It was published in Playboy and if I remember correctly, also in a UK newspaper.
‘Guts’ was a total masterclass in extreme literature being allowed in to hallowed spaces like the South Bank (where I saw Palahnuick read it). It’s a rough read, graphic and bloody and gross, but it’s brilliantly represented on the page. The story itself: a boy is finding different, increasingly more extreme methods of masturbating, until one day he is wanking in his swimming pool and is attracted to the pull of the pool drain, leading to what a doctor would call, trans-anal intestinal evisceration. Not until ‘Cat Person’ was published do I remember a short story being so hyped – and this was way before social media existed. Reports of people fainting in the audience when Palahniuk read it out loud, suggestions to ban the sick filth of it by newspapers, reading it out to your mates to make them squirm and get dizzy.
Then, click a link below and listen.Now, I don’t know about you, but I remember the hype and furore around this story when it was released. As bad a recording as it is, I suggest the first over the second, but the second is professionally read and of much better audio quality. There are better quality recordings of this story available, but none I found were complete and read by the author. Note that this recording is terrible and shakes, goes out of focus and the audio has too much echo. It also was part of the novel, Haunted, released in 2005.įor the uninitiated or those who are fans of transgressive fiction, this is Guts, read, by the author, Chuck Palahniuk and I warn you, this gets gross in unexpected, shocking ways. The story, Guts, appeared in Playboy Magazine March, 2004. I think Guts is a milestone for Chuck, and based on the fact that he is still reading this story at public appearances promoting his latest novel, Doomed – I’m right.
Chuck Palahniuk holds his head high while saying people have fainted during public readings of his story, Guts.
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