Palahniuked God of Thunder

There’s been one saving grace for hump day over the past couple of years and that’s my Wednesday lunches with my favorite son.  Yesterday was no exception and needed as it was one of those tweener days in New England weather where we’re caught in the last vestiges of autumn struggling futilely against impending winter.  I really needed the lift my son inevitably provides.  He also performed an act of mercy by taking ownership of some chocolate chip cookies left over from Sunday’s red zone that had been staring daggers at me all week.  It’s been so tough walking by them each night as I head upstairs.  I hate being held hostage.

My Son Relieving me of Cookies Yesterday

I just finished by latest foray into the morass that is Chuck Palahniuk’s mind in his book Pygmy.  Mr. P was up to his usual hijinks with a completely inappropriate shock and awe campaign against the reader and US society in general.  The story is told through the mission reports of an undersized terrorist sent as one of a group of exchange students to Middle America to launch a devastating attack. 

The book can be a tough read because the reports are in broken English which Palahniuk obviously had a lot of fun writing in and which will creep into the reader's conversations if they're not careful while reading (guilty).  An example as Pygmy meets his host family:

“Only one step with foot, operative me to defile security of degenerate American snake nest.  Den of evil.  Hive of corruption.  Host family of operative me waiting, host arms elbow bent to flutter host fingers in attention of this agent.  Host family shouting, arms above wiggling finger.  For official record, host father present as vast breathing cow, blowing out putrid stink diet heavy with dead slaughterhouse flesh, bellowing stench of Viagra breath during cow father reach to clasp hand of operative me.”

Pygmy and his gang of fellow terrorist are engulfed in a mid-west community which allows Palahniuk free range to poke fun at the government, religion, Wal-Mart and just about anything else that wanders into range.  It was, in other words, typical Palahniuk, shocking and inappropriate but impossible to walk away from.  I’ve often equated reading Palahniuk to driving by a car wreck. You know it’s going to be grotesque but you can’t resist looking.

I went in a completely different direction with last night’s movie as the wife and I took in Thor: The Dark World.  It is exactly what you expect/hope for from a Marvel superhero flick.  Non-stop action as the forces of Asgard assisted by some plucky humans battle against some really coolly conceived dark elves trying to plunge the universe into eternal darkness. 

Hemsworth is a really capable actor and had the wife oooing and ahhing every time he found the need to remove his shirt as well.  For those of us with a Y chromosome, the action, almost all CGI, was the routinely jaw dropping quality this series of films has produced.  Natalie Portman is a real reach as the braniac human love interest but the best lines and part in the movie belong to Loki.  Tom Hiddleston steals every scene he’s in and keeps you guessing right up to the end which side he’s on.  A true trickster. 

You know going in what you’re going to get with a Thor movie and that sets a film up for disappointment.  That’s what makes this such a good movie.  It takes those expectations, runs with them, and delivers.  I don’t think there’ll be any Oscar noms coming out of it but it is what it is and that is entertaining – pure escapism.  Right down my alley.