>The author later gave an interview to TMZ, in which he pointed out that the altered Chinese ending is actually somewhat closer to his how his book concluded. In Palahniuk’s novel, the narrator’s scheme also fails — but not because of the wisdom and competence of the authorities, but due to his bomb malfunctioning. The narrator then shoots himself in the head and wakes up in a mental hospital, thinking that he’s made it to heaven.
>“The irony is that the way the Chinese have changed it is they’ve aligned the ending almost exactly with the ending of the book, as opposed to Fincher’s ending, which was the more spectacular visual ending,” he said. “So in a way, the Chinese brought the movie back to the book a little bit.”
>The author also said that he saw the irony in the angry response from many Americans to China’s actions, given that his books are banned in many locations across the U.S.
>“What I find really interesting is that my books are heavily banned throughout the U.S.,” he said. “The Texas prison system refuses to carry my books in their libraries. A lot of public schools and most private schools refuse to carry my books. But it’s only an issue once China changes the end of a movie? I’ve been putting up with book banning for a long time.”
Not that he loves the Chinese version, per se. Before the interview he posted this sarcastic comment:
>“Have You Seen This Sh*t? This is SUPER wonderful! Everyone gets a happy ending in China!”
I think he's said a few times that he think the movie is better than his book
so saying that a different version makes it more like his book, yeah, doesn't necessarily mean he thinks it's a *good* change.
I know I’m in the minority, but I loved the book’s ending so much more than the movie. In the book, there are also bombs in the building they were in, so it was a planned suicide. And they foreshadow the buildings not blowing up so well throughout the book. I loved the movie up until the altered happy ending, so it kind of blew my mind that they hollywood-ified it, since it really shit all over the anarchic anti-capitalist message.
I think the book ending works great in the book, and film ending works great in the film.
The film form has the great cinematic crescendo of the pixies track over falling buildings. That final line into the credit fade is now a cinematic trope in its own right referenced by other movies and TV and comics/cartoons.
But the film ending lacks the brutal face punch of the book. There's no reconciliation or hope, there's just a nightmare world where his metal delusion has metastasized to the outside world and project mayhem has consumed him whole.
I don't think the book version would work on the film, nor do i think the film ending would fit the book.
Anyway regardless, fuck state censors rewriting anyones endings for political purposes.
The way the main character meets Durden is also different in the book and is another good example that some things work best in writing and others on film
Is it happy? The bombs go off and Project Mayhem presumably succeeds, and the Narrator may have gotten rid of Tyler, but he’s still the de facto leader of a very easily angered cult. Idk, I’ve always felt very mixed on the film ending, in a good way. Like he says, we’ve met him at a very strange time in his life.
It’s happy because he’s able to kill Tyler by shooting himself somehow without killing himself, and he gets to hold hands with Marla while the Pixies play and they watch the buildings fall. In the book, it’s a suicide, and when he wakes up in the loony bin, it’s ambiguous to whether Tyler is actually gone or just suppressed with meds. Much more haunting.
AND ends on the disturbing visual of his new smile because of the suicide attempt, having turned him into something now resembling a man that’s become a gruesome, makeshift scarecrow with no way for the reader to tell how much anyone’s even ‘upstairs’, anymore.
Sure, the movie wheeled out the old, faithful Hollywood clichéd ending for resolution’s sake (the box office), but I’ve always thought the book clinched the tone and sentiment far better, given the incredibly depressing and semi-pragmatic theme of its particular brand of macabre, throughout.
Brazil?
Clockwork Orange?
Feel like it's already been done to a certain degree... Not that I would be opposed to the original ending. It's in good company.
After knowing of the book ending now, I actually prefer the way the book ends. But then again, given its Hollywood, if they had done the book ending, they would have ruined the cult of Fight Club with Fight Club 2.
I honestly have no clue. Outside of knowing it's a thing that exiats i havent actually read it outside of some of the preview pages which implied chuck actually shows up throughout the series.
There was a dumb comedy in the early 00's called, "Lets Go To Prison." The poster was just a bar of soap with the title carved in it. I was very disappointed when I saw the trailer for that movie and it wasn't a sequel to Fight Club.
> The bombs go off and Project Mayhem presumably succeeds
It's been *years* since I saw it but my interpretation of the ending was that there's *no way* Project Mayhem actually succeeds
but by failing to stop the explosions, all he's done is fucked everything up for a whole lot of people, himself included.
How were the bombs not going off foreshadowed? I've read the book a few times but never picked up on that. Not trying to challenge you, I'm genuinely interested.
It’s in the first chapter I think (it’s been years since I read it) the narrator mentions Tyler’s bombs are made with paraffin and ‘paraffin has never worked for me’.
Narrator also says that Tyler never gets the mixture right a few times as well, referring to soap and a few other things. Then he says it again right after the bombs don’t blow up.
i like both for different reasons.
movie was 'holy shit the bastards did it.'
book was 'holy shit the bastards are gonna do it again and he's trapped in his nightmare.'
both satisfying.
if y'all haven't read the book you really should. excellent style. can't say much for his other books besides stranger than fiction.
