatry and memory. Exalt something so high, think of it so much, refuse to let it go, and it will end up possessing you, rather than you possessing it. And who knows what it will do with you? Who knows if its hold on you may be crushing?

52 Novels: (1) Fight Club

Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk

I’m trying to read a novel a week. This is number 1. As usual, I will not be writing reviews of the books I’m reading. I am giving my impressions and applications; things I take away from the book. Here’s ten conveniently starting with the letter ‘s.’

1. Sleep: If you know what it’s like to have insomnia, or even extreme fatigue, you can immediately relate to the nameless narrator. That’s the first thing that sucked me into the story. Feeling like you don’t know if you’re awake or asleep; having days, weeks run together in a sort of blur.

2. Sissies: That’s the next big sticking point. Men culturally neutered. Men shopping for furniture. Men living in highrise apartments. Men stuck sitting at desks. Men needing a good fight. This book is a scathing indictment of a culture that suppresses manhood.

3. Schizophrenia: It’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde without the magic and the medicine. The battle of good versus evil in one person; the tendency of the evil to dominate.

4. Sympathy and Sobs: I haven’t read Palahniuk’s book Choke yet, but I’ve surmised it’s about a man who feigns chocking in order to gain human contact and sympathy, as well as money. The nameless narrator of Fight Club is desperate for human contact. He blubbers like a baby in the arms of a cancer-riddled bodybuilder. Support groups, in which he has no real business, support his sanity. This again is a scathing critique of a culture that knows little about true affirmation and community.

5. Shock: Don’t read Palahniuk if you don’t want to be shocked. And not all the shock is good or even needful in my opinion; but sometimes it’s necessary.

6. Soldiery: Project Mayhem. Men are ready to join a cause; better make sure it’s the right one. Here it’s the cult of personality. And HERE it’s often the cult of personality.

7. Salvation: Or perhaps anti-salvation. Rebirth or anti-rebirth. One of my favorite lines in the book has to do with the narrator constantly traveling by plane for his job. He’s awake, he’s asleep. He wakes up and he’s in a totally different place. He says, “If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?” It serves as a beautiful foreshadow to the rest of the book. I’ll devote another post to that line of thought.

8. Shrinks: Heaven is a Psych Ward. God is a psychiatrist. At least, that’s what the narrator thinks in the end.

9. Superman: It’s a tale of boredom; of man’s need to rip off his suit and tie like Superman. The only thing is that this ripping off of the suit and tie results in an epic of nihilism that produces exactly the kind of superman Nietzche pointed to – a man wholly of this world. His heaven is a Psych Ward after all.

I would hesitate to recommend this book to someone who isn’t very mature. It’s rough. But it’s also quite disturbingly beautiful. I read it twice. Should I even mention that it’s better than the movie? But the movie is pretty good.