Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always been a fan of the horror/thriller genre. Anything that has to do with ghosts, murder and suspense. It will always be a vivid memory of me going through videotapes of these type of genres choosing which videotape to rent. From then on, I got used to watching these kinds of films. Especially anything from Thailand or Japan, in my opinion I think they make the scariest horror films. Like, Shutter.. Or Ju-On. My choice of films has greatly influenced the genre of the books that I read, of course. I am not much of a reader but when I do read, I will always choose that book where there’s murder. Anything dark and or mysterious. Something that will keep me guessing on what’s going to happen next. I most especially love it when they make the twist of the story a really unpredictable one. It really amazes me the fact that these authors think of THAT idea and how they come up with their story. Which leads me to choosing Lullaby, a book by Chuck Palahniuk. A well renowned author for this type of genres, mysterious and definitely out of the box. My genre.
Carl Streator, a journalist, gets assigned to write articles/stories on a series of “Crib Death” or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It’s where babies, children or anyone die without any apparent cause. He notices a strange connection between an evidence, a book titled “Poems and Rhymes from Around the World”, a book he read to his wife and child who died a couple of decades ago. Streator learns that the Culling Song has the ability to kill people it it spoken to, but due to the stress of his life, it became unusually powerful, allowing him to kill people around him even just by thought. During his investigations for the articles he was assigned to work on, he finds that the exact same copy of the book with the same page at every crime scene, in the page that has the culling song. He unintentionally memorizes the deadly poem and the poem just whips through his head making him kill anyone, including his annoying neighbors, the guy who hit him while they cross paths while walking, inconsiderate co-workers, anyone who pissed him off or makes him mad.
He then meets Helen Hoover Boyle, a real estate agent who knows the Culling Song, its destructive power and who accidentally killed his son, Patrick, because of it. They have their own techniques of controlling their temper. Streator counts until whenever, just to ease himself a bit. While Helen kills strangers instead of killing the people she cares for. She kills strangers deliberately just so she does not accidentally kill the people she loves. While the both of them cannot stop themselves from using the Culling Song to their ability, they decide to join hands in keeping the Culling Song from the wrong hands. The two of them, together with Mona Sabbat, Helen’s secretary and Mona’s boyfriend, Oyster, decided to go on a roadtrip to find the remaining copies of the book and destroy the page that contains the Culling Song. They do everything it takes to keep it from falling into the wrong hands, well, most hands including Oyster’s, who may want to use it for sinister purposes. They discover the Grimoire, a spellbook where the Culling Song originates. While Streator and Helen wants to destroy the original Book of Spells, Mona and Oyster wants to learn the other spells it contains to use it to their advantage. Mona then discovers that the planner Helen has been carrying with her for more than a decade is the Grimoire, with spells written in invisible ink.
Streator and Helen discovers the flying spell, and while they were afloat they confess love for each other. Mona tries to convince Streator the following day, telling him that it was only a spell that Helen has casted on him, to dominate him. On the other hand, Helen also discovers the “Occupation Spell”, a spell which puts you into a body you wish to be in. Oyster takes advantage of this by pretending to be Helen, and by tricking Streator which led to Oyster throwing Patrick’s frozen body which has been kept in a hospital for preservation, to bits and pieces. Helen turns back into her original body, not knowing how she got there and what happened. She asks Streator for help. She wants to end her suffering and be with Patrick and her husband. Streator thinks of the Culling Song and realizes its real use, to end misery and pain. After all, it’s a lullaby. Helen’s now in peace. And he makes her a promise to track down Oyster and Mona. They now run away, with the Grimoire with them, with all the other spells, but with the Culling Song for Streator to keep.
There is a huge selection of themes explored in this narrative. The influence of media, how it manipulates each and every single one of us, how it can mold us into a completely different person. Motherhood and everlasting love of Helen Hoover Boyle for his family, especially his son Patrick, and for Streator, who has undying love for his wife and daughter as well. The power words, the main theme of the narrative. The powerful song that can kill a mass of people, be it spoken or even just by thought. It is about character destruction, how the loss of a family can affect an individual, how it affected both Helen Hoover Boyle and Carl Streator and about facing reality, how we should cope up to things and how we should handle things if it would either make us or break us.
This book has definitely taught me things that I will be facing in the world of media, and also personally in life. It taught me that the trick to forgetting the picture is to look at everything close up. Personally, I feel like this quote was made especially for me. I’ve been through the hardest times like losing my dad. He’s out of the big picture now, but looking at everything close up right now, I’m still lucky with the family that I have right now. It has been tough the past two years but I’m definitely moving on to becoming a better person. As a mass communication student, it has taught me the importance of the littlest details in investigations and in reporting, an article can be rejected on the spot when it lacks even just one detail. Be it the color, the texture, the smell or the ingredients of a food that might have caused a food poison to someone. We must look into every detail, be very precise and definite. Most importantly, it has taught me that with mass media, we have so many means of transmission. This is 100% true since the generation we have now is high tech, we have all sorts of gadgets like laptops, tablets, smartphones, ipods, radios, etc. We have all these gadgets to make a difference, to send out a message, wherever our subject may be. We use the mass media to spread out messages, our thoughts. It can influence us to become better or worse. It is there for us to make a difference and our goal is to be a part of history.
The literary style of this narrative is definitely out of the box. The concept is one of a kind, i don’t think I would be this creative to actually have an idea of making a song, specifically a lullaby, a song that would put people to sleep or even worse, kill them. The sentence structure is not very hard to understand at all, the vocabulary used are mostly common words, the arrangement of the whole story really establishes different kinds of emotions. In fact, I have written out several quotations from the book just because it is so helpful for me as a Mass Communication student and as a person. The words chosen are no-brainers and very basic that there is no need to have a dictionary on hand when reading the book. It is very precise, very informative.
“It’s called a culling song. In some ancient cultures, they sang it to children during famines or droughts, anytime the tribe had outgrown its land. It was sung to warriors injured in accidents or the very old or anyone dying. It was used to end misery and pain. It’s a lullaby.”
“In journalism school, they teach you to start with your most important fact. The inverted pyramid, they call it. Put the who, what, where, when and why at the top of the article. Then list the lesser facts in descending order. That way, an editor can lop off any length of story without losing anything too important.”
“Being a journalist is about telling. It’s about bearing the bad news. Spreading the contagion. The biggest story in history.”
“As far as ethics, what I’ve learned about a journalist’s job isn’t to judge the facts. Your job isn’t to screen information. Your job is to collect the details. Just what’s there. Be an impartial witness.”
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