Chuck Palahniuk was kind enough to do an interview prior to our Damned Book Night at Hal & Mal’s on Thursday, October 20th. Enjoy.

Lisa: I read how you started out as a journalist and finally after some intense creative writing workshops, you faced your fears of writing fiction. Why did you decide to start writing fiction?

Chuck: In 1990 my friends were moving from their apartments to “starter” houses, and I got swept along in the Home Improvement mania – those million trips to Home Depot, Ikea, the dump. I bought the first house I looked at: a 300-square-foot shack with no foundation. It sat on cinderblocks. The roof leaked. I agreed to a sixty-thousand-dollar loan at ten percent interest. I was screwed and trapped in this damp box with no resale value. Worse, I found it had no television or radio reception, and the cable company refused to service our backwoods neighborhood. My only pastime was books, and going to the library, but I found so few novels that I enjoyed. It was out of a resigned desperation that I tried to write the kind of book I so wanted to read. In summary: my worst mistake gave me my greatest gift. That terrible house gave me a new life.

Lisa: Why do you write about things that make many people uncomfortable?

Chuck: Do I make you uncomfortable? Well, you can thank Tom Spanbauer for that. Tom taught the workshop where I began writing, and he calls his method “Dangerous Writing.” This is my interpretation, but Tom’s belief is that challenging, personal, upsetting topics are the only ones worth writing about. Writing fiction is a sort-of therapy that allows you to vent demons in your life, using the mask of an invented character. There’s no guarantee that your work will sell, but you can find enough reward in the creative process to keep you writing despite the initial lack of external compensation. Slowly, as you bring your demons to light, other people confess to struggling with the same issues. You find you’ve expressed something that many people shared, but that no one could discuss.

Lisa: I have been reading Stranger Than Fiction and Fugitives & Refugees. I have been to Portland and also know that it is an unusual place with distinct people, but reading about Portland from a “Portlander” is great! How much do you think Portland itself has shaped your fiction? You have lived there most of your adult life, right?

Chuck: Portland is no longer my primary residence, but it is one of the cities where I spend most of my time. Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Missoula, Boise, these are all western, almost mythic cities where eastern young people move in their search for identity. They exist like a late-20th Century version of West Egg, the town where Nick Carraway, the narrator in “The Great Gatsby” found himself and lost his innocence. After a few years of adventures, Nick moved back to the Midwest. Likewise, many of the young idealists who fled to Portland are moving back to lives elsewhere. Not to sound too wistful, but Portland is a good incubator, with great restaurants — amazing restaurants — but I grew up as a bare-foot, dirt-eating, fly-swatting, small-town kid, in Burbank, Washington, population 600, and I want to see more of the world. I want to live everywhere, thus Madison Spencer, the narrator in “Damned” has homes in every major city.

Lisa: Your most devoted readers seem to be in their 20s and 30s. Some say that these readers are not the kind one would suspect to be the most avid readers. Do you agree with that description?

Chuck: Honestly? Reading is the pastime of last resort. No, seriously, it takes such effort and time, and the typical pay-off isn’t worth the 400-page hassle. People in their 20’s and 30’s have such vital options for their free time. Their lives are filled with friends, sex, parties. For them to read a book, the story had better offer as much reward as any social event. Younger people – early teens, children – read for power; they want narratives such as Harry Potter or X-Men that show powerless persons gaining power. Older people, beyond middle age, say, read for comfort. They want assurance that life is ultimately calm and justice prevails. Although it’s not obvious, my books provide stories of emotional children becoming self-directed adults and, usually, choosing a life partner. It’s this romantic quest that drives most of the 20- and 30-somethings. See? There, I’ve dissected myself. What a mess.

Lisa: Over the years you have developed a tradition of staying in touch with some of your biggest fans, some of them booksellers, by sending what I call “care packages” prior to the release of a new book. I remember getting boxes full of imaginative goodies in theme with the book with an accompanying advanced reader copy and card at Lemuria. I have never heard of any other author doing that. Could you tell us how this all came about?

Chuck: As impossible as this sounds: I miss my day job. I miss having work connections to other people and plotting projects together and drinking coffee. That said, I do like not having to share a smelly bathroom with others, or bicker over who didn’t clean the coffee pot or the shared fridge. Still, I needed to feel like part of a professional community, and I wanted to show some appreciation to booksellers and readers. The boxes and the tour events also occur as a neutral “third” element – like a shared child or dog — that allows me to interact with people. I can’t talk to them about my books; that’s too risky and upsetting… what if they didn’t like this particular book? But candy, or a surprise, that’s okay to connect over. I ask, “Did you like the candy?” because I can’t ask, “Did you like the book?”

