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this book makes the brave choice of following through on his "people need conflict and drama and villains and a satisfying narrative*" theme by giving us none of that in the overarching narrative (or more accurately, by giving so much of it that it all gets muddled), and i honestly kind of respect it? it does make the whole thing a little bit tedious to get through, though. overall fine, i think, palahniuk had a vision - even if it's kind of a narrow one - and gave it his all. the short stories were a bit hit-or-miss for me, the cynical angle of "ouhgshjds people are so easily mean and horrible to each other" is something i generally struggle to take seriously (feels a tad juvenile), but a few of them manage to stand out and strike on a deeper level than just really intense gross out by being more grounded emotionally and adding empathy to its toolbox, which should've happened way more often imo. (i'm still sad about exodus.)
*realizing now that's maybe unfair paraphrasing, it's mostly just about plain conflict and drama - but the thing is, all the horrible stuff that happens in the retreat is so aimless and devoid of sense that it barely registers as conflict to me, at least in the narrative sense of the word, and, well, this is a book. narrative is all there is. i know the absurdity of it all is the point, again i respect that, and i think that on an esthetic level the centering of pain and suffering and horror that transcends any logical end works pretty well, but. again. the "okay so what why should i care these people are just supid and doing stupid shit for no reason" urge is strong with this one.
*realizing now that's maybe unfair paraphrasing, it's mostly just about plain conflict and drama - but the thing is, all the horrible stuff that happens in the retreat is so aimless and devoid of sense that it barely registers as conflict to me, at least in the narrative sense of the word, and, well, this is a book. narrative is all there is. i know the absurdity of it all is the point, again i respect that, and i think that on an esthetic level the centering of pain and suffering and horror that transcends any logical end works pretty well, but. again. the "okay so what why should i care these people are just supid and doing stupid shit for no reason" urge is strong with this one.