Phantasies, Fake Realities and the Loss of Boundaries in Chuck Palahniuk's

1 CLAUDIO VESCIA ZANINI THE ORGY IS OVER: PHANTASIES, FAKE REALITIES AND THE LOSS OF BOUNDARIES IN CHUCK PALAHNIUK’S HAUNTED PORTO ALEGRE 2011 2 UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM LETRAS ÁREA: ESTUDOS DE LITERATURA ESPECIALIDADE: LITERATURAS ESTRANGEIRAS MODERNAS LINHA DE PESQUISA: LITERATURA, IMAGINÁRIO E HISTÓRIA THE ORGY IS OVER: PHANTASIES, FAKE REALITIES AND THE LOSS OF BOUNDARIES IN CHUCK PALAHNIUK’S HAUNTED CLAUDIO VESCIA ZANINI ORIENTADORA: PROFª. DRª. SANDRA SIRANGELO MAGGIO Texto de Qualificação de Doutorado em Literaturas Estrangeiras Modernas submetido como requisito parcial para a obtenção do título de Doutor ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. PORTO ALEGRE 2011 3 In loving memory of my father, José João Zanini, and of Professor Ana Maria Kessler Rocha, also known as Lady Bracknell. 4 “We like to imagine that something which we do not understand does not help us in any way. But that is not always so. Seldom does a man understand with his head alone, least of all when he is a primitive.” Carl Gustav Jung in Four Archetypes “We all die. The goal isn‟t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” Chuck Palahniuk in Diary "We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning." Jean Baudrillard in Simulacra and Simulation “Welcome to prime time, bitch!” Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street – Dream Warriors, as he sticks a girl‟s head into a TV set. 5 Thank you, Sandra Maggio, for your guidance, friendship, trust, and guts. Letícia Germano Zanini Ricardo Stephens Woodhouse-Knightley Bennet-Darcy Fine Draper Roitman Solis Van de Kamp Scavo Delfino Britt Pitstop Bovary Addams. You are many, you are mine and I love you all. Mom, for listening to my reading of Guts and not passing out, and for your untested typing skills. Professors Jane Thompson Brodbeck, Julio Jeha, Márcia Ivana de Lima e Silva and Rosalia Garcia, for bringing their unique views to my work and making it better. Jean Baudrillard, for being such an intelligent sourpuss. And Chuck Palahniuk, for being so sensitive. 6 RESUMO Este trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar o romance Assombro, de Chuck Palahniuk, como retrato e sintoma do comportamento da sociedade pós-moderna ocidental, cujos valores correspondem, de acordo com palavras do próprio autor, ao “inverso do sonho americano”. A principal característica de tal sociedade é a dificuldade dos indivíduos em lidar com as exigências e constantes mudanças nos âmbitos individual, social e psicológico, o que se configura na obra do escritor estadunidense através de personagens marginais em busca (na maioria das vezes, aparentemente inconsciente) de autoaceitação ou adaptação social. A leitura desenvolvida aqui se baseia principalmente nos escritos do teórico francês Jean Baudrillard, que apresenta o pressuposto de que o mundo contemporâneo encontra-se num estado de “pós-orgia”, assombrado por três fantasmas que o teórico chama de câncer, travesti e terrorismo, os quais simbolizam questões sociais contemporâneas relacionadas à política, sexualidade, comunicação e relacionamentos humanos, entre outros aspectos. Os conceitos de Baudrillard que norteiam a análise são: „estado de pós-orgia‟, „hiperrealidade‟, „simulação‟, „virulência‟ e „sedução‟ e „fantasmas‟. O trabalho também apresenta as características da literatura de Chuck Palahniuk e sua recém-iniciada fortuna crítica, apontando os principais aspectos da sociedade pós-moderna presentes em suas obras e culminando em um cotejo de Assombro com o gótico e sua vertente pós-moderna, além de uma comparação entre a dinâmica estabelecida entre as personagens do romance e aquela percebida nos reality shows e falsos documentários (mock-documentaries). A conclusão retoma aspectos na estrutura, imaginário e conteúdo do romance, que permitem defini-lo como retrato e sintoma de uma nova configuração social, resultado das inevitáveis mudanças por que o mundo passa. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Literatura estadunidense; Chuck Palahniuk; Jean Baudrillard; fantasmas; hiperrealidade. 