Fashion
Luella Bartley
Hui-Hui
Peter Jensen
Katie Gallagher

Entertainment
Alan Ball
Summer Bishil
Dr. Dog
Nima Nourizadeh
Chuck Palahniuk
Anthology Recodrings
Marina Zenovich
Zimmerman/Berg

Artists
Desireé Holman
Corndawg
Matt Furie
Molly Landreth
Matthew Lock
Nikolay Saveliev
Christopher Schulz
Darren Sylvester

Fiction
24 Hours on L16
Nobody Eats Oranges...
Some Mornings

“The world’s biggest gangbang snuff film,” was my response to an uncomfortable acquaintance’s innocent question about the book I had buried my nose within. That book, unsurprisingly, is entitled Snuff—the latest installment in Chuck Palahniuk’s darkly comic oeuvre. The Fight Club scribe is famous for treading sensationalistic ground: disfigured fashion models on crime-spree road trips with pre-op trannies (Invisible Monsters), sex-addicted colonial theme-park workers with Jesus complexes (Choke), and ancient mystical poems that cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Lullaby).
        Snuff is no exception—the novel takes place in the sweat-sticky, Dorito-powdered confines of a clammy porn soundstage, where 600 men are waiting like cattle for their chance to don Nazi uniforms and bone their way into the record books in the groundbreaking gangbang film World Whore III. While these somber, shirtless souls await their moment of salvation with Cassie Wright—a drooping porn queen decidedly past her prime—we’re treated to perspective-shifting narration from a handful of desperate men known only by their numbers.
        Like many of Palahniuk’s stories, Snuff is consumed with the inner workings of identity in a culture obsessed with mass media. Each of its narrators has faith in the concept of Cassie Wright—as if appearing with her for a brief moment (a moment that will last forever under the cold gaze of a million “jizz-juicers,” as one character refers to them) will somehow legitimize or transform their lives. Palahniuk gives us a washed-up gay television detective trying to perform his way back into the closet, a young man who believes he’s Cassie’s long-lost son on a righteous mission to save her from the world of skin flicks, and a hairless, archaic porn stud desperately looking for a comeback.
        In true Palahniuk style, the already outlandish plot of Snuff is embellished with scandalous plot twists and comical asides about “Oriental” techniques for vaginal strength, mass-produced penis replicas, and strange secrets concerning Marilyn Monroe’s butt. Follow me on a journey into Palahniuk’s hilariously weird world with the unpredictable author’s responses to my e-mail questionnaire. The higher-ups at Mean decided I’d be the perfect man for this piece, after I showed them an embarrassing JPEG (from the most awkward moment of my adolescence—when I somehow thought that aggressively wearing Old Navy could be considered “subversive”) of Palahniuk “Choke”-ing me at a book signing in 2001. Little did I know what I was in for…

What sparked your interest in the absurd extremes that people will go to make their mark in the history books?
Two reasons. First, I get bored so easily. Back when I couldn't sell a word of my work, I decided the stories had to entertain me, and that would be reward enough. That said, the plots and characters had to be wild and outlandish. Second, I write with verbs; something has to happen in every scene, and characters have to constantly take action. So much action tends to ramp the plot beyond anything I can anticipate.

In a post-Boogie Nights world, why did you choose pornography as a backdrop to explore the characters’ desperate quest for validation?
As a metaphor, I adore how pornography provides a fake intimacy. Porno is like love... but you don't have to risk anything. No rejection. No hurt. You don't even have to brush your teeth. It's so much the domain of cowards, and all the characters in Snuff are afraid -- terrified, really -- of being rejected. So, they take a very covert path to find love.

How have your experiences with the film adaptations of Fight Club and Choke impacted your thoughts on society's obsession with mass media?
Mass media can be so limited; it really relies on telling stories scrubbed clean enough for a vast, public audience. But books... fiction has a wonderful person-to-person intimacy that allows authors to explore risky, dangerous topics. My goal is to play to that strength, and tell stories that other forms of mass media don't dare depict.

The marketing tagline for Stanley Kubrick's Lolita posed the question, "How did they ever make a movie of Lolita?" Do you think we'll ever see the same question asked about Snuff? Who do you think might be able to take on such a task?
How ironic. When they were selling the film option for Fight Club, everyone claimed it would be impossible to produce. The split personality was too much of a challenge. Obviously that wasn't the case. If anything, Snuff might attract a young hot-shot director who wants to get big attention and scandal with his or her first film. You do only get one chance to write your first book, shoot your first feature, you should pop that cherry in a bold way.

Your writing is very visual, and almost cinematic in its tone. Have you explored the possibility of writing original screenplays for film or television?
Sadly, I have. Making a film is too much of a shared activity, and I don't play well with others. It seems that no one wants to do what I want to do to Dakota Fanning.

One of the central characters in the book, Mr. 137, is the former star of a hit detective show who's been dramatically forced out of the closet. As the author of Fight Club, a book that has become the favorite of a league of macho straight men, how have things changed for you since coming out as gay? How did that inform the character of Mr. 137?
Are you hitting on me? I can't believe you're coming onto me in a national publication. I'm blushing. Send a jpeg of your genitals and we'll talk.

The action in your novels is accentuated with anecdotal asides, comprised of bizarre non-fictional trivia. Do you research facts specific to each novel, or do you just have a backlog of great quirky facts stored up in your memory from years of morbid curiosity?
Research. Everyone sees their world through the distorted lens of their own education and experience. To create a character, the first task is to learn what that character knows. That way, you can describe the world the way the character would. Plus the research is the most-fun part of writing.

There's a spiritual quality to Snuff, as if the narrators are pilgrims seeking out the porn Mecca. Do you think there's a relationship between pornography and religion beyond the obvious vilification of pornography by the religious right?
In porn, there's the aspect of revealing all. Without shame. And being redeemed or enlightened. That, and the obvious release of tensions and connection to another human being. "Wherever there are two or more of you gathered in my name..." It's a form of community, like any other church service.

Despite everything grotesque that plays out in the course of your novels, there's almost always a muddled ray of hope shining through at the end. Do you consider your books optimistic?
All of my books are romances. My characters move from self-imposed isolation to connection with others. That's the best ending possible. Now, hurry up and send that sexy jpeg you promised! Don't PhotoShop it.