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Essay / Mendelsund's Theories Represented in Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters Remix
Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters Remix reflects several theories presented in Peter Mendelsund's What We See When We Read. Throughout Palahniuk's episodic novel, the reader is immersed, in a non-linear fashion, in the life of the protagonist, Shannon McFarland. McFarland, a former model, intentionally injures her face in an attempt to start a new life. Her friend, Brandy Alexander, a rambunctious transgender woman who Shannon realizes was her brother, teaches Shannon that a person's past should not be crucial to their future. In the novel, Palahniuk tells the reader what to see and what to imagine, a theory that is reinforced in Mendelsund's What We See When We Read. Because Invisible Monsters Remix is organized asynchronously and the reader knows what to see while reading, the story is transformed into a simple fast-paced spectacle, but only makes sense at the end when the point climax begins to fall and the pace of the story decreases. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayAccording to Peter Mendelsund, “every story is meant to be transposed” or “imaginatively translated” (Mendelsund 207). However, in Invisible Monsters Remix, instead of letting you imagine the story independently, Palahniuk tells you exactly how you should do it. At the start of almost every chapter, for example, Palahniuk tells the reader "where you're supposed to be is Spitefield Park" or "a big wedding reception in West Hills" or "with cameramen and actors and stuffed mushrooms everywhere [a] church” (Palahniuk 66, 284, 293). Palahniuk tells the reader where to stand in the story and what exactly they should imagine. In the introduction, for example, Palahniuk asks the reader to “imagine the entire Internet printed on paper and bound on one edge” (v). He asks the reader to imagine these examples so explicitly to ensure that his audience can fully immerse themselves in what Palahniuk wants his readers to see. In What We See When We Reading, Mendelsund explains how we imagine “what we are told to see,” but simultaneously, “we imagine what we imagine we will be told to see” (Mendelsund 94). It is true that in Invisible Monsters Remix, the reader imagines what he is told to see. However, due to the episodic nature of the novel, it is difficult for the reader to imagine what they might be asked to see next. Palahniuk asks the reader to imagine the Internet printed on a single page, bounded by the same edge, to illustrate how, with technology, there will always be a reflection of the self. On paper, however, there is no reflection, allowing one to completely lose oneself in its pages. Palahniuk found himself lost in the Sears catalog. It was organized in no particular order, but because it was “a little unknowable,” Palahniuk loved it (Palahniuk vii). With the Sears catalog in mind, he wrote Invisible Monsters Remix in a way that "would not unfold as a continuous linear series." A reader of Invisible Monsters Remix is therefore invited to move from one chapter to another of the novel. Palahniuk tells the reader, at the end of a chapter, for example, to “now, please, turn to chapter thirty-eight” (30). And when the reader moves from chapter four to chapter thirty-eight, the first sentence is Palahniuk's protagonist telling you to "go back to last Thanksgiving" or, in the case of chapter twenty-nine, you are told to "jump this time, nowhere special, just Brandy and [Shannon]” (242, 179). Here, Palahniuk attempts to make the story clearer for hisaudience by helping them decide what to view. Palahniuk tries to have the same effect on his readers that Sears magazine had on him; he wants his audience to get lost in the story. The non-linearity of this information makes it difficult for the reader to imagine what they might be told next. However, this episodic arrangement keeps the story spectacular and the reader engaged as Palahniuk provides them with a sense of anticipation. This feeling of anticipation, according to Mendelsund, affects the speed at which we read. When we read something particularly stimulating, we tend to "swallow words and sentences" at a faster pace, thereby affecting memory for the text (Mendelsund 96). Mendelsund uses the example of walking along the side of the road you usually drive on. In doing so, he says, one discovers details that one would not normally see at high speed. This applies to Palahniuk's main intention; make the reader feel like they haven't read all of the text or have missed a major story point or detail. Palahniuk wants the reader to be able to open Invisible Monsters Remix again and again “and find something – like in the Sears catalog” that has never been seen before. To do this, Palahniuk provided the story with “leaps,” “hidden secrets,” and “buried treasures,” all of which contribute to the reader’s anticipation (Palahniuk viii). The anticipation that Palahniuk initiates in his readers causes his audience to read at a faster pace. This pace, as well as the non-linear form of the story, reflects the content of Invisible Monsters Remix. As dramatic, intense, or compelling events occur throughout the story, the reader flips through chapters either farther apart or chapters more frequently. The confusing or complicated twist of the chapters reflects what might happen in Invisible Monsters Remix. Likewise, as the chapters move closer together in time, they become positioned or located in close proximity to each other. Throughout the beginning of the novel, there is a noticeable tendency to switch between chapters near the end of the book and chapters closer to the beginning. As you continue to read back and forth, during which the pace seems brisk, you feel like you're nearing the middle of the book. However, because Palahniuk wants the reader to feel lost, the pattern changes often, but usually only one chapter at a time. This change in pattern tends to quicken the pace of the story, while simultaneously representing what is happening in the story. The closer the reader gets to the middle of the book, the slower the pace becomes. The chapters that took place in different eras start to come together and make more sense to the reader. In chapter thirty-eight, for example, Shannon, before voluntarily ruining herself, spends time with her family on Thanksgiving. Shannon explains to her parents how Shane, her brother who transforms into Brandy Alexander, is "mean and mean" and "dead" (245). Here, the reader is unaware that Shannon's brother is alive and that Brandy Alexander was once Shane. At the end of the chapter, when you are prompted to move on to chapter five, Shannon tells the reader how she kept her accident a secret from her parents. Instead, she tells them that she is “going on a catalog photo shoot in Cancun” (31). What happens in chapter thirty-eight is not in the correct chronological order with what happens in the next chapter, chapter five. The non-linear layout of these chapters leaves major gaps in the story. However, as the reader approaches the end of the novel by.