Anyways, here comes the other two books I finished while away: Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
First, Invisible Monsters. I have to lead a book club discussion so I guess I'll just type my reaction in form of the questions I wrote for people to respond to, and this way we can all see how much I suck at this. PS. If you didn't read the book, you will be extraordinarily lost.
1. Just to recap: Why did Shannon do it? Would you have done it too? Did you think it was a stupid thing to do?
Shannon wanted out on the fashion model life. She wanted the "opposite of a miracle", like her brother. "Rip yourself open, sew yourself shut." (Favorite line. Ever.) I wouldn't have had the balls to do it. And was it stupid... hell, it's braver than most anyone could do. I guess it's stupid, because she actively wrecked herself, but in doing so she lived for real.
2. Liked the style it was written, what with all the jumping around? It isn't that weird, actually. For all the flip flops and sudden changes, it flows better than most straightforward books.
3. "No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn't experience it at all. There's that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should've been paying attention." (page 22) Did you end the book with that feeling? Any questions on what you felt you missed? The first time, and even the second time, yes. But number seven, you pretty much have it all by that point. No questions.
4. What do you think the main idea of the book was? The only way to really live is to destroy yourself (short from killing yourself). Only when you fall that far can you really ever know yourself and say you've lived.
5. I believe that the main idea of the book was the "Rip yourself open, sew yourself shut" sort of deal. Destroy yourself and by doing so, you can truly exist. Do you agree? Indeed, I do.
6. Any particular quotes you favored? Why? Care to discuss? "Rip yourself open, sew yourself shut." I think I've quite exhausted that. And, I'm paraphrasing a quote: "If being born makes your parents God, then puberty makes you Satan for wanting something better." It's true. "Your birth is a mistake you'll spend your whole life trying to correct." "Jump into disaster with both feet." That one's my yearbook quote. The second one. (They allow two, right?)
7. Who was your favorite character? I honestly don't have a favorite. Manus, while drugged up on premarin and vicodin and stuff delivered the most 'Chuck-bombs' (revelations by way of Chuck Palahniuk) so I guess you could say I loved him for that... and maybe him the most... but not really. I didn't really have a number one.
8. Least favorite? Shannon's parents piss me off. They're goddamn spineless cowardly half-baked idiots.
9. Any strong reactions to Shannon's parents? I WOULD ENJOY BEATING THEM WITH TIRE IRONS.
10. If you were Shannon, would you have let Sean back in the house? I'd like to say I would, but keep in mind, Shannon hated her brother. So if I was her... probably not? I doubt she would've known that ignoring him that one time would have been forever... well, a long time at least. So no, if I was her I probably wouldn't have let him back in. Acting as me, however, I would have.
11. Did you like the ending? Indeed.
12. Did you like the book itself? Favorite Palahniuk : )
Have I writ a review on this already? I feel like I have. In any case, it's my absolute number one Palahniuk book annnd yeah. I can't really think at this moment, but here are my favorite scenes because I love you?
(When she first meets Brandy) "Those Burning Blueberry eyes look right at me the way no eyes have all summer. 'Your perception is all fucked up,' Brandy says. 'All you can talk about is trash that's already happened.' She says, 'You can't base your life in the past or the present.' Brandy says, 'You have to tell me about your future.'"
This next one includes the quote you've read so many times in the last post you'd probably beat me if you read it again. Onto the next!
This is my absolute favorite scene, and I love it so much I am willing to give myself carpal tunnel trying to type it:
"According to Seth, the future ended in 1962 at the Seattle World's Fair. This was everything we should've inherited: the whole man on the moon within this decade--asbestos is our miracle friend--nuclear-powered and fossil-fueled world of the Space Age where you could go up to visit the Jetsons' flying saucer apartment building and then ride the monorail downtown for fun pillbox hat fashions at the Bon Marche. All this hope and science and research and glamour left here in ruins. The Space Needle. The Science Center with its lacy domes and hanging light globes. The Monorail streaking along covered in brushed aluminum. This is how our lives were supposed to turn out. Go there. Take the trip, Seth says. It will break your heart because the Jetsons with their robot maid, Rosie, and their flying-saucer cars and toasters beds that spit you out in the morning, it's like the Jetsons have sublet the Space Needle to the Flintstones. 'You know,' says Seth, 'Fred and Wilma. The garbage disposal that's really a pig that lives under the sink. All their furniture made out of bones and rocks and tiger-skin lampshades. Wilma vacuums with a baby elephant and fluffs the rocks. They named their baby "Pebbles".' Here was our future of cheese-food and aerosol propellants, Styrofoam and Club Med on the moon, roast beef served in a toothpaste tube. 'Tang,' says Seth, 'you know, breakfast with the astronauts. And now people come here wearing sandals thy made themselves out of leather. They name their kids Zilpah and Zebulum out of the Old Testament. Lentils are a big deal.' Seth sniffs and drags a hand across the tears in his eyes. It's the Estrace is all. He must be getting premenstrual. 'The folks who go to the Space Needle now,' Seth says, 'they have lentils soaking at home and they're walking around the ruins of the future the way barbarians did when they found Grecian ruins and told themselves God must've built them.'"
Yup, all of that build up for that. It's a great scene. It's a great book. Go read ittttttttt.
I'll do Slaughterhouse Five tomorrow. I'm exhausted!
(edit: added picture)
I put the book on its belly for the first time and was so put out by actually seeing the two covers side by side I had to record it:
Weird, huh? I actually saw a funny poster once that had the picture, and at the bottom (when the picture was to the big-nosed lady) and it said something like 'Before beer: no way' or something, and then when you turned it so it looked like the attractive woman it said something like 'after five: definitely!'
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