My daughter was looking for lyrics to some song called The Barbie Song as she tries out for a local production of Little Shop of Horrors. I noticed that she found them and at the top of the web page was a banner ad for Choke, the new film by Chuck Palahniuk.
I happen to have seen the preview for this flick. It's porno. As far as I recall, it was the story of a man who attempts to debase himself in every way possible, which is about all anybody needs to know. It's porno. So as you might imagine, I was a little peeved about the marketing finding it's way into my poor, innocent, impressionable baby's pristinely Christian mind.
As one of those insufferable pedants who takes himself entirely too seriously, there are few things that get under my skin than the glib debauchery and devil-may-care snark and dismissiveness of those characters who make hay and money by their ability to debase themselves sufficiently to give every airhead and excuse to remain retarded. Few people represent this better than Sarah Vowel and David Sedaris. You know the drill. Oddballity made famous. It's a formula for success in Hollywood. Why?
Why? You have the nerve to ask why?
I'll tell you why. It's because we are a nation teetering on the brink of depravity. But it's difficult to tell exactly how much is going to ruin us, vs how much is a self-contained embarrassment. Hollywood profits by finding the limits of the envelope and pushing it off on us as entertainment, and then there are the 'true' artists who go even further. And so we have swelling subcultures in which it is not sufficient to merely tattoo one's arms and legs, but neck, face and even more bodily real estate. It's circus time 24/7 and the barkers of Hollywood are amping up the volume and making fortunes off their freak show. So it comes as no surprise that eventually there will be a queue of hunger artists designing ever more abstruse monstrosities to salt the pierced tongues of a public desire for bigger perversions.
Enter Chuck P. whose website asks you to 'join the cult'. Perfect.
Chuck is a transgressive from way back. Wikipedia explains:
Palahniuk would also become a member of the rebellious Cacophony Society in his adulthood. He is a regular participant in their events, including the annual Santa Rampage (a public Christmas party involving pranks and drunkenness) in Portland. His participation in the Society inspired some of the events in his writings, both fictional and non-fictional. Most notably, he used the Cacophony Society as the basis for Project Mayhem in Fight Club.
Ordinarily, I would find this sort of behavior falls under the rubric of liberty. But I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure at all. Mind you, I wouldn't really like to see any harmless shenanigans outlawed. But something tells me that this guy is not good for healthy children, and he knows it. Moreover, I'm not convinced that the sort of adults these pranks attract are entirely all there either.
So what say you and I go find Chuck P one weekend and give him a swift boot to the groin. If he laughs it off, then we'll know exactly what we need to know.
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