So far 67 attendees at Chuck Palahniuk’s book readings have fainted. They all did not attend the same reading, there’s no chicken salad food poisoning or stuffy room syndrome that can account for the dropping of audience members. And it’s not just the ladies.
Portland, Oregon: 2 men faint
Borders: 2 faint, man and woman
Seattle: 2 more men faint
San Francisco: 3 more people faint
Berkeley: 3 more [apparently the words “corn and peanuts” were particularly horrifying.]
Beverly Hills library, Los Angeles: woman’s husband faints, in the men’s bathroom another man faints and cracks his head on the sink
Columbia University: 2 students fall victim to Palahniuk’s prose
Leeds and Cambridge, Britain: more fainters …
67 people so far have fainted at readings of Chuck Palahniuk’s short story “Guts.”
Palahniuk says in a Telegraph article:
Quote: My goal was to write a new form of horror story, something based on the ordinary world, without supernatural monsters or magic. Guts, and the book that contained it, would be a trapdoor down into some place dark. A place only you could go, alone. Only books have that power.
Apparently carrots, candles, swimming pools, microwave popcorn and bowling balls are also involved, but as far as we know, not as faint-inducing as corn and peanuts.
The story is included in Palahniuk’s new novel Haunted. I suggest reading it with a medical attendant standing by.