Lisa: Once the date for a Jackson visit was confirmed, you expressed your desire to visit the Eudora Welty House. Could you tell us a little bit about your interest in Eudora Welty?

Chuck: It’s all physical proof that writers are human beings, and I love that. Like Anne Rice vampires, most writers have no idea how to behave as writers so they seek out other writers to study. This same impulse drives me crazy when I stay in luxury hotels that offer a “Writers Suite” reserved for touring writers and actors, people who are promoting some book. Those suites always have a wall filled with books signed by the authors in question so you know that you’re more-or-less sharing a bed with Paula Deen and Lee Childs and Snooki and David Sedaris and Jane Fonda and Maya Angelou — quite the slumber party. If the book “Cujo” is signed and on the shelf, then Stephen King used the toilet you’re using. The idea is glamorous and disgusting, and it drives me to collect all the stray hairs and scabs of dead skin. I pull back the mattress pad and study the stains. Hmmm, was Nora Roberts the bed wetter? Did Rick Moody suffer the nocturnal emission? Plus, now I have enough of Ann Coulter’s hair to stuff a voodoo doll.

Lisa: Have you ever been to Mississippi before? Do you have any expectations?

Chuck: I’ve seen “Showboat” about a hundred times. You people sing all day long, right? Damn, that looks like fun. I’m bringing my tambourine.

Lisa: Do you have any advice for first-time Palahniuk readers?

Chuck: Pace yourself. Don’t expect much, and you won’t be disappointed. Don’t give up when messy stuff happens. It’s okay to laugh instead of puking. This overall advice will serve you well in all aspects of life.

Lisa: Could you tell our Lemuria readers a little bit about Damned since it will only be on the shelf two days before our October 20 event?

Chuck: “Damned” is a magic laugh-fest of butterflies wrapped in a buttery, sugary layer of rich, dark chocolate. That, and it’s all about Death. But don’t let me spoil the surprise. You’ll find out the truth about Death soon enough. Some of you, sooner than you think.

Lisa: Lemuria has been working hard to create a really special night for Damned. We have all enjoyed reading your work, discussing it and writing about it on our blog. Can you give our Lemuria readers an idea of what to expect on October 20?

Chuck: Again, set your sights low. Expect me to yap at you. I’ll read some fictional form of excrement. There will be contests and prizes. Live sex acts on stage. The usual. Finally – because boys only tease the girls they love – we’ll stick pins in the voodoo doll.

 Click here for details for the October 20 event with Chuck Palahniuk.
JX//RX

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Life’s a carnival; two bits a shot. What better way to soothe the post State Fair hangover than with a double shot of Transgressive fiction and a little literary exploration of bad behavior in your favorite downtown gathering place?

Hal & Mal’s is thrilled to be the host for the upcoming Chuck Palahniuk’s DAMNED book night. Over the past 27 years, we have presented thousands of hours of live music and hosted many of the major cultural happenings in town. This DAMNED event promises to be one for the history book. We understand that Palahniuk is a global, non-conventional literary wordsmith and that having him include Lemuria and Jackson in his tour is a major coup and having him bring his bad ass downtown is an honor.

If you’re curious about the crossroad where pop cultural embraces counterculture through a genre that claims the likes of Dostoyevsky and the publicly banned classic works like James Joyce’s Ulysses, then you might like Palahniuk’s pedigree. If you were intrigued by D. H. Lawrence’s tale of Lady Chatterley’s Lover or Henry Miller’s sexual odyssey Tropic of Cancer and the ensuing landmark obscenity trials, you might like Chuck Palahniuk.

Remember the explicit work of Allen Ginsberg’s 1955 poem Howl, William S. Burroughs’ hallucinatory, satirical 1959 novel Naked Lunch or Charles Bukowski’s tales of womanizing, drinking, and gambling? Throw in a ticket to the midway, a peek at the world’s smallest horse and bag of fried Oreos and I think you get the drift. Now top it off with a half pint of Dickel, a Mr. Turkey Leg and A Clockwork Orange and you’re on your way. So, STEP RIGHT UP to your neighborhood bar and order a long drink of the dark side with a splash of Palahniuk.