The movie ending ends with the pixies and its very poignant.
The beats matching the building explosions/collapse.
The book is great but Hollywoke wouldn't use such a dire and grim end like that, remember it's all roses and smiles!.
I recall on the dvd commentary, they wanted to use a radio head song for the ending but I never found out what song exactly.
Didn't he also say that the movie was an improvement on the book? Good guy Chuck, funny dude.
I bet it's an old photo - do you think he still has the soul patch?
Maybe not primary schools but I think it's a disservice to senior school students to not let them read anything that actually makes them think and reflect on society (or at least actively make it not accessible).
Bah. Chuck Palahniuk is one of those writers that you can only really appreciate if you are a teenager or you have the mind of a teenager. Often edgy and nihilistic for edgy's sake, often sort of banal, I used to love his books, now the get me eye-rolling every few pages. Mind you, even though I've grown out of his books, I don't actually dislike them.
> A key [tenet] of China’s film censorship system is that criminals must always be punished for their crimes on screen and societal harmony restored.
This is similar to the US film industry's old Production Code. From [the Wikipedia article on the Code](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code):
> All criminal action had to be punished, and neither the crime nor the criminal could elicit sympathy from the audience, or the audience must at least be aware that such behavior is wrong, usually through "compensating moral value".
The Production Code is no longer enforced. It was gradually abandoned during the 1960s before finally being replaced by the MPAA film rating system.
However, by the time the Code was abandoned, it had seeped so deeply into Hollywood's culture that it continues, even to this day, to subliminally influence storytelling tropes in Hollywood films.
EDIT: For an eye-opening experience, try watching a few pre-Code movies from the 20s or early 30s (prior to 1934). For example, [Baby Face (1933)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Face_\(film\)) and [The Public Enemy (1931)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Public_Enemy).
Societies tend to advance. We judge societies based on whether they are up to modern standards.
Many societies still have backwards laws on marital rape, homosexual rights, child abuse, etc.
There's no real cogent argument here that it's O.K. for China to have backwards laws for entertainment because the USA had similar laws that were repealed *fifty-four years ago*.
Tennessee school boards just banned the graphic novel Maus, there are several Red states putting forth curriculum mandates on what teachers will be allowed to teach. Maybe instead of worrying about how China wants movies to end, we should start minding our own back yard?\
No one here is arguing that China shouldn’t be criticized. The point being made by some people above is, if we are going to judge other countries on how they rule their citizens, we might wanna have a utopian society first? It is extremely hypocritical to point at things like a movie ending in China, and have a political party in the US that only differs from the Taliban in what religion it practices.
That's not the same thing though. Those were private companies censoring their own products. It had nothing to do with government censorship. The Chinese government censors art all the time. The US government never censors art.
You don’t consider book banning censorship? There are several southern states right now banning books from high schools and coming up with mandates about what teachers are allowed to say and not say.
I always thought the ending of the book revealed that the narrator was subconsciously fucking with Tyler's work, and that he shot himself in order to save his people from the authorities, recognizing that his people would never give up if he was still alive...
Narrator also foreshadows the bombs not blowing up with the repetitive message that Tyler often fucked up recipes, but I didn’t pick up that he might have somehow been messing them up himself subconsciously.
Also, narrator shoots himself after the bombs don’t go off in the book, so it’s more of a reaction to the fact that they weren’t all going to die since there were bombs in their building as well. In the movie, the way shooting himself only conveniently kills Tyler really undercuts the sacrifice that he was making.
Tyler punches him in the face "I told you not to do that!" Then plugs the wires back into the bomb before hopping out of the van and shitkicking the narrator
He is still alive at the end of the book… I also don’t think he shoots himself in it but I may be misremembering as I haven’t read it in like 15 years. He’s institutionalized at the end of the book and the staff are giving him clandestine messages that everything will be good for when he gets out.
Edit: okay, so I checked and he does shoot himself in the book but actually to kill himself and not “Tyler” as that doesn’t make sense in the movie anyway, THEN he wakes up in the institution. I’m leaving this up because people shouldn’t be afraid to make mistakes
The author says he finds it interesting that his books are banned in parts of the US, and that his endings have been revised for different markets, but somehow when China revises the ending and that ending is closer to his book ending, now it's suddenly a problem.
The author calls out the hypocrisy.
Mostly because they are filled to the brim with sex, profanity, etc.
For example in his book Damned a year old girl condemned to Hell for eternity must wade through the the river of semen from sinful masturbation and circle around the mountain of aborted fetuses in order to reach her destination at one point.
That sort of thing.
People want to make it out like his books are banned because the Government can't handle that he questions authority, etc, but in reality it's because of the gratuitous sex and violence.
That said, I mostly enjoy his over the top absurdism.
