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Lullaby
With Chuck Palahniuk
Author
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2002; 2:30 p.m. ET

In 1996 Oregon author Chuck Palahniuk kicked off his literary career with the publication of his first novel "Fight Club." The book became a cult favorite and spawned a major motion picture by the same name starring Ed Norton and Brad Pitt. In his new book "Lullaby" Palahniuk tells the story of a journalist who uncovers a "culling song" -- an ancient African spell for euthanizing the old and sick.

Palahniuk was online to take questions and comments on his new book, his past works and his career.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Chuck Palahniuk: Hello. What are you wearing? LOL

Harrisburg, Pa.: "Fight Club" has some fantastic twists and turns. How did you come up with the plot line? Did your plot change much from you began the book to when you finished?

Chuck Palahniuk: I came up with the plot chapter by chapter. I never knew what would come. It became what it was supposed to become.

Arlington, Va.: There seems to be a spate recently of these stories where people die after hearing/seeing something specific -- "Fear dot com," the American version of "The Ring," and your "Lullaby." I'm guessing the inspiration for at least some of these were the original Japanese "Ring" comic book and movie. Is that where your idea originated? (I apologize if I'm over-simplifying your book; I haven't had a chance to read it yet, although I've read many articles about it.)

Chuck Palahniuk: No. I have never read the "ring series" but a friend of mine (you will love this) were at Bed Bath and Beyond shopping for a wedding gift and she noticed how many of our design motifs and decorative chachkis are the sacred symbols and deities of previous religions. "Lullaby" is my fantasy if some relic from a previous civilization could retain its power and we tried to use it to make a buck.

Vienna, Va.: Would you say that the "Fight Club" character Tyler Durden's views on God are the same as your personal views? Do you believe in God?

Chuck Palahniuk: I believe in God. They were my views when I was 30 years old but are less my views now.

Alexandria, Virginia: How many rejection letters did you receive before you got published? Did you use an agent or go directly to a publisher?

Chuck Palahniuk: I started by submitting directly and got a lot of rejection letters but I never kept any of them so I have no real count.

Bethesda, Md.: What advice do you have for people who want to write novels?

Chuck Palahniuk: Have fun writing because nothing else beyond that moment is guaranteed.

Washington, D.C.: I'm a big fan of yours and have read all your books except for Survivor, and your most current one, Lullaby. I seem to remember that you didn't start your literary career until later on in life. If so, what were you doing before you were a full time writer, what propelled you to write Fight Club, and what kind of effect did your previous experience have on your writing? Thanks.

Chuck Palahniuk: I started writing when I was 31 years old and I am 40 now. I was a bicycle messenger through college, then I was a newspaper reporter for 6 months after college, then I worked for the Freightliner Corporation for thirteen years working on trucks. I left Freightliner in 1998 to write full time. A lot of the writer I did for Freightliner (I was a mechanic and then towards the end I was writing recall instructions) the technical type writing is the type of direct address instruction non-fiction that I still tend to put into my fiction. Things like the household hints in Survivor or the bomb recipes in Fight Club - that is all inspired by my technical writing.

Memphis, Tenn.: Since I found out about your works a year or so ago, you have become the only author I can read. Nothing else can compare, and I thank you for that. Here's a question: How are you able to put into words some of the images and concepts that fill your books? That's just badly worded, sorry. Said another way, every time I read a sentence, a paragraph, a page of your work, I think to myself, "Hell, I could have written that -- I've always felt the same way." But I know that I could NEVER write it, nor could anyone else. Because most people don't have your ability to translate their everyday, mundane emotions and experiences into the written word so eloquently. How do you do it? How do you harness such abstract, intangible feelings? Also, will you have coffee with me?

Chuck Palahniuk: Coffee is one of my chief food groups. However I am bookstore hopping for the next few weeks so sorry about the coffee date.

The man who coached me to start writing is a novelist named Tom Spanbauer and my writing always totally sucked until the night we were drinking after workshop and telling funny stories and Tom just flat out said "your writing sucks but you can tell a story out loud why don't you write the way you talk." That is what made my career.