Photograph by David Sandison

Charles Michael Palahniuk was born in the Pacific Northwest of suicide fog and the hauntingly, complex music of Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and the inspiration for the sad, but iconic 1960’s song White Bird by It’s A Beautiful Day. He is said to have grown up in a mobile home in and around Burbank, Washington with his family. His bio says his parents later separated and divorced, reportedly often leaving him and his siblings to live with their grandparents at their cattle ranch in Eastern Washington State. His paternal grandfather was Ukrainian and immigrated to New York from Canada in 1907.

Back in the ole USA, we understand that Lemuria is celebrating 36 years of being one of the finest independent book stores in America and that John Evans is not only dedicated, but frankly obsessed, about maintaining that status. For that we are thankful and we are delighted to be partnering with John and Lemuria on this outrageous and rumpus occasion.

I saw and experienced The New Orleans Bingo Show last week at a showcase in Baton Rouge and can attest that they are the perfect act to accompany Chuck’s shock-a-rama that will be the centerpiece of the DAMNED book event on October 20th. Praise the Lord and pass the Cat Head. (Read their own blog here.)

Hal & Mal’s has hosted a generation of iconic figures like Albert King, Ike Turner and Barry Hannah, Eudora Welty and Willie Dixon and Willie Morris too. We have rolled out the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, hosted John Grisham’s first book signing and sold out two Snoop Dogg shows. We once hosted a literary luncheon event in conjunction with Lemuria and Jubilee JAM featuring Larry Brown. Larry selected one of his darkest, most graphic tales of the underbelly of lower Appalachian life that hastily cleared the room of the nice society ladies of north Jackson gathered to support “the arts”.

Zita White, proud employee of Lemuria and part-time “door dog” at Hal & Mal’s has taken great pride in her dual role in making the Palahniuk DAMNED event come to pass. Zita has long been a fan and devotee’ of Chuck’s work and has worked with John and the great staff at Lemuria to make this possible. Her passion and exuberance in this collaboration reminds us of the early days of Hal & Mal’s when we worked with the University Press of Mississippi’s Bookfriends, presenting Mose Allison and Barry Hannah on the same stage, or Willie Dixon’s book signing for I Am The Blues event with blues giant Jack Owens providing the music.

And who can forget Willie Morris’ 60th birthday with The Tangents on stage, a roomful of New York City literati trying to figure out how to eat a hot tamale. Or Willie and JoAnne’s wedding party where Michigan poet and novelist Jim Harrison showed up after a Lemuria book signing then wrote a rollicking piece for Esquire Magazine about the evening. Unbeknown to all, young Zita slept soundly through most of this in the office with her favorite stuffed animal, perhaps dreaming of the day she and Chuck would take center stage and turn it up LOUD.

Literary great Jim Harrison, little Zita, and her dad Malcolm

Join us on October 20th if you dare. The evening will feature a visual arts show, organized by Marcy Nessel of Fischer Galleries, hypnotic drinks by Cat Head Vodka, and bites of brilliance by Craig Noone’s Parlor Market krewe.

Live local music of Bloodbird, Harrington, and SPACEWOLF will fill the night air on the courtyard, and The New Orleans Bingo Show will delight the patrons of the damned as the evening becomes the late night.

The art created to promote the whole maladventure is from pen and mind of Justin Schultz. Signed posters will be available from Justin and signed books by Chuck as well.

And somewhere in the maelstrom, the brilliant barker of the transgressive midway, Chuck Palahniuk, will take the stage and do his racy, soothsaying, sophisticated sideshow, sell some books and pontificate on the state of the misfits, the maleficent and the glorious bad behavior of society. Feeling lucky? Ladies and Gentlemen, STEP RIGHT UP!

JX//RX

Get all the details for Chuck Palahniuk’s Damned Book Night here.

See all of our other Chuck Palahniuk blogs here.

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Liz Sullivan, one of our reps from Random House, joins our blogging efforts devoted to Chuck Palahniuk, acknowledging the “wee bit” of excitement that has spread through the store like a fever. -Lisa, Blog Editor

As I mentioned in the first “Operation Chuck” post, I took it upon myself to read all the Chuck Palahniuk novels I hadn’t previously read before Chuck’s major event at Lemuria Bookstore on October 20th….which meant that I would be reading ALL of Chuck’s books.  I read most of Survivor while flying to Denver for the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association trade show in Denver on Saturday morning.

Here are some observations about Survivor:

• It’s probably not the wisest choice to read a book that basically uses a hijacked and crashing plane as its setting.  The protagonist, Tender Branson, is telling his life story to the little black box.  I’m going to choose to believe that the reason I was patted down even after going through the porno scanning machines at airport security was because Survivor was in my book bag.  This assumption, though, would suggest that the TSA agents were surprisingly literate, and I admittedly am snobby about the intellectual capacities of airport security personnel.