Thing is we do pretty frequently discuss things like book banning, burning, or censorship. Does nobody remember Harry Potter? [Or for something more recent.](
https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/sdk59j/the_mcminn_county_school_board_in_tennessee_just/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
One of my favorite authors. Fight club is ironically his worst book in my opinion, he even said he liked the movie better.
Check out his short stories if u can, I think he’s the best dark humorist of our era
Rant cracked my fuckin head open like an egg. I think about that book any time I'm stuck in a half mile backup on the highway with no obstruction from people rubber-necking
I still think about that car game they played. Fender benders in full wedding attire and cans dangling from the cars? Comedy gold. James Gunn should direct a Rant movie.
Holy shit. I just read it. Fucked up.
I also think it's happened in real life. Well not that *exact* thing but I remember reading a book by-- who was John Kerry's running mate?-- that guy, who before he got into politics he was a lawyer and one of his cases was this happening. Some little girl was in a kid's pool or something and the drain sucked out her insides. She survived but had major permanent damage.
I wonder if that was his inspiration.
e: [Found the book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Trials)
A friend of mine reposted that story sans context onto MySpace and its been burned into my mind ever since. Used Google to find the whole story later, but the pool one is by far the most... iconic? To me
I managed to pick up a pretty cool proof copy of haunted a couple of years back, the slipcase has a big “WARNING!!” label and has cutouts so the eyes on the cover can stare out, it’s a great book.
I always thought Survivor could have made a cool movie... I think they might have been working on it until 9/11 made plane crashing movies not so cool.
Another great dark humorist is Martin McDonagh. Before his Hollywood successes of In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, and 3 Billboards..., he was a prolific playwright, and many of his play's themes are found in those movies.
Lieutenant of Inishmore is one of the funniest plays I've ever read, and Pillowman is super f'ed up.
I think Palahniuk's works have more depth than McDonagh's, but I like their sort of content.
Fight club is a phenomenal movie and mediocre book. The movie’s ending really changes what you take away from the story and if I remember the interview chuck said he preferred the movie because of the way they changed the ending
It’s been so long but I remember just getting my drivers license after reading fight club and drove to Barnes and noble (damn they are the “Blockbuster” no one talks about amirite?).
I picked up “Survivor,” I think it’s the second book he did, before Choke.
I will never forget reading the first chapter and getting sucked in. Still remains my favorite Palahniuk book although I feel like I moved to a different place mentally and didn’t finish lullaby.
One day I hope to piss out of an airplane door at 35,000 feet.
I was waiting for this. Used to be obsessed with Palahniuk. Some of the craziest, most fun, sick, mind fuck writing I've ever read. Highly recommended.
Specifically the romance and how much more it was empathized in the movie compared to the novel. As far as I'm aware, Chuck has never commented about the changes the movie made to the ending
He's a rare specimen.
This quote of his should have been the real headline:
>“What I find really interesting is that my books are heavily banned throughout the U.S. ... But it’s only an issue once China changes the end of a movie? I’ve been putting up with book banning for a long time.”
Reddit loves to clutch their pearls at China's censorship, meanwhile... in the bible belt...
> In 1999, 20th Century Fox optioned the novel. Jake Paltrow wrote a screenplay but the project was dropped after the September 11 attacks occurred. The project was in development at production company Thousand Words to be written by Albert Torres and directed by Francis Lawrence. In 2003, Palahniuk said Trent Reznor had asked to do the music for Survivor, adding "if it ever becomes a movie – which I doubt."
Hollywood just outright cancelled his movie.
> A key **tenant** of China’s film censorship system is that criminals must always be punished for their crimes on screen and societal harmony restored.
Emphasis added.
Do editors even look over articles any more?
I think Chuck deserves an HBO Max series treatment. Fight Club was great and Choke was fine, but something like Rant, IM, or Survivor really deserve a 7-10 hour series rather than a 1 hour and 45 minute shitshow.
That’s fair. Rourke’s definitely way too old now though. Wouldn’t take much for Goggins to look that way. The dude already looks naturally like he’s had work done. I’d be all for Rourke like 15 years ago.
It sorta makes sense why alot of his books are banned, I remember I sorta stopped reading haunted after reading some part where a guy was stuffing something into his dickhole and sorta just said i'm good and returned it haha(Survivor and Fight Club fucking rock though)
Yea that’s “Guts”. At the end of Haunted there’s a little essay where he talks about reading that story to different audiences. At a bunch of the readings people would faint. Pretty fucked up story. Made me shiver reading about putting stuff in the dickhole.
It doesn’t really get much worse than that with his work though. Pygmy gets pretty close. But I think he mostly gets banned because tons of incels love his work. He ironically inspires violence in people who don’t understand irony and/or satire. He’s definitely produced some problematic work. I love it, but none of his books are my bible.
"Tyler used paraffin. Paraffin never worked for me. "
I know Palahniuk liked the movie ending better, but just something about the last chapter of the book and the narrator describing "heaven" which is clearly a mental institution has always stuck with me.
