600 men, 200 pages, 4 personal accounts, one porn priestess. That’s what it takes to make history in the adult entertainment industry.
“Snuff” follows 3 men and their thoughts on life, the adult entertainment world. As they wait their turn to become part of history by participating in the biggest porn movie ever, they criticize each other’s pride, anxiousness, and ridiculous attempts to make a good impression on Cassie Wright, the porn priestess, trying to make a comeback after taking several years off. The characters include Mr. 72, a young adopted Christian, in hopes of finding his birth mother, Mr. 137 who is a primetime show star, Mr. 600 who is an adult entertainment actor himself, and Shiela, Cassie Wright’s assistant and talent wrangler. As each character takes turns sadly detailing their thoughts and actions, they set up a scene for the next character to take over or reflect on.
Chuck Palahniuk has done it again. The author of “Fight Club” and “Choke,” delivers another perversed and hysteric novel that pushes the boundaries of literature, covering a topic that is still considered taboo yet very successful in the real world. Palahniuk never makes Snuff so distasteful that it should be considered pornography. He never even shows his depicts an actual scene of sex. Small sexual acts and fake movie titles like “World Whore One” add the traditional Chuck Palahniuk dark humor that he is known for.
Books by Palahniuk often deal with chaos and mayhem that constantly deal with small groups or communities. Mr. Palahniuk takes a break from the mayhem and critical thought to express his views on adult entertainment and the possible thoughts that go through one’s mind when in line for a movie shoot. He sets the book up to what I can only describe are the David Reed ESP model for an orgasm. Pun intended. Really, he starts out with a long seduction on the history of adult entertainment, and a fake history of each character’s lives. Then the sensation where everyone is getting closer to their turn with the porn priestess. Finally, towards the very end of the book, about 40 pages before the final page, the twist, which will not be revealed in here, is played, and all truths are revealed. He gives readers an unexpected orgasm at this point. But it doesn’t end there. The final pages, meant to be the reflection or resolution, only end up having another twist in the story. The plot thickens and quickly resolves to a finish.
A surprising twist ends the book in a disturbing image that leaves it flat and uninteresting compared to other pieces of literature, including “Fight Club.” Possibly because the climax (pun intended) of the story was 20-40 pages before the end. That’s what left me saying: wow, out of all the things, I didn’t see that coming.
Like his other books, “Snuff” shows Palahniuk researched the material used to in the book, from the history of the blow up doll and Adolf Hitler’s involvement in its development, or the start of Sylvester Stallone’s movie career in both the adult and mainstream entertainment industries. He references through characters conversing, several articles and books on statistics involving the books topics, including Violet Blue, making his research more credible. He never goes too far in depth, letting the reader to do his or her own research based upon Palahniuk’s research.
Unfortunately, “Snuff” is not “Fight Club.” Palahniuk does not captivate his audience with the critical thinking ideas that he uses to make “Fight Club” a success. There aren’t any philosophical questions about how one would survive a plane crash, or how corrupt credit card companies, or even how one might infiltrate government documents by pretending to be a foreign exchange student. There is plenty of room for the perspective of the actress herself, Miss Sheila Wright, to offer her own insight to her career topping project. The only interaction the readers get with the actress are through the accounts of the four main characters.
“Snuff” certainly is a pretty entertaining book for boredom but not something that is safe for work or something to read while waiting for a doctor’s appointment. It is interesting, filled with great information and history, and most of all: sick and twisted. Sick and twisted would be the most important elements to have a in a Chuck Palahniuk novel. Out of 5 stars, this would be a 3 in my book.
No comments:
Post a Comment