This week I read Lullaby to page 155.
I won't do a plot summary this week because nothing new really happened and I would like to keep my plot summaries shorter compared to those from Invisible Monsters.
I wanted to mention a common thread between what I have read of Palahniuk's writing. I believe that he uses isolationism in his novels frequently. His characters tend to break away from society in drastic sudden ways putting them onto their own new stage separate from the world around them as the stories pan out. Streator in Lullaby loses his family and begins hate the world around him, hating the noise or his neighbors, distracting himself with his model homes, wiping out those who get on his nerve any given day with the culling song. Then he goes on the road with his new dysfunctional makeshift family (Helen, Mona, Oyster) which further disconnects all of them from society. In Invisible Monsters Shannon blows her own face of simply to remove herself from the looking glass the modeling community has put her under. Her brother Shane is kicked out of his house and undergoes a sex change not because he wants to be a woman but simply because he wants to achieve what he believes is the highest form of self-mutilation. I think common language in the books will further describe this. Palahniuk uses a line at the start of Invisible Monsters to describe the wedding homicide scene, "No matter how much you think, you love somebody, you'll step back when a pool of their blood gets too close." (pg. 15). And in Lullaby, "This isn't about love and hate. It's about control. People don't sit down a read a poem to kill their child. They just want the child to sleep. They just want to dominate. No matter how much you love someone, you still want to have your own way." Both of these lines shown Palahnuik's lack of emotional connection with other people in his writing. There are no grand love affairs or passionate relationships. Rather a whole lot of disappointment and isolation.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Week 5
This week I read Lullaby to page 117.
Steator has learned the culling song and starts using it on innocent people when they bother him. He learns that Helen has been working for the government using the song to kill the undesirables, terrors, and demons of the earth. This keeps her from killing at random like Streator. The two have joined up with Helen's hippie assistant, Mona, and her boyfriend, Oyster, on a cross-country road trip to rip out page 27 of all known copies of Poems and Rhymes from Around the World from libraries in the United States. Unfortunately many times the book is checked out so they must use their quick-wit and scamming abilities to get to the fatal page 27.
I have begun to notice many sylistic and thematic cross-literary connections in Palahniuk's work. In terms of style this author frequently uses repetative lines throughout his story that fit the theme of the novel.
In Invisible Monsters it was "Give me ____. Flash. Give me _____. Flash." This tied to the narrator's feelings during each scene as well as her fashion model background and persona.
He also began paragraphs with "Jump to..." for he was constantly moving forward and backward in his storyline
Lullaby uses more of this repetition throughout the book:
The main line being, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words hurt like hell." This is meant to show the power behind the human word and relate to the lethal abilities of the culling song.
The narrator also commonly uses this formated line. "These noise-oholics, the sound-ophobics. He will insert other words like "drama" and "peace" or "distraction" and "focus" to fit with the scene but it is meant to portray societies addiction to distraction. People drown out the world around them to avoid confrontation. Interestingly another frequently-used sentence by the narrator is"The trick to forgetting the big picture is to looking at everything up close." It is a completely different from of distraction but continues to fit this theme. I noticed recently that Streator always describes Helen gaudy outfits with such immaculate detail. I wonder if this will relate to "looking closely" "and forgetting the big picture" as if there is some plot twisting secret about Helen that he is overlooking. This block quote relates well with the theme of distraction:
"Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big brother's busy holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed."
In terms of thematic connections I also have noticed a few. In both Invisible Monsters and Lullaby there are as mismatched group of characters out on the open road distant from society full-filling some self-proclaimed purpose. Both stories also include con artists earning money in an unusual and unconstitutional way. In Invisible Monsters Brandy Alexander, Manus, and Shannon gal avant around the U.S. covering as wealthy real-estate buyers to steal drugs from the medicine cabinets of the rich and famous to use and sell. In Lullaby Helen uses her knowledge of the the culling song to work as a hit man for the government. Also, Oyster posts advertisements of this nature:
Steator has learned the culling song and starts using it on innocent people when they bother him. He learns that Helen has been working for the government using the song to kill the undesirables, terrors, and demons of the earth. This keeps her from killing at random like Streator. The two have joined up with Helen's hippie assistant, Mona, and her boyfriend, Oyster, on a cross-country road trip to rip out page 27 of all known copies of Poems and Rhymes from Around the World from libraries in the United States. Unfortunately many times the book is checked out so they must use their quick-wit and scamming abilities to get to the fatal page 27.
I have begun to notice many sylistic and thematic cross-literary connections in Palahniuk's work. In terms of style this author frequently uses repetative lines throughout his story that fit the theme of the novel.
In Invisible Monsters it was "Give me ____. Flash. Give me _____. Flash." This tied to the narrator's feelings during each scene as well as her fashion model background and persona.
He also began paragraphs with "Jump to..." for he was constantly moving forward and backward in his storyline
Lullaby uses more of this repetition throughout the book:
The main line being, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words hurt like hell." This is meant to show the power behind the human word and relate to the lethal abilities of the culling song.
The narrator also commonly uses this formated line. "These noise-oholics, the sound-ophobics. He will insert other words like "drama" and "peace" or "distraction" and "focus" to fit with the scene but it is meant to portray societies addiction to distraction. People drown out the world around them to avoid confrontation. Interestingly another frequently-used sentence by the narrator is"The trick to forgetting the big picture is to looking at everything up close." It is a completely different from of distraction but continues to fit this theme. I noticed recently that Streator always describes Helen gaudy outfits with such immaculate detail. I wonder if this will relate to "looking closely" "and forgetting the big picture" as if there is some plot twisting secret about Helen that he is overlooking. This block quote relates well with the theme of distraction:
"Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big brother's busy holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed."
