Talk:Haunted (Palahniuk novel)

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Guts actually happened recently

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_185085504.html It was a girl, but it was the exact same accident.

Really a novel?

Haunted is actually a novel, in the form of a series of stories told by the characters in the frame-tale; not exactly an anthology. (My copy even says "Haunted / A Novel" on the front cover, unlike the cover image on the main page.)

Updated to reflect that. I don't know if I described it very clearly, though all of the actual information is correct. Hopefully if it's confusing someone familliar with the novel can edit what I wrote.

19 characters?

Aren't there technically 20 characters -- the nineteen at the retreat plus the first-person narrator who never reveals his or her identity?

The narrator is a collective representation of all of the characters (notice it refers to itself as "we", not I). It is not a seperate person, or that person would have been mentioned. -- LGagnon 02:33, 17 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Understood. And incidentally, thanks for the clarification.

What about the cat? Bongout (talk) 00:55, 29 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Character Identification

1) Isn't Director Denial actually Cora Reynolds? I was under the impression that she was, given the parole bracelet she wears, and the fact that she's described as mousey, not the red-headed bombshell who was the commander.

I was under that impression too, but isn't it Countess Foresight who wore the parole bracelet? I may be wrong, it's been a while since I read the novel.

2) Also, Jensen is NOT the Reverend Godless. While the short story he tells centers on that character, it also mentions that the Reverend is actually the guy who loaded the explosives on the plane: Rev. Godless is the mastermind and the only survivor of the anti-religion activists. It's also fairly explicit that Jensen died.

I don't believe it ever clearly says Cora kills herself. It hints at it, but it also hints that Director Denial is Cora. Should be changed to reflect this.--209.243.31.233 (talk) 23:38, 20 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Was Countess Forsight really psychic?

The way I interpretted it, the fact that the foetus was really a doll indicated that her visions were hallucinations and that she truly was suffering from psychosis.

edit: the book stated that she was psychically sensitive but not always right. Insinuating that sometimes she was. Butts. - Agent Dark

Miss Sneezy

The short stories are stories by the characters, they're not told from an omniscient point of view. So they're not necessarily all true. If Miss Sneezy's account of her life was accurate, then everyone she met would've died from the Keegan virus long before they had to deal with starvation, etc. Her tale of isolation and meeting the one man she's capable of loving tells us a lot about her state of mind, but very little about her state of health. (Unless she was cured prior to her escape, which would make her daring underwater escape pointless.) --VAcharon 23:15, 9 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

- If Miss Sneezy's account of her life was accurate, then everyone she met would've died from the Keegan virus long before they had to deal with starvation, etc.

Not necessarily. At the very bottom of page 369 in my book, it says "The day it [virus] hit the right viral load or blood-serum level, the people around us started to die." Since they've locked Sneezy up, they aren't sure if she is even contageous still. It could very well be that the disease is only "active" for a very short moment, when all is perfectly aligned, then never to be active again. -Holley

Guess what! Nobody cares.

uh..actually, people care. it's relevant.

Favorable Quotes

-- In feng shui, they never let on, but just by putting a bed in the wrong spot, you can focus enough chi to kill a person. p 30
-- To create a race of masters from a race of slaves, Mr. Whittier said, to teach a controlled group of people how to create their own lives, Moses had to be an asshole. p 42
-- ...a shadow of a reflection of an image of an illusion. p 47
-- Really, there is no wrong. Not in our own minds. Our own reality. You can never set off to do the wrong thing. You can never say the wrong thing. In your own mind, you are always right. Every action you take -- what you do or say or how you choose to appear -- is automatically right the moment you act. p 60
-- Even when you say, "I'm such an idiot, I'm so wrong..." you're right. You're right about being wrong. You're right even when you're an idiot. p 60
-- "No matter how stupid your idea," Mr. Whittier would say, "you're doomed to be right because it's yours." p 60
-- We're all condemned to be right...In this shifting, liquid world where everyone is right and any idea is right the moment you act on it, Mr. Whittier would say, the only sure thing is what you promise. pp 60-61
-- What you have to love about drinking is, every swallow is an irrevocable decision. p 72
-- Taking the Lear jet from here to Rome in six hours, it's made escaping too easy. p 72
-- Globe-trotting is just the chance to feel bored more places, faster. p 72

Guts section a little over the top

The section on "Guts" is probably a bit too descriptive, giving away one of the best stories of the book. Is it possible to not give the chapter away completely, but reference it's influences but not give the whole thing away. Its like writing a Wiki on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and saying its the "final installment where Harry Potter dies at the end."

Otherwise we could give the whole book away. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dominicz (talk • contribs) 11:22, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

Question?

What relevance would the last story be? The one about emigrating. It's a good story, but what does it have to do about mr. whitter? Is it just something that he made up? I don't think it could have really happened because wouldn't the main characters have talked about the world being almost extinct? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.32.101.62 (talk) 22:34, 19 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Paragraph may require splitting

Specifically, the second one in the summary for "Guts". Could anyone please tell me if I should split it by each part of the story it describes? Thylacine24 (talk) 05:59, 27 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]