#shock induction

click for better quality & to see the full image. sometimes they get cut off weirdly!

*cover design by Jillian Tamaki

This case report draws attention to the dramatic consequences of the consumption of Angel's Trumpet. Angel's Trumpet contains alkaloids (especially scopolamine, as well as hyoscyamine, atropine and other alkaloids) in a relatively high concentration. When intoxicated with Angel's Trumpet, patients can suffer hallucinations, motoric restlessness, overtalkativeness, convulsive sobbing and sexual excitement, as well as aggressive and autoaggressive behaviour. Somatic symptoms are tachycardia, mydriasis, hypertonia, respiratory disturbances and vomiting, as well as a potentially life-threatening anticholinerg syndrome. In this paper, we report on a young man who amputated his penis and his tongue after having consumed Angel's Trumpet tea, illustrating that consuming this beautiful flower with the name of an angel and the poison of the devil can be very dangerous.

Shock Induction by Chuck Palahniuk

Consider that love is a form of hypnosis.

After struggling through the first 50 pages, I actually mostly listened to this one. It's not all bad. As always, Palahniuk delivers some absurdly provocative, darkly twisted ideas throughout that offer a richly satirical examination of not only the power dynamics in the world today, but also education, capitalism, family dynamics, and the evolving role storytelling has in our exceedingly dystopian digital age. And in turn, these aid in creating several enjoyably over-the-top moments, throughout.

Overall, though, Palahniuk throws all of these vague ideas at us in a way that's as stylistically distracting as it is narratively tedious. His characters are all exaggerated types that never manage to make us care at all about anything that happens to them, or their world. And there's really just too much going on—too many high concept absurdities—and too little of it is precise enough, or interesting enough, to land with any significant, lasting impact. Thusly, Shock Induction winds up reading like a little more than a writing exercise implementing a hodgepodge of orphan ideas out of which he could never get any real traction, otherwise.

Consider the very nature of storytelling.

3/10