Editing Chuck Palahniuk (section)

==Writing style and themes==

===Style===
Palahniuk says that his writing style has been influenced by authors such as the minimalist [[Tom Spanbauer]] (whose weekly workshop Palahniuk attended in Portland from 1991 to 1996),<ref>{{cite web |author=CultAdmin |url=http://chuckpalahniuk.net/interviews/authors/tom-spanbauer |title=Tom Spanbauer – The Man Who Taught Chuck |publisher=Chuckpalahniuk.net |date=April 18, 2011 |access-date=December 4, 2013 |archive-date=January 18, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118025840/http://chuckpalahniuk.net/interviews/authors/tom-spanbauer |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Amy Hempel]], [[Mark Richard]], [[Denis Johnson]], [[Joan Didion]], [[Thom Jones]], [[Bret Easton Ellis]] and philosophers [[Michel Foucault]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] and [[Albert Camus]].<ref>[http://www.alternet.org/story/11049 The Unexpected Romantic: An Interview with Chuck Palahniuk], ''[[AlterNet]]''.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080107152635/http://www.authorsontheweb.com/features/0012author-influences/author-influences.asp "What Authors Influenced You?"], Authorsontheweb.com. Retrieved July 10, 2007.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Chuck Palahniuk |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/12/chuckpalahniuk |website=The Guardian |access-date=9 February 2024 |date=22 July 2008}}</ref> In what the author refers to as a [[minimalism|minimalistic]] approach, his writings include a limited vocabulary and short sentences to mimic the way that an average person telling a story would speak. In an interview, he said that he "prefers to write in verbs instead of adjectives." Repetitions of certain lines or phrases in the story narrative (what Palahniuk refers to as "choruses") are one of the most common characteristics of his writing style, being dispersed within most chapters of his novels.<ref name=LAWeekly2002>Chuck Palahniuk (September 18, 2002). She Breaks Your Heart. LaWeekly.com. Retrieved November 21, 2019).</ref> Palahniuk has said that there also are some choruses between novels, noting that the color [[cornflower blue]] and the city of [[Missoula, Montana]] appear in many of his novels. The characters in Palahniuk's stories often break into philosophical asides (either by the narrator to the reader, or spoken to the narrator through dialogue), offering numerous odd theories and opinions, often [[misanthropy|misanthropic]] or darkly [[absurdism|absurdist]] in nature, on complex issues such as death, morality, childhood, parenthood, sexuality, and a deity. Other concepts borrowed from Spanbauer include the avoidance of "received text" (clichéd phrases or wording) and use of "burnt tongue" (intentionally odd wording).<ref name=LAWeekly2002/>

In an interview with Jason Tanamor, he said, "It’s pathetic how much I rewrite. I’ll rework every scene a hundred times before my agent sees it. Then rework it a dozen times before my editor sees it. Then rework it all - almost beyond recognition - before it goes to the copy editor. My first draft is almost a bare-bones outline, fleshed out with every subsequent pass through. I’ll “test” the scenes in workshop and with friends, then revise them based on audience reaction and feedback. The only time a book is “done” is when the type is set. By then I'm in love with a new idea, so the old one is officially finished."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080107152635/http://www.zoiksonline.com/2008/10/chuck-palahniuk-is-pathetic-when-he.html "Chuck Palahniuk is 'pathetic' when he rewrites."], zoiksonline.com. Retrieved October 10, 2008.</ref>

===Themes===
Palahniuk's writing often contains anti-consumerist themes. Writing about ''Fight Club'', Paul Kennett argues that because the Narrator's fights with Tyler Durden are fights with himself, and because he fights himself in front of his boss at the hotel, the Narrator is using the fights as a way of asserting himself as his own boss. These fights are a representation of the struggle of the [[Proletariat|proletarian]] at the hands of a higher capitalist power; by asserting himself as capable of having the same power he thus becomes his own master. Later when fight club is formed, the participants are all dressed and groomed similarly, allowing them to symbolically fight themselves at the club and gain the same power.<ref name="kennett5354">Kennett, pp. 53–54.</ref> In an interview with ''[[HuffPost]]'', Palahniuk says that "the central message of ''Fight Club'' was always about the empowerment of the individual through small, escalating challenges."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fight-club-2-chuck-palahniuk_us_5845c35ae4b028b32338a632 |title='Fight Club' Author Reflects On Violence And Masculinity, 20 Years Later |last=Crum |first=Maddie |date=December 6, 2016 |website=[[HuffPost]] |access-date=August 24, 2018}}</ref>

===Reception and criticism===
The content of Palahniuk's works has been described as [[nihilism|nihilistic]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.avclub.com/chuck-palahniuk-1798208302|title=Chuck Palahniuk|last=Robinson|first=Tasha|work=The A.V. Club|access-date=July 20, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Curtis |first1=Bryan |title=Chuck Palahniuk |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/06/chuck-palahniuk-s-leap-of-faith.html |work=Slate |date=22 June 2005 }}</ref> Palahniuk has rejected this label, stating that he is a [[romanticism (literature)|romantic]], and that his works are mistakenly seen as nihilistic because they express ideas that others do not believe in.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/01/chuck-palahniuk-this-much-i-know|title=Chuck Palahniuk: 'I'm fascinated by low fiction that disgusts the reader or makes them sexually aroused'|last=Cumming|first=Ed|date=November 1, 2014|website=The Guardian|access-date=July 20, 2018}}</ref><ref>Williams, Laura J. "[http://www.annarborpaper.com/content/issue24/palahniuk_24.html Knock Out] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050416074813/http://www.annarborpaper.com/content/issue24/palahniuk_24.html |date=16 April 2005 }}". ''Ann Arbor Paper''. Retrieved June 20, 2005.</ref>