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If you rely on blog sources, the story is simple: Chuck Palahniuk outed himself basically because Entertainment Weekly was outing him anyway. Here's Bookslut:
Chuck Palahniuk gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly and asked for a few things to remain off the record. Evidently, the profile writer decided some of the gossip was too juicy to leave out of the article and put it all in, including information about Palahniuk's partner and outing them both.
So Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, went and audio-blogged a very angry message, talking about the EW writer's suicide attempt and generally coming out because he felt he had no choice in the wake of the publication of the article. (I can't seem to access that message any more: maybe Palahniuk is trying to crawl back into the closet.)
Palahniuk then received a lot of supportive messages – if you consider death threats against the EW writer to be supportive. I guess at this point he went back and actually read the article again, and realised that nowhere was his partner mentioned, and that the closest it came to outing him was to say "he is not married". So he audioblogged a retraction of sorts, in which he urged everybody to calm down and "not kill anybody".
In the world of print media, none of this would have happened. Palahniuk would have been angry upon reading the article, but would have slept on it, and would have realised that if he did nothing, then no one would be any the wiser. Instead, in a fit of passion, he pulls out his cellphone and announces his homosexual partnership of 11 years to the world at large – something which he'd thereunto successfully kept secret. Now the secret's out, and no amount of pulling messages is going to help. Worse, a largely blameless EW writer is probably now petrified that a crazy Palahniuk fan (and there's no shortage of them around) is going to do her some serious harm.
Just one of the many advantages of having editors.
Chuck Palahniuk like most homos sucks. They define them self by what the have sex with. Most like Chuck are assholes others are just pricks. In the long run who realy gives a rats ass but them?
Posted by: George on September 27, 2003 09:06 PMMr. Palahniuk's a hard working artist. I know him. He's good to a lot of people. There's no need for the world to love his work so much they crucify him for his personal life. Think about it--if nobody liked his stuff, his sex life wouldn't be public info. But, since the masses love his words on the page...he has to suffer for it? That's a stupid approach.
Posted by: Sam on September 27, 2003 10:53 PMGeorge, your capacity for logical thought is bested only by your grammar and your spelling.
Posted by: Matthew on September 28, 2003 04:25 AMThe bizarre thing is that, anonymous wankers like "George" excepted, no one seems to be "crucifying" Palahnuik at all -- unlike the writer of the EW piece, who has had some very nasty threats made against her. Besides, his sex life WASN'T public info, until he outed himself on the internet.
Posted by: Felix on September 28, 2003 05:09 AMFor the record, the Sam who responded above is not THE Sam, but A Sam who happens (he claims) to know Chuck Palahniuk. I do not. Welcome Sam.
Posted by: Sam on September 28, 2003 11:49 PMyou are not the books you read
you are not the person your sleeping with
you are not a beutiful and unique snowflake no one cares what we think
we are all just here and soon we wont and nobody will miss us so why bother with this crap
i didnt know chucky p was gay! im kinda upset.
i dont care he's still a brilliant writer.
brilliant, i say! all you who are ripping on him because he is...well youre dumb. so there. :p
Posted by: modustee on April 18, 2004 08:09 AMchuck is great i think he one of the best original authors with great style and i could care fucking less if hes gay.
Posted by: Larry on July 3, 2004 07:37 AM(Where are all these strange commenters coming from?)
So the big revelation seems to be that Palahniuk is a volatile and intemperate man. Huh. I'd've thought anybody who'd read or seen _Fight Club_ might have suspected that already. While art may not be a perfect mirror of the artist, you can't make a bloody mary without a little tabasco sauce.
Posted by: Sterling on July 4, 2004 03:42 AMI think Chuck is a great author and he has contributed to my life through his works in so many ways. Chuck Palahniuk is so unique and innovative in his writing style that we should all be glad just to have his talent in this world. What authors would you rather have write fight club or survivor? I thought sexual preference has as much influence in his writing as his hair color and favorite foods. well whatever, im just disappointed that there are so many judgemental people that even know who he is, i thought he was a special author for us special ones. Thanks Chuck
Posted by: Travis on September 3, 2004 03:02 PMgreat author, nice guy. just saw him speak. his sex life is his own business. it certainly has something to do with his work (fight club is a very gay book in many respects) but this has no impact on the quality of his writing. thanks for the good times c.p.
Posted by: nick on September 22, 2004 04:32 AMChuck Palahniuk writes great straight-sex scenes for a gay man! Congrats! I don't think any straight man I know could ever write about gay sex scenes in such explicit details. Not that I would know - I'm 15.
I think it's great that he's gay, not that he would be worse/better if he weren't, but it's a shame that he doesn't feel that he should share the information. I mean not that he should go up to people saying "I'm gay" but he doesn't have to be so secretive.
He's written through the perspective of straight men and straight women - I wonder if he will write through a gay man in the future? Maybe? Maybe not?
I also feel that he's sold out...I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing, really, because I definitely would not know of him if it weren't for his fame. But I hear they're making a movie for every one of his novels, and a Broadway musical for Fight Club. And a video game's come out...the guys wear shoes when they're fighting, too, which breaks one of the rules of Fight Club. I mean, it's not horrible to make money off of your talent, he should definitely do it, but it's not great to have a bunch of shoddy video games come out of your books...
Oh well, Chuck Palahniuk is still a God to me.
Posted by: Travis, not #10 Travis on June 5, 2005 08:20 PMTravis, you just broke the first two rules of Fight Club. This means, if I remember correctly, that other members of Fight Club have to cut off your genitals. If we take your gelding as a fait accompli, since you're a virgin it follows that the only way you'll ever see any action is by going up to men and telling them you're gay or by dressing up as Elastigirl.
(See what nice circles we make at Memefirst?)
Posted by: Sterling on June 6, 2005 04:06 AMI imagine this is closer to the real life of most of the Palahniuk hardcore.
Posted by: Sterling on June 6, 2005 01:10 PMIt appears that people think that all men that sleep with men are ... uh ... I dunno weaker in character? Emotionally unstable? Eh, go screw yourself.
Posted by: chris on July 17, 2005 11:30 AMWhen it comes down to it, GREAT story telling does depend on a persons sexual orientation.
Straight men can't be as direct and condescending. Further, they can't write acurately about transgendered individuals, it's not in their nature. I'm suprised some of them can write at all, to tell you the truth.
When it comes down to it, GREAT story telling does depend on a persons sexual orientation.
Straight men can't be as direct and condescending. Further, they can't write acurately about transgendered individuals, it's not in their nature. I'm suprised some of them can write at all, to tell you the truth.