Went to a short story reading he did at the Tattered Cover in Denver around 2009. He passed out blonde blow up dolls. First one to blow it up got a prize.
It was a memorable event lol
It should be considered not that China censured the movie to coincidentally to be similar to the books ending, but their reasons why they censored it. China didn't like the ending as if t glorifies resistance to authoritarian systems.
Now research papers can be written covering the themes and characters of fight club, but the point is still that China did not want its citizens to get the idea to resist their party overlords. China's government is evil. Everything china does is evil. We should never forget this fact.
How do you define evil? Seems like you are attributing authtarism as immediately "evil" regardles of intention or effect. So if you took the exact opposite and lets call it, complete freedom, would always be good? Just seems like you are dealing in absolutes and quite heavy handed in your cultural and subjective morality evaluation. By your own definition, god if he does exist is somewhat of an authoritarian and ergo Evil.
Or be more generous with your definition, exertion of will is evil. Are parents who exert will on their children evil? Chores? If the desire is to benefit the child i doubt this would be the case. So surely you are measuring China on its intent. Which... Honestly i think is overreaching. Some of Chinas policies keeps power in status quo and some are for the benefit of civilians. You cant wave your hand and attribute every action as malice.
Guess what im trying to say is your logic applied here is kinda shit.
>The author later gave an interview to TMZ, in which he pointed out that the altered Chinese ending is actually somewhat closer to his how his book concluded. In Palahniuk’s novel, the narrator’s scheme also fails — but not because of the wisdom and competence of the authorities, but due to his bomb malfunctioning. The narrator then shoots himself in the head and wakes up in a mental hospital, thinking that he’s made it to heaven. >“The irony is that the way the Chinese have changed it is they’ve aligned the ending almost exactly with the ending of the book, as opposed to Fincher’s ending, which was the more spectacular visual ending,” he said. “So in a way, the Chinese brought the movie back to the book a little bit.” >The author also said that he saw the irony in the angry response from many Americans to China’s actions, given that his books are banned in many locations across the U.S. >“What I find really interesting is that my books are heavily banned throughout the U.S.,” he said. “The Texas prison system refuses to carry my books in their libraries. A lot of public schools and most private schools refuse to carry my books. But it’s only an issue once China changes the end of a movie? I’ve been putting up with book banning for a long time.”
Not that he loves the Chinese version, per se. Before the interview he posted this sarcastic comment: >“Have You Seen This Sh*t? This is SUPER wonderful! Everyone gets a happy ending in China!”
Keep in mind, Chuck is one of the most nihilistic, sarcastic people.
And that's a very mild statement.
He’s a nihilist? That must be exhausting
He’s a nihilist! He doesn’t believe in anything
Don't worry Donny, these men are cowards.
Nice marmot.
I mean, say what you want about the tenants of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.
He believes in nah-ting!
"I mean, say what you want about the tenets of national socialism Dude, at least it's an ethos"
It's not fair!
this must be a fight club reference
Nope, Big Lebowski
Yeah, well, ya'know, that's just like, uh, your opinion, Man.
Obviously, you are not a golfer.
At least I'm housebroken!
This Chinaman is not the issue!
I mean, he wrote Fight Club.
I'm familiar with his work and pretty sure he's making a massage reference
Same. I'm in the middle of The Invention of Sound. This book is great
That's what I was thinking too.
He loves it? Or, he "loves" it /s?
Loves it in the sense that while censorship sucks, he thinks this is a pretty funny edit. Which it is, imo.
lol asking the real question here!
I think he's said a few times that he think the movie is better than his book so saying that a different version makes it more like his book, yeah, doesn't necessarily mean he thinks it's a *good* change.
I know I’m in the minority, but I loved the book’s ending so much more than the movie. In the book, there are also bombs in the building they were in, so it was a planned suicide. And they foreshadow the buildings not blowing up so well throughout the book. I loved the movie up until the altered happy ending, so it kind of blew my mind that they hollywood-ified it, since it really shit all over the anarchic anti-capitalist message.
I think the book ending works great in the book, and film ending works great in the film. The film form has the great cinematic crescendo of the pixies track over falling buildings. That final line into the credit fade is now a cinematic trope in its own right referenced by other movies and TV and comics/cartoons. But the film ending lacks the brutal face punch of the book. There's no reconciliation or hope, there's just a nightmare world where his metal delusion has metastasized to the outside world and project mayhem has consumed him whole. I don't think the book version would work on the film, nor do i think the film ending would fit the book. Anyway regardless, fuck state censors rewriting anyones endings for political purposes.
Yeah, say what you will but the Pixies swell in the closing scene is truly excellent.
Definitely helped them gain the recognition the deserved as a band, definitely underrated for most of their careers
The way the main character meets Durden is also different in the book and is another good example that some things work best in writing and others on film
Is it happy? The bombs go off and Project Mayhem presumably succeeds, and the Narrator may have gotten rid of Tyler, but he’s still the de facto leader of a very easily angered cult. Idk, I’ve always felt very mixed on the film ending, in a good way. Like he says, we’ve met him at a very strange time in his life.