7 ABSTRACT This dissertation aims at presenting Chuck Palahniuk‟s novel Haunted as a portrait and symptom of the behavior perceived in the postmodern Western society, whose values, according to the author himself, correspond to “the opposite of the American Dream”. The main characteristic of such society is the individuals‟ difficulty in dealing with demands and constant changes in the individual, social and psychological spheres, a fact observed in the work of this American writer through the presence of marginal characters in a more often than not apparently unconscious search of self-acceptance or social adaptation. The reading proposed is mainly based on the writings of French theoretician Jean Baudrillard, who presents the assumption that the contemporary world is in a “post-orgy” state, haunted by three phantasies he denominates cancer, transvestitism and terrorism, which symbolize contemporary social issues related to politics, sexuality, communication and human relationships, among other aspects. The concepts by Baudrillard that underlie the analysis are: „post-orgy state‟, „hyperreality‟, „simulation‟, „virulence‟, „seduction‟ and „phantasies‟. The work also presents the features of the literature produced by Chuck Palahniuk and its newly- started critical fortune, highlighting the main aspects of postmodern society present in his works, culminating with an approximation of Haunted to the postmodern variation of Gothic literature, besides a comparison between the dynamics established among the characters in the novel to the one perceived in reality shows and mock-documentaries. The conclusion strengthens aspects in the structure, imaginary and content of the novel that enable the definition of Haunted as portrait and symptom of a new social organization, resulting from the inevitable changes the world goes through. KEY WORDS: American Literature; Chuck Palahniuk; Jean Baudrillard; phantasies; hyperreality. 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………………………….…….....9 1 BEFORE THE ORGY, OR HAVE YOU EVER RUBBED YOUR EYES WITH BROKEN GLASS IN THEM?............................................................................................10 2 FOREPLAY, OR CHUCK PALAHNIUK AND HIS “UNRELENTING CIRCUS OF PAIN”……………………………………………..……………………………….21 2.1 FIGHT CLUB AND A LOT MORE……………………………………………………………....21 2.2 A PASSION FOR PATTERNS….…………………………………………………………….….35 2.3 POSTMODERN, ISN‟T IT?............................................................................................................63 2.4 “I‟M THE COMBINED EFFORT OF EVERYBODY I‟VE EVER KNOWN”: HORROR AND GOTHIC ………………………….…………………………………………….......72 3 DURING THE ORGY, OR FRAGMENTS OF THEORY…………….….………………….93 3.1“THE CAMERA BEHIND THE CAMERA BEHIND THE CAMERA”: REALITY SHOWS AND MOCK-DOCUMENTARIES..……………….…………...…………………………..93 3.2 “I SHOUTED OUT WHO KILLED THE KENNEDYS”: SEDUCTION, VIRULENCE AND PHANTASIES………………………………….…………………..…………109 3.3 “LOOKING GOOD AND FEELING GORGEOUS": HYPERREALITY, SIMULATION AND THE IMAGE ………………………………………………………………………………….126 4 THE END OF THE ORGY, OR THE PHANTASIES………………………………….……148 4.1 CANCER……………………………………………………………...…………….……………149 4.2 TRANSVESTITISM…………………………………………………….………….……………178 4.3 TERRORISM…………………………………………………………………………………….209 5 WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO, NOW THAT THE ORGY IS OVER?..................................231 6 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………….243 7 APPENDIXES……………………………………….……………………………………….251 8 ANNEXES……………………………………………………………………………………255 9 ABBREVIATIONS FC Fight Club S Survivor IM Invisible Monsters C Choke: A Novel L Lullaby FR Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon D Diary: A Novel SF Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories H Haunted: A Novel of Stories R Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey SN Snuff P Pygmy TA Tell-All Chart based on that designed by Kuhn and Rubin (2009). For the sake of organization and to make the reading process easier, books by Chuck Palahniuk will be referred to by the abbreviations on this list, and not by the year of the edition used, as ABNT recommends. However, the list of references includes all the information about the editions used here. 10 1 BEFORE THE ORGY, OR HAVE YOU EVER RUBBED YOUR EYES WITH BROKEN GLASS IN THEM? The title of this introduction is divided in two parts, and both of them deserve – or rather, need – some explaining. “Before the orgy” refers to one of Jean Baudrillard‟s most creative premises being applied to the titles of the parts that form this work. I trace a parallel between the five parts that form the body of the work and the parts I assume form an orgy1. Such parallel focuses on the function of each of the parts in the work (introduction, first, second and third chapters, and conclusion) and the parts in the unfolding of an orgy (before, foreplay, during, the end and after). Naturally, what Baudrillard has to say about orgies will be discussed in due time. The second part of the title is a teaser. I allowed myself to play with words and ideas in the titles of my sections under the influence of the two men whose writings have given origin to this dissertation: American writer Chuck Palahniuk and French theoretician Jean Baudrillard. The question “have you ever rubbed your eyes with broken glass in them?” comes from the text The Fiction of Self-Destruction – Chuck Palahniuk, Closet Moralist, by Jesse Kavadlo (in SCHUCHARDT, 2008, 13). According to Kavadlo, the sensation caused by the reading

Load more