DennisMM wrote:The first line of the book is "Testing, one, two, three." The last line of the book, after the glorious blue, is "Testing, one, two --."
Chuck Palahnuik wrote:The end of Survivor isn't nearly so complicated. It's noted on page 7 (8?) that a pile of valuable offerings has been left in the front of the passenger cabin. This pile includes a cassette recorder. Even before our hero starts to dictate his story -- during the few minutes he's supposed to be taking a piss -- he's actually in the bathroom dictating the last chapter into the cassette recorder. It's just ranting, nothing important plot-wise,
and it can be interrupted at any point by the destruction of the plane. The minute the fourth engine flames out, he starts the cassette talking, then bails out, into Fertility's waiting arms (she's omniscient, you know). The rest of the book is just one machine whining and bitching to another machine. The crash will destroy the smaller recorder, but the surviving black box will make it appear that Tender is dead."
Keepcoolbutcare wrote:SPOILERS
2nd to last (first?) page...
"you should know the passengers were put off the plane in Port Vila, in the Republic of Vanuatu, in exchange for a half-dozen parachutesand more tiny bottles of gin.
And after we were back in the air and headed for Australia, then the pilot parachuted to his freedom."
So there are five other parachutes.
DennisMM wrote:I assumed the difference in the opening and closing was that the plane hit as the cassette player moved into autoplay and switched back to the beginning of the tape -- the "three" was cut off in the crash. Otherwise, why would he say testing, testing again? Now that Iconny has told me about the limited recording time of a black box, my theory is shot even further to hell.
DennisMM wrote:so we're hearing his story, but most of it is being deleted because it's being recorded over? Honestly, I don't understand.
TonyWilson wrote:Right, so Tender records his story onto one recorder, he then goes to the bathroom and records some crazy shit that he will play for the black box so when investigators find it they assume Tender died ranting as the plane crashed.
If that's the case why did he record the whole story and talk constantly about recording it all into the black box if he's never going to actually play it to the black box?
DennisMM wrote:At first I assumed we were hearing the flight recorder tapes that were found after the plane crashed. Then I believed we were hearing Tender in the cockpit as he told his story -- but that part of it had to be on tape. The idea that he might be a completely unreliable narrator stops me cold. Palahniuk's narrators do tend to be mentally unstable, but I don't imagine he'd have one fabricate an entire book.
Would he?
Pudie wrote:From what I understand, he said it all into the black box recorder, went into the bathroom and recorded the last part, came back and played that for the recorder, and jumped out.
TonyWilson wrote:Great minds Iconoclastica, great minds.
DennisMM wrote:It still leaves open the source of the story and why it ends abruptly with what appears to be the crash of the plane and destruction of the cassette recorder. Which is not to say it isn't a good idea.
Keepcoolbutcare wrote:Now, this was supposedly put up on the old message boards by Chuckles himself...Chuck Palahnuik wrote:The end of Survivor isn't nearly so complicated. It's noted on page 7 (8?) that a pile of valuable offerings has been left in the front of the passenger cabin. This pile includes a cassette recorder. Even before our hero starts to dictate his story -- during the few minutes he's supposed to be taking a piss -- he's actually in the bathroom dictating the last chapter into the cassette recorder. It's just ranting, nothing important plot-wise,
and it can be interrupted at any point by the destruction of the plane. The minute the fourth engine flames out, he starts the cassette talking, then bails out, into Fertility's waiting arms (she's omniscient, you know). The rest of the book is just one machine whining and bitching to another machine. The crash will destroy the smaller recorder, but the surviving black box will make it appear that Tender is dead."
There's also the discrepancy between the
"Testing, testing. One, two, three."
and the final lines
"Testing, testing, one, two-"
Notice the differences.
I still say it's open to interpretation, one of the most fabu open-endings in literature.
Great topic for discussion tho'!
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