The Seduction of Reticence
The opening lines of "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk are desecrating and direct. Palahniuk employs them to warn off the reader. And the result is surreal.
The more he tries to scare us off, the more intrigued we become. By the end of this short "introduction", we want this story to start in earnest.
We want to know what happens and to whom. And we want to know it now.
The words have lit the fire of our curiosity.
Alberico Collina
"IF YOU'RE GOING TO READ THIS, DON'T BOTHER.
After a couple pages, you won't want to be here. So forget it. Go away. Get out while
you're still in one piece.
Save yourself.
There has to be something better on television. Or since you have so much time on
your hands, maybe you could take a night course. Become a doctor. You could make
something out of yourself. Treat yourself to a dinner out. Color your hair.
You're not getting any younger.
What happens here is first going to piss you off. After that it just gets worse and
worse."
"Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk
This technique can also be seen in J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye", where it is the narrator, Holden Caulfield's reticence to tell the story that ultimately makes us want to read it.
" If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
"Catcher in The Rye" by J.D. Salinger
The opening lines of "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk are desecrating and direct. Palahniuk employs them to warn off the reader. And the result is surreal.
The more he tries to scare us off, the more intrigued we become. By the end of this short "introduction", we want this story to start in earnest.
We want to know what happens and to whom. And we want to know it now.
The words have lit the fire of our curiosity.
Alberico Collina
"IF YOU'RE GOING TO READ THIS, DON'T BOTHER.
After a couple pages, you won't want to be here. So forget it. Go away. Get out while
you're still in one piece.
Save yourself.
There has to be something better on television. Or since you have so much time on
your hands, maybe you could take a night course. Become a doctor. You could make
something out of yourself. Treat yourself to a dinner out. Color your hair.
You're not getting any younger.
What happens here is first going to piss you off. After that it just gets worse and
worse."
"Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk
This technique can also be seen in J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye", where it is the narrator, Holden Caulfield's reticence to tell the story that ultimately makes us want to read it.
" If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
"Catcher in The Rye" by J.D. Salinger
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