Chevy Chase, Md.: You said "Fight Club's" plot developed chapter by chapter. Did you do any character development prior to writing the story itself?

Chuck Palahniuk: My idea of character development is developing a very specific body of knowledge for each character. What is it that that character knows so well that it colors the way they see the world. And besides that I do no other character development. Beyond that body of knowledge character becomes the choices within the plot.

Boulder, Colo.: Chuck --

Many of your books revolve around anti-establishment themes. How did you arrive at these ideas? Do you live in a McCondo in the burbs?

Chuck Palahniuk: I live in a two bedroom house next to the highway ten minutes outside of Portland, Ore. And I have a lot of anti-establishment friends.

London, England: Hi Chuck
How many novels did you write before you were published -- or did you strike gold first time? And how painful was it to watch another writer take your baby and transform it into a movie?

Chuck Palahniuk: I wrote one novel that will never see the light of day I hope. And then I wrote a rough first draft of what would become my third novel Invisible Monsters and then I wrote Fight Club.

It was completely painless watching Jim Uhls write the screenplay.

Washington, D.C.: Do you feel that being a full-time writer has in any way eroded your sense of identification with and knowledge of the office worker's life that was depicted so well in "Fight Club?"

Chuck Palahniuk: Possibly, but the idea of revisiting those same themes and environments in book after book is also not very appealing.

Washington, D.C.: In what ways, and how much so, does your being a journalist influence your fiction writing?

Chuck Palahniuk: the style of writing that I use, called minimalism, one characteristic is called "recording angel" and that is trying to document a scene physically without passing any judgments or evaluations or using any abstract terms including any abstract measurements such as miles, feet or pounds. Studying journalism is the same quest for objectivity so "recording angel" came a little easier to me than it does a lot of writers.

Metro Center, Washington, D.C.: Just thought you'd enjoy knowing: I saw "Lullaby" stocked at a Costco (Price Club) this weekend -- a upper middle aged woman picked up a copy (upside down) and when questioned by her husband(?) as to why she had selected that particular novel she shot back "I like the baby bird and bright colors. I think mom will love it (pause) and its cheap!"

This opens up a whole new (geriatric) demographic for you, right?

Chuck Palahniuk: I hope she looses the receipt before she reads it.

Washington, D.C.: The movie, "Fight Club," brought me to your work. I read and enjoyed "Choke" this summer: found it both entertaining and provocative. I wonder if you worry that writing so explicitly about what many would consider sexually aberrant behavior can hurt your reputation as a serious writer? In the same vein, can you comment on Nicholson Baker (another wonderful writer) who caught some flak for his sexually-charged books "Vox" (phone sex) and "The Fermata" (in which the hero sexually assaults women)?

Chuck Palahniuk: I haven't read either one of those books. That's how serious a writer I am.

I have no reputation so I have nothing to worry about.

Washington, D.C. BookWorm: Chuck -- thank you for doing this chat! I think you have a wonderfully sick mind (this is an absolute compliment from a total book worm) -- I have two questions for you: Are you appearing anywhere in person in D.C.? And (I hope this won't come off as too Tiger Beat) but what type of music (if any) are you into? Does it inspire your writing at all? (ok, that's three questions, but I really look forward to your response).

Chuck Palahniuk: I am tonight at Olsson's Books & Records. It officially starts at 7 p.m. but I will be there as early as 5 p.m. to start signing. As for the music - for Fight Club I listened to Nine Inch Nails "Downward Spiral," for Survivor I listened to "Pablo Honey" by Radiohead, for "Invisible Monsters" I listened to Henri Mancini music and for "Lullaby" I listened to Nine inch Nails "Fixed" CD over and over. I use the same piece of music to try to create a continuity of mood from one days work to the next.

Boulder, Colo.: Chuck -

I just wanted to thank you for your books. They seem to have a way of articulating what it is that I've been thinking about our culture for a while. It was quite comforting to know that others were fed up in the same way that I am.

