Rant

I've been reading quite a lot lately! Last night I finished the book Rant by Chuck Palahniuk. The book tells the story of a young man named Buster Casey (nicknamed "Rant") who grows up in a small American town where he develops an addiction to animal bites. It's not long before he develops rabies and despite the fact that he does not show any symptoms he still carries the disease in his sytem. He moves to the big city where the citizens are forcibly devided into respectable "Daytimers" (who are only allowed out of their homes during the daytime) and the oppressed "Nighttimers" (who are only allowed out of their homes after nightfall). The Nighttimers pass their time by "boosting peaks" (uploading second hand experiences directly into the brain) and "Party Crashing" (a bizarre urban demolition derby where teams of people in cars congregate at a certain time in a certain area of the city and drive around purposefully crashing into each other, and they recognise each other by their elaborate decorations on their cars). Rant quickly joins the Nighttimers and takes up party Crashing while at the same time quietly causing a rabies epidemic. The book is written like an "oral biography" made up of interview statements from Rant's friends, enemies and family members. It is really bizarre and very imaginative. I'm trying to get all my Palahniuk read before Saturday.

I also read a couple more stories from the American Supernatural Tales. The first one was "The Death of Halpin Frayser" by Ambrose Bierce a strange story about a man plagued by nightmares about a reanimated corpse only to find that they may be true, and "The Yellow Sign" by Robert W Chambers in which a painter discovers a copy of a book which apparently causes anyone who reads it to be attacked by a vicious supernatural force.

I was also watching some of the film Child's Play 3 last night, which wasn't very good. The film series is about a doll called Chucky which is reanimated by the spirit of a serial killer (voiced by Brad Dourif). I remember watching an episode of The Twilight Zone about a killer doll which was far scarier than any of the Child's Play films despite having absolutely no blood or violence. Perhaps because it was more subtle.

It was another day on my course today. There is going to be yet another strike this month a week from today. However it won't really affect me because I have booked it off anyway. I'll be off the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week for some Book Festival things. The pay dispute seems to be really hotting up now. I think everyone is getting really sick of it by now.