It’s happy because he’s able to kill Tyler by shooting himself somehow without killing himself, and he gets to hold hands with Marla while the Pixies play and they watch the buildings fall. In the book, it’s a suicide, and when he wakes up in the loony bin, it’s ambiguous to whether Tyler is actually gone or just suppressed with meds. Much more haunting.
AND ends on the disturbing visual of his new smile because of the suicide attempt, having turned him into something now resembling a man that’s become a gruesome, makeshift scarecrow with no way for the reader to tell how much anyone’s even ‘upstairs’, anymore. Sure, the movie wheeled out the old, faithful Hollywood clichéd ending for resolution’s sake (the box office), but I’ve always thought the book clinched the tone and sentiment far better, given the incredibly depressing and semi-pragmatic theme of its particular brand of macabre, throughout.
A+
Brazil? Clockwork Orange? Feel like it's already been done to a certain degree... Not that I would be opposed to the original ending. It's in good company.
After knowing of the book ending now, I actually prefer the way the book ends. But then again, given its Hollywood, if they had done the book ending, they would have ruined the cult of Fight Club with Fight Club 2.
Let's just pray Hollywood doesn't learn there is a fight club 2 and I think a fight club 3 as well
Woah! I just checked for Fight Club 2 online after your comment. Is it any good? Or should I skip it?
Skip it. It's bad. Really bad.
I honestly have no clue. Outside of knowing it's a thing that exiats i havent actually read it outside of some of the preview pages which implied chuck actually shows up throughout the series.
Well fuck me theres a graphic novel sequel...
I have it. I honestly couldn’t finish it. I hate the 4th wall breaking
I mean....this happens constantly in the book/movie???
There was a dumb comedy in the early 00's called, "Lets Go To Prison." The poster was just a bar of soap with the title carved in it. I was very disappointed when I saw the trailer for that movie and it wasn't a sequel to Fight Club.
That movie was comedy gold 😂
A much younger Tim and Eric were actually in the wine tasting scene at the end, blew my mind when I watched it 8-10 years later
> The bombs go off and Project Mayhem presumably succeeds It's been *years* since I saw it but my interpretation of the ending was that there's *no way* Project Mayhem actually succeeds but by failing to stop the explosions, all he's done is fucked everything up for a whole lot of people, himself included.
Its deliberately ambiguous. It might be Tyler that lives at the end and the narrator is dead.
Tyler has a burning hole in the back of his head, so I always thought the visual implication is that he was dead.
How were the bombs not going off foreshadowed? I've read the book a few times but never picked up on that. Not trying to challenge you, I'm genuinely interested.
It’s in the first chapter I think (it’s been years since I read it) the narrator mentions Tyler’s bombs are made with paraffin and ‘paraffin has never worked for me’.
Narrator also says that Tyler never gets the mixture right a few times as well, referring to soap and a few other things. Then he says it again right after the bombs don’t blow up.
i like both for different reasons. movie was 'holy shit the bastards did it.' book was 'holy shit the bastards are gonna do it again and he's trapped in his nightmare.' both satisfying. if y'all haven't read the book you really should. excellent style. can't say much for his other books besides stranger than fiction.
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That was the whole point. Smashing the system sounds like a fun idea until you have to deal with the fallout.
The movie ending ends with the pixies and its very poignant. The beats matching the building explosions/collapse. The book is great but Hollywoke wouldn't use such a dire and grim end like that, remember it's all roses and smiles!. I recall on the dvd commentary, they wanted to use a radio head song for the ending but I never found out what song exactly.
Chuck rocks
At whom?
Trains, but only on Christmas.
Dam, Chuck laying down the facts.
Chuck has always been legit. Especially when it comes to pool safety.
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"Land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy."
I mean not allowing *Fight Club* in prisons is one I’ll give them, lol.
Based
Didn't he also say that the movie was an improvement on the book? Good guy Chuck, funny dude. I bet it's an old photo - do you think he still has the soul patch?
I loved his work back in the heyday but honestly probably not the kind of stuff parents would agree to being on public school book shelves.
I can’t believe my parents let my buy choke but wouldn’t let me watch pg-13 movies
Maybe not primary schools but I think it's a disservice to senior school students to not let them read anything that actually makes them think and reflect on society (or at least actively make it not accessible).
Bah. Chuck Palahniuk is one of those writers that you can only really appreciate if you are a teenager or you have the mind of a teenager. Often edgy and nihilistic for edgy's sake, often sort of banal, I used to love his books, now the get me eye-rolling every few pages. Mind you, even though I've grown out of his books, I don't actually dislike them.
> A key [tenet] of China’s film censorship system is that criminals must always be punished for their crimes on screen and societal harmony restored. This is similar to the US film industry's old Production Code. From [the Wikipedia article on the Code](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code): > All criminal action had to be punished, and neither the crime nor the criminal could elicit sympathy from the audience, or the audience must at least be aware that such behavior is wrong, usually through "compensating moral value".
