Gimmick?

Portland author Chuck Palahniuk tells the Guardian‘s Dan Glaister that, at readings of his short story “Guts,” people pass out.

“In Cambridge last year, two people passed out,” he tells me as we eat our lunch, struggling to hear each other over the dinging of slot machines. “In Leeds, nobody passed out; in London, nobody passed out. But in the venues where nobody passed out it’s typically because they ran from the room. And a lot of people will pass out after they get out of the venue. They just don’t want to be seen publicly unconscious. They’ll go to the bathroom and pass out.”

You can read an excerpt of the story here. I’m quite happy that Palahniuk is working on a short story collection because it’s likely to be a good seller and perhaps some of the attention he’ll get will spill over to what I think are neglected books: collections.