In my life, I’ve used reading as a way to change myself, and sometimes influence my loved ones, my friends and my community. My goal since the age of 24 is to give my place, Jackson, the very best bookstore that I could figure out how to operate. Reading Chuck Palahniuk has caused my present efforts to grow even more ambitious.
Reading adds to our actual life experience by giving us a safe place to dig into our own psyches. Through Chuck’s characters we witness aspects of life without having to experience them, experiences we wouldn’t even want to have. I believe a Chuck Palahniuk reading experience can remind us how much control we do have over our own life plots and how much of our lives just happen to us.
In the Hell presented in Chuck’s Damned, we view from the outside what many of us fear the most: death and coming to terms with our wrongful actions and life mistakes. Maddy, a thirteen-year-old-girl in Hell, becomes his source of inspiration, a muse for the reader to view Hell with a sense of humor.
Damned gives a reason to laugh at what scares us the most, and perhaps the biggest fear for us all is to be damned to Hell. Could Chuck’s Hell be our motivator to wake up, to cut through our malaise and angst? Chuck challenges us to have less fear of the unknown and live life boldly, allowing us to have more impact on the world we do live in.
With characters who make unbelievably poor choices that border on the absurd, Chuck demands our attention. Is he perhaps creating moments of chaos for us to become emotionally challenged? As our closet lights begins to come on, and our past experiences flash by, a moment of realization occurs. I’m not sure how Chuck’s writing causes our doors of perception to open, but it does.
Some Jacksonians may wonder why Lemuria, with our gang of supporters, are throwing a Damned Book Night of Sin. Well, Wake Up! It’s all in fun with exaggeration, at least as much as we can figure out how to provide. We encourage all who want to join in our 36-year “alarm clock celebration” to participate. All over 21 are welcome to step out there. Step over your own line in the sand if you want to. It’s cool by us. By exploring Chuck we are challenging ourselves and our community to address uncomfortable issues and create change.
Damned goes on sale October 18th. “The Damned Book Night” starts at 5:30 on Thursday, October 20th at Hal & Mals. Click here for details.
JX///RX
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