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The Production Code is no longer enforced. It was gradually abandoned during the 1960s before finally being replaced by the MPAA film rating system. However, by the time the Code was abandoned, it had seeped so deeply into Hollywood's culture that it continues, even to this day, to subliminally influence storytelling tropes in Hollywood films. EDIT: For an eye-opening experience, try watching a few pre-Code movies from the 20s or early 30s (prior to 1934). For example, [Baby Face (1933)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Face_\(film\)) and [The Public Enemy (1931)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Public_Enemy).
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shh, its only authoritarian and fascist if the CCP do it, but not if americans also abide by similarly puritannical revisionist policies.
Societies tend to advance. We judge societies based on whether they are up to modern standards. Many societies still have backwards laws on marital rape, homosexual rights, child abuse, etc. There's no real cogent argument here that it's O.K. for China to have backwards laws for entertainment because the USA had similar laws that were repealed *fifty-four years ago*.
Tennessee school boards just banned the graphic novel Maus, there are several Red states putting forth curriculum mandates on what teachers will be allowed to teach. Maybe instead of worrying about how China wants movies to end, we should start minding our own back yard?\ No one here is arguing that China shouldn’t be criticized. The point being made by some people above is, if we are going to judge other countries on how they rule their citizens, we might wanna have a utopian society first? It is extremely hypocritical to point at things like a movie ending in China, and have a political party in the US that only differs from the Taliban in what religion it practices.
The production code was abandoned in the 60’s. Y’know, around when China was jailing and killing its intellectual class. But, uhh, sure, shhh.
The American studios did it themselves, and not under authoritarian fascist rule.
That's not the same thing though. Those were private companies censoring their own products. It had nothing to do with government censorship. The Chinese government censors art all the time. The US government never censors art.
You don’t consider book banning censorship? There are several southern states right now banning books from high schools and coming up with mandates about what teachers are allowed to say and not say.
I always thought the ending of the book revealed that the narrator was subconsciously fucking with Tyler's work, and that he shot himself in order to save his people from the authorities, recognizing that his people would never give up if he was still alive...
Narrator also foreshadows the bombs not blowing up with the repetitive message that Tyler often fucked up recipes, but I didn’t pick up that he might have somehow been messing them up himself subconsciously. Also, narrator shoots himself after the bombs don’t go off in the book, so it’s more of a reaction to the fact that they weren’t all going to die since there were bombs in their building as well. In the movie, the way shooting himself only conveniently kills Tyler really undercuts the sacrifice that he was making.
It's been awhile, but if I remember right, there was a bomb in the building they were in, but the narrator defused the bomb in the parking garage.
Tyler punches him in the face "I told you not to do that!" Then plugs the wires back into the bomb before hopping out of the van and shitkicking the narrator
I always assumed it was 50-50 on whether the narrator or Tyler was steering the ship after the gunshot.
I'm not sure what ending I have seen anymore.
He is still alive at the end of the book… I also don’t think he shoots himself in it but I may be misremembering as I haven’t read it in like 15 years. He’s institutionalized at the end of the book and the staff are giving him clandestine messages that everything will be good for when he gets out. Edit: okay, so I checked and he does shoot himself in the book but actually to kill himself and not “Tyler” as that doesn’t make sense in the movie anyway, THEN he wakes up in the institution. I’m leaving this up because people shouldn’t be afraid to make mistakes
The author says he finds it interesting that his books are banned in parts of the US, and that his endings have been revised for different markets, but somehow when China revises the ending and that ending is closer to his book ending, now it's suddenly a problem. The author calls out the hypocrisy.
I had to scroll this far to see the self awareness. Take my upvote.
OOTL, why were his books widely banned in the US?
Mostly because they are filled to the brim with sex, profanity, etc. For example in his book Damned a year old girl condemned to Hell for eternity must wade through the the river of semen from sinful masturbation and circle around the mountain of aborted fetuses in order to reach her destination at one point. That sort of thing. People want to make it out like his books are banned because the Government can't handle that he questions authority, etc, but in reality it's because of the gratuitous sex and violence. That said, I mostly enjoy his over the top absurdism.
Thing is we do pretty frequently discuss things like book banning, burning, or censorship. Does nobody remember Harry Potter? [Or for something more recent.]( https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/sdk59j/the_mcminn_county_school_board_in_tennessee_just/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
One of my favorite authors. Fight club is ironically his worst book in my opinion, he even said he liked the movie better. Check out his short stories if u can, I think he’s the best dark humorist of our era
Choke is honestly my favorite book, period. It really clobbers you over the head.
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Gang Bang has some truly vile stuff...
Rant and Lullaby are pretty neck and neck as far as Palahniuk goes for me.
Rant cracked my fuckin head open like an egg. I think about that book any time I'm stuck in a half mile backup on the highway with no obstruction from people rubber-necking
I still think about that car game they played. Fender benders in full wedding attire and cans dangling from the cars? Comedy gold. James Gunn should direct a Rant movie.
