Chuck Palahniuk, whom we know with his first book Fight Club, continues to grow his readership with his satirical and courageous writing since 1996. In his books, which are considered underground literature, the intention to shake the reader by the shoulders is not hidden.
Chuck Palahniuk was born on February 21, 1962 in America. He spent his childhood years in a modest house in Burbank, Washington, where he was born. Later, when his parents divorced, Palahniuk would start living with his three siblings on his grandfather's cattle farm in Eastern Washington.
In his 20s, he enrolled in the journalism department of the University of Oregon's School. While he was continuing his education, he was also interning at the radio station National Public Radio in Oregon. After graduating from school in 1986, he settled in Portland. After writing for a local newspaper for a short time, he started working as a mechanic in a truck manufacturing factory. During this period, Palahniuk, who prepared user manuals for the repair of trucks, did not have the opportunity to engage in journalism. Chuck Palahniuk, who decided to quit his job at the factory after attending seminars organized by Landmark Education, returned to journalism. However, since he did not want to deal only with journalism, he concentrated on different projects. During this period, he volunteered in the work of a shelter for the homeless. Then he started working in a dormitory with the stipulation that terminally ill people should be accommodated, supported by group meetings. He left this job, which he was doing voluntarily, as a result of the death of a patient he supported.
Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk (born February 21, 1962) is an American novelist who describes his work as transgressional fiction. He has published 19 novels, three nonfiction books, two graphic novels, and two adult coloring books, as well as several short stories. His first published novel was Fight Club, which was adapted into a film of the same title.
Palahniuk was closely following the activities of a protest and rebel group called the Cacophony Society and wanted to become a member of the group. He was a regular participant in events held by the Cacophony Society. The activities of the group, which would inspire the fictional and non-fictional stories he would later write, would show their impact most in Project Mayhem in Fight Club, which he wrote based on the Cacophony Society.
He started writing stories in his mid-30s. He attended many writers' courses, including the writing workshop given by Tom Spanbauer. Tom Spanbauer was very impressed by Palahniuk's minimalist writing style.
The first book written by Chuck Palahniuk, "Insomnia: If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Already", could not be published because it was disappointing with its story, but the author would later use a part of the story in Fight Club.
His next novel, "Invisible Monsters", had the same fate as the first book, as the publishers found the book quite disturbing. After these two negative publishing experiences, Palahniuk began writing Fight Club, which would become his most famous novel. The more he tried to persuade his publisher to publish his new book, the more rejection he received. Returning to his first job and writing Filub's story in his spare time, Palahniuk published his short story Pursuit of Happiness in 1995, which would later become the sixth episode of Fight Club. However, the response from the publisher to this request of the author, who wanted to expand the story and turn it into a full novel, was quite surprising for Palahniuk: The book would be published.
In addition to receiving positive reviews after its publication, Fight Club received the "Best Novel" awards from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and the Oregon Book Award. It wouldn't be long before the book appeared on its way to Hollywood. Because director David Fincher wanted to adapt Fight Club to the big screen. After the film was completed and released in 1999, although it was the most-watched film in its first week in America, it was a disappointment at the box office and criticism of the film varied. But there was an audience that would make Fight Club a cult hit, as the movie gained huge popularity as soon as it was released on DVD. The book was republished three times in total: in 1999, 2004, and 2005, when the author's foreword about the film adaptation was added.
In 1999, after the great success of Fight Club all over the world, Chuck Palahniuk experienced a very tragic event. He had a relationship with Donna Fontaine, whom his father, Fred Palahniuk, met through a newspaper advertisement. However, Fontaine's ex-boyfriend, Dale Shackleford, who was imprisoned for sexual abuse, became a problem for the couple after he was released from prison. Dale Shackleford killed Palahniuk's father, Fred Palahniuk, and Donna Fontaine. After tragically losing his father, Palahniuk began writing his book, Lullaby, to cope with the decision-making process of whether to give Shackleford the death penalty.
Lullaby received an award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly's Karen Valby in September 2003, Palahniuk, upon Valby's question, implied that, contrary to popular belief, he was not married to a woman and that the person he was with was a man. Because Chuck Palahniuk believed that Valby would share this information with his readers without his permission, he added a recording to his website in which he made negative comments about Valby and announced that he was gay. However, the situation was different. Because Valby did not include this in his article and would not include it. Fans thought that Palahniuk was embarrassed by his sexual preferences, and later the author expressed his regret for publishing this recording on his site and apologized to his fans.
In the same year, the documentary "Postcards from the Future: The Chuck Palahniuk Documentary", about his life, was shot by website members.
Members of the official fansite The Cult started workshops where Palahniuk taught them the tricks of the trade. The author also provided data about his writing style on the site every month and answered the questions asked of him.
British band Fightstar changed the name of one of their songs to "Palahniuk's Laughter", based on Palahniuk's theory about the laughter effect used in sitcoms.
After Palahniuk became a cult figure in the world of literature and cinema, his previously unpublished book "Invisible Monsters" was revised and published under the name "Survivor". The author's first book, which became a New York Times bestseller, was "Choke", published a few years after Survivor. The author, who continued to receive the same attention and gain the same success with every book he published after that date, started to carry out promotional tours all over the world for all his books.
In 2003, while on tour to promote his book Diary, it was reported that 35 people fainted when he read to his readers Guts, his story about masturbation accidents, which will also be published in his book Haunted. Playboy magazine featured the story in its March 2004 issue, but Palahniuk's second story, which he suggested to Playboy for publication, was not published because the magazine executives found it quite disturbing.