• It’s also probably not the wisest choice to read a book about religious cults and fanaticism when sitting next to the woman who was reading over my shoulder on the plane.  She kept tsking every time she saw words like “penis” or “cult” or “porno landfill.”  And this is why I own an iPod.

• I learned how to clean stains out of my microwave!  Thanks, Chuck!

• Survivor is hilarious in places, and generally a fairly shrewd critique of religious fanaticism in the US in all its forms, from fundamentalist sects with suicide pacts to football culture and Super Bowl worship.  It also questions the media-driven mechanics of modern religion.  Think about modern “church” leaders like Joel Osteen who have covers on magazines and billboards promoting their latest books, yet don’t actually talk about spiritual doctrines.

• I LOVED the book allegedly written for ex-cult member and spiritual guide Tender Branson, Inc, called The Book of Very Common Prayer.  Prayers not to go bald, prayers to delay sexual release, prayers for good parking spots.  This is first rate satire.  I actually know people who pray for parking spots.

Blind faith…hello Chuck!

I’m sure that y’all know about our huge event with Chuck Palahniuk coming up on Thursday, October 20 at Hal and Mal’s! We are so excited to have Chuck in town and to celebrate Lemuria’s 36th year of business in Jackson. We are going to have some great bands, great drinks and great food but what I am really thrilled about is the opportunity to wear a costume.  I love dressing up and Jackson does not really have many opportunities to do so.

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I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT COSTUMES SHOULD ONLY BE WORN ON HALLOWEEN!!!

I love dressing in costume because I can be whoever I would like to be if only for a few hours.  Through the years I have worn many costumes to many events.  I am a firm believer that anything can be a costume, in fact, some of my favorites I have worn were just clothes from my closet and a wig.  The dress was actually a sequined dress I wore for my debutante party and a hot pink wig…I wasn’t anything specific just glamorous!  Another time, I put an all black outfit on, a blue wig and had an invisible dog leash.  People would ask who I was and my answer was ‘the crazy blue haired lady from next door who walks her invisible dog”.  Masks are great things to have on hand…you just slide it over your head and BAM!!…you are a butterfly!

I have already started working on my costume for DAMNED NIGHT.  The base of this costume is right out of my closet but what is going to make this one fantastic are the accessories.  I have completely taken over the dining room table and there is an orange extension cord spread across the den floor so I can have my glue gun plugged in. (I’m telling you a glue gun is an essential tool in the costume creative process especially if anything has to be embellished.)  One of my #1 rules in the costume process is comfort…Never wear something you will be miserable in.  From head to toe, you must be comfortable or you will not have fun.  I march in the St. Paddy’s Day parade with The Green Ladies so I bought a pair of cheap but comfortable sneakers, painted them green and stenciled the ‘mud flap girl’ on the sides…I am good to go for the entire parade route.

I do not have a problem with store bought costumes at all.  In fact some of my pieces are store bought and I just am putting a little pizazz on them.  I like to shop at Party City on County Line Road because it it locally owned and open all year not just in the Halloween season.  Through out the year though I am looking for things that can be used for a costume.  I especially love things like hats, tights, and costume jewelry.  Just like in real life a good costume like a good outfit is nothing without good accessories!

While I am dressing as a character from Damned I do realize that not everyone has read it.  YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DRESS AS A PALAHNIUK CHARACTER! I want you to be who or whatever you want to be but I have taken the liberty to give you a few suggestions from Damned and his other books.

1. Demons or anything hellish

2. Porn Star (Male or Female)

3. Beauty Queen (disfigured or not)

4. Exchange Student

5. Bloody guy with black eye (remember the first rule of Fight Club)

I have talked to a few folks who have to work, or have class and are going to be coming straight to the party so they cannot wear a costume.  PSHAW!!  If you plan well you can do it!  I want you to go home look in your closet, check your assorted accessories and all that make-up under the sink.  Wear a base to work or class and put the rest on in the car!  It is easy and I promise you will have a great time.  I hope y’all will come to the party and that I don’t recognize you right away! HA!

JX//RX

Chuck’s Damned Book Night is Thursday, October 20th!

Not Halloween.

Costumes are encouraged but not required.

Get the details for the event here–this goes to our website.

Check in on our Facebook Event page.

See all of our Damned Blogs for the Chuck Palahniuk event.

Follow the Chuck Palahniuk Event on Twitter: @LemuriaBooks

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