In terms of thematic connections I also have noticed a few. In both Invisible Monsters and Lullaby there are as mismatched group of characters out on the open road distant from society full-filling some self-proclaimed purpose. Both stories also include con artists earning money in an unusual and unconstitutional way. In Invisible Monsters Brandy Alexander, Manus, and Shannon gal avant around the U.S. covering as wealthy real-estate buyers to steal drugs from the medicine cabinets of the rich and famous to use and sell. In Lullaby Helen uses her knowledge of the the culling song to work as a hit man for the government. Also, Oyster posts advertisements of this nature:
Attention Patrons of the Country House Golf Club
Have you contracted a medication-resistant staph infection from the swimming pool or locker room facilities? If so, please call the following number to be a part of a class action law suit."
The ads are false but only he knows that and he earns his fortune by how much the companies are willing to pay for him to take down his signs.
The usage of these signs also play a role in Palahniuk's repetitions style as they are seen frequently throughout the book.
Have you contracted a medication-resistant staph infection from the swimming pool or locker room facilities? If so, please call the following number to be a part of a class action law suit."
The ads are false but only he knows that and he earns his fortune by how much the companies are willing to pay for him to take down his signs.
The usage of these signs also play a role in Palahniuk's repetitions style as they are seen frequently throughout the book.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Week 4
I have officially finished one of my American Author books - Invisible Monsters. This week I started my second book - Lullaby. I read to page 35.
Lullaby is about the mysterious death of infants after their parents read to them page 27 of a lullaby book entitled Poems and Rhymes from Around the World. On page 27 there is what is known as an African culling song which is meant to give a painless death to old or sickly people. The lyrics are fatal when read. The deaths of these infants are seen through the eyes of two people. A Helen Hoover Boyle, a real estate agent who specializes in haunted houses, and a Mr. Streator (the narrator), a reporter who has witnessed the tragedy of sudden infant death first hand and has made it a priority to cover these mysterious death stories.
I think that one major theme that will develop in this book is that of distraction. The narrator builds extremely detailed architecture models to keep his mind of of being alone after his child and wife died. his neighbors are what he refers to as "distraction-oholics" and "focus-ophobics" (p. 18). They all blast their radios and televisions or talk loudly on their phones because they can't hand the quietness. Palahniuk ties these event together using distraction as a theme in the following quote"
"The music and laughter eat away at your thoughts. The noise blots them out. All the sound distracts. Your head aches from the glue"
A line that he repeats throughout the first few chapters as relates to this idea of distraction, "The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything up close" (p. 21) This relates to his work on the tiny home models.
Palahniuk also compares the distraction theme to competition in the the following quote:
"You turn up your music to hide the noise. Other people turn up their music to hide yours. You turn up yours again. Everyone buys a bigger stereo system. This is the arms race of sound. You don't win with a lot of treble. This isn't about quality. It's about volumes. This isn't about music. This is about winning." I think he is trying to say that everyone try to distract themselves. they block out reality and each other.
Our prompt this week is about how our author uses symbolism in their writing. I don't think that Palahniuk relies on symbols in his writing very often. I can't think of any that stood out in Invisible Monsters (although this could be because I have already finished it an it is much harder to recall the subtly of symbolism after-the-fact). Maybe you could consider the tiny house models in Lullaby that Mr. Steator builds a symbol for distraction. Especially the line about forgetting the big picture.
Lullaby is about the mysterious death of infants after their parents read to them page 27 of a lullaby book entitled Poems and Rhymes from Around the World. On page 27 there is what is known as an African culling song which is meant to give a painless death to old or sickly people. The lyrics are fatal when read. The deaths of these infants are seen through the eyes of two people. A Helen Hoover Boyle, a real estate agent who specializes in haunted houses, and a Mr. Streator (the narrator), a reporter who has witnessed the tragedy of sudden infant death first hand and has made it a priority to cover these mysterious death stories.
I think that one major theme that will develop in this book is that of distraction. The narrator builds extremely detailed architecture models to keep his mind of of being alone after his child and wife died. his neighbors are what he refers to as "distraction-oholics" and "focus-ophobics" (p. 18). They all blast their radios and televisions or talk loudly on their phones because they can't hand the quietness. Palahniuk ties these event together using distraction as a theme in the following quote"
"The music and laughter eat away at your thoughts. The noise blots them out. All the sound distracts. Your head aches from the glue"
A line that he repeats throughout the first few chapters as relates to this idea of distraction, "The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything up close" (p. 21) This relates to his work on the tiny home models.
Palahniuk also compares the distraction theme to competition in the the following quote:
"You turn up your music to hide the noise. Other people turn up their music to hide yours. You turn up yours again. Everyone buys a bigger stereo system. This is the arms race of sound. You don't win with a lot of treble. This isn't about quality. It's about volumes. This isn't about music. This is about winning." I think he is trying to say that everyone try to distract themselves. they block out reality and each other.
Our prompt this week is about how our author uses symbolism in their writing. I don't think that Palahniuk relies on symbols in his writing very often. I can't think of any that stood out in Invisible Monsters (although this could be because I have already finished it an it is much harder to recall the subtly of symbolism after-the-fact). Maybe you could consider the tiny house models in Lullaby that Mr. Steator builds a symbol for distraction. Especially the line about forgetting the big picture.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)