Revel in Gore

"The world is full of beautiful stories...you're not going to hear any of those tonight."
So began the fabulously disgusting reading I went to last night, featuring CHUCK PALAHNIUK! I can't believe that fate had him in Toronto and doing that same reading about which I've been reading just a few days after I discovered it. Destiny looks after me again! (And, I love living in the big city.)
Let me start by saying that no one fainted. Apparently, Torontonians are a tough bunch. But residents of Calgary aren't- his publicist told the crowd during his intro that they'd lost no less than five people at the last reading. I'm vaguely disappointed that no one went down, especially since the author was obviously doing his best.
Let me explain; the reading occurred in Indigo, which is a big place, but could barely contain the four hundred (at least) people who crowded in. It was hot and cramped and there weren't any seats unless you got there two hours in advance.
He handed out air fresheners. He handed out three hundred meat-scented, steak-shaped air 'fresheners' that he insisted we open and swing around. Eew. REALLY.
He was a fantastic speaker who was extremely talented at taking hilarious, disgusting, sad and sadistic stories and never allowing his audience to see them as abstract in any way; he was very good at keeping a human face on his characters. He spoke (even before he started reading) about the sick things people did, and told him about. He spoke about a guy finding out he had HIV, a guy who took pictures of dead people, and teenagers who commit suicide by accident.
Then he started reading. He told "Guts". This is the story about which the article I linked was about, the story, apparently, that he had 'retired' in view of the reactions he was getting. I was thrilled when he announced it.
The story was just as gross as the rest of his talk. It was great.
The crowd was good, too. It was a very young, kind of anti-establishment type crowd- very rock.
He took questions after, though he'd already made a point of talking about the rediculous comments and questions he usually got. For instance, those people (in the States), who ask him "Do you want to come to our fight club?" To which he sarcastically responds; "Yeah, like what I really want is to do this, and then go get punched."
He got some great questions, but was also a clever enough speaker that he made what would normally be mundane answers into interresting responses. For instance, the question "What do you aim to do with your writing?" to which he answered, "I aim to amuse myself. [These readings are] like sex; I want you to be there and be quiet until I'm done."
He was funny, and he gave out prizes (other than the air fresheners). He had us rolling when he spoke about being scheduled for readings following Erin Rolston, who wrote his true story about being caught in a rockslide and having to amputate his own arm with a swiss army knife. This was funny because the prizes Chuck had were rubber severed arms, which the bookstore workers kept unpacking beforehand, and thinking it was all a very distasteful joke. LOL!
All in all- man, was that a good night! He was a great speaker, and I'm glad I went. And, since I'm sure you're wondering, no, I did not even get woozy. In fact, I think I was one of the few who were laughing at the parts that few others were finding funny. What can I say? My mind has sick depths which boggle even me...
I'll leave you with a last memorable comment by the author;

"How we digest our lives is by making stories out of them, and retelling until we wear them out. We write to control our stories, and not be controlled by them."