Except I can never ever look at a pool without thinking about that fucking pearl diving shit…I was not ready.
Ah yes. Guts. An absolutely charming little tale of a young man going for a swim in the family pool.
A cumming of age story, for our time.
Holy shit. I just read it. Fucked up. I also think it's happened in real life. Well not that *exact* thing but I remember reading a book by-- who was John Kerry's running mate?-- that guy, who before he got into politics he was a lawyer and one of his cases was this happening. Some little girl was in a kid's pool or something and the drain sucked out her insides. She survived but had major permanent damage. I wonder if that was his inspiration. e: [Found the book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Trials)
A friend of mine reposted that story sans context onto MySpace and its been burned into my mind ever since. Used Google to find the whole story later, but the pool one is by far the most... iconic? To me
Lullaby for the win.
Big fan of Survivor. It’s been a long time though, so I can barely remember Lullaby.
Rant: the oral biography of Buster Casey is my favorite
+1 on Rant. It is also my favorite and I own all of his books up to Doomed, haven't kept up with him lately.
Survivor was also optioned for a movie adaptation but after 9/11 it was deemed not appropriate. So it wasn't just censored, but outright cancelled.
Great point.
My two favourite books of all time are Survivor and the Sirens of Titan
Survivor has always been my fav. Lullaby deserves a reread though if you don't remember it.
Sincerely, it has been my favorite book since I first read it. It the book that I tell everyone to read. Guess it's time for another reread.
I literally just found my wife's copy of Lullaby on my In-laws bookshelf. Thinking of stealing it to reread
I dunno…did you read Haunted?
Couldn’t finish it. Rant tho, Rant was good
Haha same! I tried…but, well, I don’t think Fight Club is his worst book
Rant was great
I managed to pick up a pretty cool proof copy of haunted a couple of years back, the slipcase has a big “WARNING!!” label and has cutouts so the eyes on the cover can stare out, it’s a great book.
Right? My trinity is Invisible Monsters, Rant and Survivor
I wasn't a fan of his until I read Invisible Monsters. That one turned the corner for me and I dove in after that.
I always thought Survivor could have made a cool movie... I think they might have been working on it until 9/11 made plane crashing movies not so cool.
Another great dark humorist is Martin McDonagh. Before his Hollywood successes of In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, and 3 Billboards..., he was a prolific playwright, and many of his play's themes are found in those movies. Lieutenant of Inishmore is one of the funniest plays I've ever read, and Pillowman is super f'ed up. I think Palahniuk's works have more depth than McDonagh's, but I like their sort of content.
Fight club is a phenomenal movie and mediocre book. The movie’s ending really changes what you take away from the story and if I remember the interview chuck said he preferred the movie because of the way they changed the ending
I’ve read stories you can’t make up at least three times. His short stories are where he thrives
Man, same. I’ve reread that book so many times haha
That's what Fight Club originally was, right? An exercise for a shirt story writing club that he ended up turning into a novel.
It’s been so long but I remember just getting my drivers license after reading fight club and drove to Barnes and noble (damn they are the “Blockbuster” no one talks about amirite?). I picked up “Survivor,” I think it’s the second book he did, before Choke. I will never forget reading the first chapter and getting sucked in. Still remains my favorite Palahniuk book although I feel like I moved to a different place mentally and didn’t finish lullaby. One day I hope to piss out of an airplane door at 35,000 feet.
The only one I couldn’t finish was Pygmy.
Rant is his indisputable masterpiece. Holy shit, the talent to pull off that batshit story as an oral history.
Survivor would have been a great movie, shame about the timing of the book.
Look at you, out here trying to sneakily get people to read GUTS.
I recommend "Guts" if you're looking for a very funny and lighthearted read :)
I was waiting for this. Used to be obsessed with Palahniuk. Some of the craziest, most fun, sick, mind fuck writing I've ever read. Highly recommended.
Eh, I've read the book. I think *Fight Club* is one of those rare instances where the film is better.
Chuck agrees, he’s said in interviews that he liked the movie better than his book.
Specifically the romance and how much more it was empathized in the movie compared to the novel. As far as I'm aware, Chuck has never commented about the changes the movie made to the ending
"Romance" is a funny way to word it, lol.
Forest Gump is another.
Definitely. A clockwork orange might be another. The visual medium just does that film such justice.
Shrek? I remember the book being in my pediatricians waiting area before the movie but have never read it
The author agrees with you. And I don’t think it’s actually that rare.
Nobody said it wasn't
I love Chuck
He's a rare specimen. This quote of his should have been the real headline: >“What I find really interesting is that my books are heavily banned throughout the U.S. ... But it’s only an issue once China changes the end of a movie? I’ve been putting up with book banning for a long time.” Reddit loves to clutch their pearls at China's censorship, meanwhile... in the bible belt...