Chuck Palahniuk: Read Adbusters magazine while you are at it.

Rockville, Md.: Did you have to work proactively in convincing execs to make "Fight Club" a movie; or was a case where you got a letter one day saying, hey, we wanna make a movie based on your novel -- sign here?

Chuck Palahniuk: I got a phone call saying that. I was working on a fire engine on that day.

New York, N.Y.: So, do you really think it is cool that young men are starting and participating in fight clubs out there? How much fun is it to have a "job" in which you get to indulge yourself creatively AND get paid for it?

Chuck Palahniuk: According to the letters I get fight clubs existed forever before I ever wrote that book.

I am working harder now than I ever worked in my life but finally my work and my life are sort of collapsed together and that feels terrific.

Washignton, D.C.: How do you constantly find the motivation and inspiration to sit down and churn out worthwhile and meaningful work? Any tips to aspiring writers with "motivation" problems?
Thanks.

Chuck Palahniuk: That is where loving the process is most important. Writing for me is my main coping mechanism. It is how I deal with my life so it is just as important as eating or sleeping. I would do it whether or not people ever read it.

Baltimore, Md.: Hi!

Have you ever read the Ring? It has a similar premise/mystery where the watcher of a certain video tape dies afterwards.

Did this long time urban legend influence your concept for Lullaby?

Chuck Palahniuk: I have never read it. I am not a particularly well read person.

Washington, D.C.: In what group of writers would you include yourself? Maybe this is my round about way of asking for some other folks to read that you enjoy.

Chuck Palahniuk: I would recommend Junot Diaz and his collection Drown, Amy Hempel and anything with her name on it, Bret Ellis' collection The Informers" and a collection called "The Ice at the Bottom of the World" by Mark Richard.

Washington, D.C.: Okay, so you hear that Brad Pitt is going to star in the film version of your book. What was your first reaction?

Chuck Palahniuk: They will never make it. They will never greenlight this thing no matter who is attached to it.

I was in denial until the movie opened in 1999.

Washington, D.C.: Are there any plans in the work for your books, other than "Fight Club," to be made into movies?

Chuck Palahniuk: Choke, last years book, is in development by the people who made Requiem for a Dream. Survivor was in development until Sept. 11, 2001 but it is stalled for the time being. Invisible Monsters was supposed to start shooting this summer but I don't think it is fully cast yet.

Washington, D.C.: OK, are you really going to name characters in your next book after people who buy your t-shirts? I must know.

Chuck Palahniuk: I am naming characters in the next book after the winners of a contest run by Dennis Wydmer to finance his independent film.

Washington, D.C.: So you don't read that much. What about cinema -- what films float your boat? I would especially like you views on my favorite "The Outlaw Josie Wales" (this is not a joke).

Chuck Palahniuk: That old Clint Eastwood movie?! I don't know that movie but if it is as good as Logan's Run I will watch it. Now that I have a DVD player I find that even the worst movies are more entertaining in French.

Somwhere, USA: Do you suffer from the usual writers' afflictions -- booze, drugs?

Chuck Palahniuk: Insomnia.

Drugs -- I can't get on a regular basis so it is hard to get addicted. Booze -- I don't know, the charm has sort of worn off after college.

Arlington, Va.: Do you have any big-time Hollywood friends now? I ask because I recall that stars started claiming friendships with Bukowski when he was of the moment.

Chuck Palahniuk: I have some impressive names in my date book, but I am not going to name drop for once.

Washington, D.C.: Since you started writing at 31, have you taken part in any writers retreats or any other kind of formal or informal training?

Chuck Palahniuk: I was a member in Tom Spanbauer's workshop called "Dangerous Writing" and we met every Thursday night to learn minimalism.

Arlington, Va.: Did you know there are Chuck Palahniuk image galleries on the Web?

Chuck Palahniuk: Oh dear God. Naked or clothed?

Chuck Palahniuk: If you like reading you might try the next step and try writing. The world needs more compelling books. Thank you.

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