Choke on This

What do you get when you throw a sex addict support group, a man who forces himself to choke in restaurants, a psychopathic kidnapper, a pathological liar, a stripper, and a colonial tourist attraction together in one story? You get a major motion picture based on the book Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. Choke is the story of one man’s journey from sex addiction to erectile dysfunction to falling in love, interlaced with many quirky, often raunchy, twists and turns along the way.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a screening of the movie at The Bridge theatre in Philadelphia before it came out. Even before the crowd was seated in the theatre, proclamations of love for the book and for the author could be heard from the mouths of almost every person waiting in line. As everyone eagerly filed into the theatre and frantically looked for seats, everyone there could feel the excited tension hanging in the air. Shouts of joy emitted from a few in the audience as the lights dimmed and the opening credits started to roll.

The movie starts off in a sex addicts anonymous support group where the main character, Victor, ironically ends up having sex with the girl he is supposed to be “sponsoring.” All throughout the movie, the viewer can see countless reasons of why Victor belongs in SAA.

Also throughout the movie, it is discovered that Victor’s mother resides in a mental hospital, which leads to his sleeping with the entire nursing staff, until, that is, he meets the one nurse that he can’t seem to view as just a one night stand. In its own twisted way, the movie enfolds to be a love story, following the relationships between a few of the characters and their significant others.

Palahniuk, being the controversial writer that he is, found a way to incorporate religion, although not in a religious way at all, into his novel and thus the movie as well. More than once, the main character is depicted having sex in a church, and as the story goes on, is given evidence to believe that he is the half-clone of Jesus Christ Himself.

In this movie, Victor is not only portrayed as a sex fiend, but also as a conman. He carries the genius theory that choking in a restaurant will give whoever chances to “save” him the air of being an important hero. While this is true, Victor’s real motive was to con the good Samaritans into paying his fake medical bills. And by medical bills, Victor means his own pocket.

All in all, the movie did not disappoint, that is, if you have a strong stomach for promiscuity. It was full of sarcasm, wit, and many laugh out loud moments, making it a great time, and of course, being that the movie is based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, the ending was shocking yet highly entertaining.

After the movie was done, the audience was invited to stay for a question and answer period with Mr. Chuck Palahniuk himself. Chuck started off the Q&A by proclaiming, much to the audience’s delight, that his first fan was a Philadelphia native. A reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer then began asking Palahniuk her own questions and after she was finished, questions were opened up to those seated in the audience.

Within the interrogation, Chuck explained that when he writes a book, he spends such a great deal of time working on it, getting it through the copy editor, and having to promote both the paperback and the hardback that once it’s over and done with, he never wants to look at that book again. He went on to explain that when he writes a novel, he believes that the reader is isolated from the world and in the world of his book, and therefore tries to include a sense of people coming together, so as to include the reader in his writing. He also said that a lot of the inspiration for his books and stories comes from updated versions of legends that he hears from friends or family. Palahniuk said that upon hearing one of these legends, it “takes very little work to turn that into a [story].”

Palahniuk’s stories, however, often prove to be very controversial and offensive to some people. He said that he knows not everyone will like his books, but he would rather write for himself than to make everyone else happy. After being asked whether or not he cares if the editors reject his work, he says that “they are going to hate this, but they won’t forget it. They are going to hate this, but they will never ever forget that they read it.” He even said that his novel Fight Club was a big ‘fuck you!’ to everyone that didn’t buy his first book, Invisible Monsters.

After telling a few stories such as his experience of working in a movie theatre and watching the movies late at night with his friends after smoking “mass amounts of marijuana,” Palahniuk admitted that most of the things he writes about are based on things that happened to his friends. He went on to say that writers should “choose their friends poorly” to have something good to write about. With that goes the fact that Palahniuk’s biggest inspirations for his characters are the “enlightened idiots” of the world.

Palahniuk said, when asked about the chance of his other novels becoming movies as well, that all of his novels, as of right now, are optioned to become movies besides his newest book Snuff, and Invisible Monsters, whose option expired already. He said that Lullaby will most likely be the next of his books to hit the big screen, casted with an unnamed Academy Award winner as the main character. Palahniuk said that the screenplay for Diary is ready, and that Survivor is on its way.

In conclusion, the night was just as good as I had expected it to be. The movie was great, and Chuck Palahniuk, a seemingly down to earth, genuine guy, gave some great insight onto his side of the writing process and where it all comes from. Kudos to Chuck and hopefully he will keep pumping out more novels.