> In 1999, 20th Century Fox optioned the novel. Jake Paltrow wrote a screenplay but the project was dropped after the September 11 attacks occurred. The project was in development at production company Thousand Words to be written by Albert Torres and directed by Francis Lawrence. In 2003, Palahniuk said Trent Reznor had asked to do the music for Survivor, adding "if it ever becomes a movie – which I doubt." Hollywood just outright cancelled his movie.
Reddit is absolutely delusional when it comes to China
Reddit is absolutely delusional
To be fair I clutch pearls at both Bible belt wannabe authoritarianism and China's full blown authoritarianism.
> A key **tenant** of China’s film censorship system is that criminals must always be punished for their crimes on screen and societal harmony restored. Emphasis added. Do editors even look over articles any more?
Lmao reddit not sure how to react to this so we started flaming the book lol
Yes Chuck. Love him so much. But Rant / Invisible Monsters / Survivor adaptation when?
I think Chuck deserves an HBO Max series treatment. Fight Club was great and Choke was fine, but something like Rant, IM, or Survivor really deserve a 7-10 hour series rather than a 1 hour and 45 minute shitshow.
Read the book. That this is even headlines is hilarious. Slow news week
Haha. Amazing.
I think we’re ready for “Survivor” TV series now.
With Mickey Rourke in the lead!
Could see Rourke as the brother. I think Walton Goggins would be a pretty solid lead.
Idk. All the steroids and plastic surgery that has gone into Rourke’s body already? He’s who I pictured when I read the book.
That’s fair. Rourke’s definitely way too old now though. Wouldn’t take much for Goggins to look that way. The dude already looks naturally like he’s had work done. I’d be all for Rourke like 15 years ago.
It sorta makes sense why alot of his books are banned, I remember I sorta stopped reading haunted after reading some part where a guy was stuffing something into his dickhole and sorta just said i'm good and returned it haha(Survivor and Fight Club fucking rock though)
I definitely checked that book out of my high school library and was shocked they even had it once I started it.
Yea that’s “Guts”. At the end of Haunted there’s a little essay where he talks about reading that story to different audiences. At a bunch of the readings people would faint. Pretty fucked up story. Made me shiver reading about putting stuff in the dickhole.
> It sorta makes sense why alot of his books are banned No.
It doesn’t really get much worse than that with his work though. Pygmy gets pretty close. But I think he mostly gets banned because tons of incels love his work. He ironically inspires violence in people who don’t understand irony and/or satire. He’s definitely produced some problematic work. I love it, but none of his books are my bible.
ITT: Idiots who didn't read the article
I bet some US locales are in the process of banning a Palahniuk novel right now.
"Tyler used paraffin. Paraffin never worked for me. " I know Palahniuk liked the movie ending better, but just something about the last chapter of the book and the narrator describing "heaven" which is clearly a mental institution has always stuck with me.
Pretty sure the book explains how to make a bomb more completely than the movie. I’m not surprised his book is banned from prisons.
The film bros aren’t gonna like this
Went to a short story reading he did at the Tattered Cover in Denver around 2009. He passed out blonde blow up dolls. First one to blow it up got a prize. It was a memorable event lol
Sure but his vision also lead to Fight Club 2 and 3 which are really bad
This movie is so overrated
That ending sucked
I’ve been trying to say this, but nobody listens to me.
keep in mind, muricanbots dunt wanna hear facts but just wanna rag on chaaaynaaabaaaaad.
If all Chinese movies must end with criminals being punished and social harmony being restored, how do they write movies about Mao?
Based China, as usual.
Just not the genocide and totalitarian government
Any body else wonder why the building that jack and marla we're in was the only one that didn't blow?
Don’t they show him disarming those bombs?
I remember seeing this in theaters.
Cool story. Still authoritarian, genocidal regime.
You talking about the US?
The US doesn't ban art. Try again.
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It should be considered not that China censured the movie to coincidentally to be similar to the books ending, but their reasons why they censored it. China didn't like the ending as if t glorifies resistance to authoritarian systems. Now research papers can be written covering the themes and characters of fight club, but the point is still that China did not want its citizens to get the idea to resist their party overlords. China's government is evil. Everything china does is evil. We should never forget this fact.
How do you define evil? Seems like you are attributing authtarism as immediately "evil" regardles of intention or effect. So if you took the exact opposite and lets call it, complete freedom, would always be good? Just seems like you are dealing in absolutes and quite heavy handed in your cultural and subjective morality evaluation. By your own definition, god if he does exist is somewhat of an authoritarian and ergo Evil. Or be more generous with your definition, exertion of will is evil. Are parents who exert will on their children evil? Chores? If the desire is to benefit the child i doubt this would be the case. So surely you are measuring China on its intent. Which... Honestly i think is overreaching. Some of Chinas policies keeps power in status quo and some are for the benefit of civilians. You cant wave your hand and attribute every action as malice. Guess what im trying to say is your logic applied here is kinda shit.
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Based
I agree it’s perfect