Shock Induction

From the bestselling author of Fight Club comes a "dark satire about the inhuman condition" (The Toronto Star) about a string of mysterious high school disappearances, the seedy underbellies of billionaires, and the tough choices we make in the face of an uncertain future.

In Shock Induction, the best and brightest students at a seemingly reputable high school are disappearing. Every day it seems another overachiever is lost to an apparent suicide. But something far more sinister is lurking beneath the surface.

These kids have been under surveillance since birth, monitored and measured by an online service called "Greener Pastures." It's here, in Greener Pastures, that billionaires observe and recruit the next generation of talent. The highest test scores, the best grades, and the most niche extracurriculars just might land these teenagers an enticing offer at auction. A couple of billion dollars in exchange for the remainder of your life and intellectual labor sounds like a pretty fair deal-doesn't it?

In a high school only Chuck Palahniuk could imagine, students must choose between the risk of following their dreams and the financial security of a lifetime of servitude to the world's wealthiest and most elite-but how much of a choice do they truly have? A thrilling tale and a critique of modern society, Shock Induction challenges the illusion of choice and explores the tough choices individuals make in the shadow of power and privilege.

Autorentext

Chuck Palahniuk

Klappentext

"From the bestselling author of Fight Club comes a dark, satirical parable about a string of mysterious high school disappearances, the seedy underbellies of billionaires, and the tough choices we make in the face of an uncertain future"--

Zusammenfassung
"What sets Shock Induction apart in the Palahniuk oeuvre is its experimentation with form, rendered with a playfulness directed straight out of the page at the reader... Shock Induction is not your standard novel. But Palahniuk is not your standard novelist."-Seattle Times

"The author of Fight Club returns with another dark satire about the inhuman condition, this time exploring disappearing high schoolers, sleazy billionaires and the choices we make to get through life."-***Toronto Star***

"Palahniuk reinvents his writing style for this slim volume, which moves at a quick pace with lots of big ideas and dark humor."-***Variety***

"[N]obody takes an idea and runs with it the way Palahniuk does. His teen suicide story is set in a brilliantly realized near-future in which the super-wealthy keep students under surveillance from the day they're born, deciding which will be offered a job-and a lifetime spent under the control of their employer (even this is just a tiny sampling of the wonderful, scary, funny ideas in this book)... Palahniuk's fans will be delighted."-***Booklist***

"Die-hard Palahniuk fans will lap this up."-***Publishers Weekly***

"Readers' choice whether this is a coded message, a spiked cocktail, or just a secret love letter to art."-Kirkus Reviews

Leseprobe
Chapter 1 1
Want to control other people? One method of induction depends on exhausting the subject's mind. Ply the subject with so many details they lose the ability to focus on any single one.

Tire them until their eyes glaze over.

If you must, picture a person. A person not so young they bank on every haircut being a fresh start. A person old enough to recall when the top of all windshields was colored blue. Can you picture that? Every day, a blue sky. Such optimism.

Let's start with that much.

Now give yourself a big hug. You're doing great!

Adjusting for variables in household income in recent recorded history circa 2032, the United States Senate Subcommittee on Education sat down with industry leaders from strategy-based commercial publishing for the stated purpose of identifying and ameliorating the environmental factors perpetuating the persistent and substantial gap of no less than two standard deviations in educational outcomes evident between grouped gender and ethnic cohorts specific to urban-sensitive populations.

Factoring in raw data, not limited to corollary subsets, sourced from sixteen distinct cohorts and adjusted, plus or minus two percent, for overall physical and emotional well-being as well as socioeconomic-status inequities and the implementable strictures of realistic policy response, given how the variable figure is an artifact of both performative and empirical significance at least as measurable quantifiable skills attainment might diverge, those present engaged with the quandary as to reasons academic learners had so recently failed to engage with long-form prose.

Allowing for the first and last quintile, the resultant cognitive mean skills gap, provable by intersectional juxtaposition and by forgoing traits non-applicable to increased resource investment in pre-K through post-secondary settings.

In abstract they asked: Why the heck isn't anyone reading Moby-Dick?

Are you tired yet?

Another method to induce a hypnotic trance is fractionation.

You call the subject's attention in different directions. Listen to the sounds around you. Listen. Focus on the smooth feel of the paper under your fingertips, focus on the brush and peel as you turn the next page.

Picture a girl. Picture Samantha Deel. If you must, picture Samantha's uncle. Samantha Deel has an uncle who served the better part of a seven-year sentence in prison. This uncle registers as a sex offender.

Although he's wheelchair bound, Sam's uncle still reports to his parole officer every week, all because he one time "forgot" a safe word during sex. Most of his adult life, Sam's uncle spends every waking moment grumbling to himself, "Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado. Avocado."

Picture Samantha's mother, a woman who once complained about the court-ordered Intoxalock device on her car. "I don't have to drink," Sam's mom said. "