Survivor

Author	Chuck Palahniuk
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Satire
Publisher	Hyperion Books
Released	January 2000
Media Type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages	304
Size and Weight	8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches, 1.1 lbs (hardcover)
ISBN	ISBN 0-385-49872-1

Survivor is a novel by Chuck Palahniuk. A satire of our commercial culture, it is the story of Tender Branson, a member of the Creedish Church, a death cult. In it, every member learns how to be a servant for the human race—most of them are butlers and maids—and fear most human pleasures. They await a sign from God to tell them to deliver themselves unto Him, that is, commit suicide. The sign finally comes, and a good ten years later, Tender becomes the last surviving member of the cult. He's thrown into mainstream culture and becomes a personal icon for many people. Image File history File links Palahniuksurvivor. ... Charles Michael Chuck Palahniuk (IPA: )[1] (born February 21, 1962) is an American satirical novelist and freelance journalist living in Portland, Oregon. ... 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative in prose. ... Charles Michael Chuck Palahniuk (IPA: )[1] (born February 21, 1962) is an American satirical novelist and freelance journalist living in Portland, Oregon. ... 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ... St. ... This article does not discuss cult in its original sense of religious practice; for that usage see Cult (religious practice). ... A servant is a person who is hired to provide regular household or other duties, and receives compensation. ... Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ... // For other uses see Butler (disambiguation) The butler is a senior servant in a large household. ... A maidservant or in current usage maid is a female employed in domestic service. ... For other uses, see Fear (disambiguation). ... Pleasure is a positive sensation, which by analogy to pain, can be physiologically described as either peripheral or central (euphoria). ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending ones own life. ... A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. ... Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning to cultivate), generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ... Christ the Redeemer (1410s, by Andrei Rublev) An icon (from Greek , eikon, image) is an image, picture, or representation; it is a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it, or by analogy, as in semiotics; in computers an icon is a symbol on the...

Excerpt from chapter 25:

Plot synopsis

The book begins at the end, like most of Palahniuk's books. Tender Branson is in the cockpit of a Boeing 747-400, and he is telling his life story to the black box. He is alone in the plane, which he hijacked; he tells the black box that he served everyone a meal with a gun in his hand, that he ordered the plane to land in Port Vila, Vanuatu, so he could let everyone off except the pilot, and that he let the pilot parachute off the plane. And then, he begins his story. Virgin Atlantic Airways Boeing 747-400 Tinker Belle taxiing to the take off point at London Heathrow Airport The Boeing 747-400 is at present the only model of the Boeing 747 in production and will remain the largest commercial airliner in service until the introduction of the Airbus A380. ... An example of a Flight Data Recorder The flight data recorder (FDR) is a flight recorder used to record specific aircraft performance parameters. ... Port Vila (population 29,356, coordinates ) is the capital city of Vanuatu. ... The Apollo 15 capsule landed safely despite a parachute failure. ...

Tender's story begins ten years after the Creedish Death Cult have killed themselves. Tender is a servant for a rich couple he never sees in Oregon. He constantly cleans their house, gives them etiquette lessons over a speakerphone, and does other housework. He also plants fake flowers in their garden, which is easier than planting actual flowers and taking care of them. At his dingy apartment, he gets phone calls from people who want to kill themselves; a newspaper that was doing a story on a suicide prevention hotline printed his phone number as the hotline's number. Then, people wanting to kill themselves began calling him day and night. Instead of helping these people out, Tender tells them to go ahead and kill themselves. Then, the newspaper printed a retraction; and the calls stopped coming. So, Tender printed up flyers for a crisis hotline with his number on it. Tender likes to tell people to kill themselves; he considers it to be better than TV. Official language(s) None Capital Salem Largest city Portland Area  Ranked 9th  - Total 98,466 sq mi (255,026 km²)  - Width 260 miles (420 km)  - Length 360 miles (580 km)  - % water 2. ... Etiquette, also known as decorum, is the code that governs the expectations of social behavior, the conventional norm. ... A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. ... Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending ones own life. ... As a suicide prevention initiative, this sign on the Golden Gate Bridge promotes a special telephone that connects to a crisis hotline. ... Braun HF 1, Germany, 1958 OT-1471 Belweder, Poland, 1957 Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. ...

One of these people was Trevor Hollis, a man who wants to kill himself because of the nightmares he has been having about disasters, like plane crashes or fires. One day, Tender goes to the mausoleum where Trevor's body resides to visit the man he "murdered" and to steal fake flowers for his employer's garden. There he meets Trevor's sister, Fertility. Later that night, Tender has a meeting with his Caseworker from the Federal Survivor Retention Program, a fictional government agency that keeps tabs on the survivors of suicide cults, which takes place every week for one hour. He asks her (the Caseworker) how many survivors there are left, and she tells him, "150," which will become lower and lower as the book progresses. The Caseworker, then, begins talking about how some of the survivors have killed themselves. Capt. ... A large bonfire Fire is a form of combustion. ... St. ...

Tender begins to explain how the Creedish Church works. He talks about his older brother, Adam, who is technically his identical twin brother; but since the Creedish don't recognize twins, Adam is Tender's older brother by about 3 minutes. He also explains his name, Tender, which is actually a rank or title in the Creedish Church, like Lieutenant, doctor, or Sheriff. In the Creedish Church, Tender is the lowest rank. Tenders are workers who tend. The name "Adam" is also a rank in the Creedish Church; it is given to all the oldest sons of a family. All the other sons of a Creedish family are called Tender; all the girls of a Creedish family are called Biddy, even the oldest. Biddies are workers who do your bidding. The Adams were the only son of the family that were allowed to marry; any of the Biddies could get married. The Creedish Church Elders arranged the marriages, and once a Biddy got married to an Adam, her rank was changed to Author. Also, Adams and Authors were the only ones allowed to have sex; and they did so only for procreation. Each family had several children. When an Adam and Author's first-born son got married and had a kid, then they both became known as Elder. Fraternal twin boys bathing Twins in animal biology is a case of multiple birth in which the mother gives birth to two offspring from the same pregnancy, some of the same gender, others of opposite. ... Lieutenant is a military, naval, paramilitary, fire service or police officer rank. ... Look up Sheriff in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

All the Creedish wore brown clothing that was made of wool, and they wore this all the time, even in the summer. This made spotting another member of the Church in the outside world easy. He also explains how he survived the mass suicide. Tender was not at the Creedish Church at the time. The Tenders and Biddies who don't get married and have kids are trained in etiquette and how to do menial housework, like cleaning and gardening. After years of training, the Tenders and Biddies are "baptized" by the Church Elders and sent to the outside world at age 17 to be servants for rich or do manual labor for a living. Each month, the Tenders and Biddies were to send their money and a letter of confession to the Church in Nebraska. However, someone leak the Church's doings to the police of Bolster County, Nebraska, and the FBI. The FBI moved in to arrest the cult for child slavery, but the Creedish learned of this. So, they all killed themselves. Now, all the survivors go throughout their lives doing what they were trained to do by the Church and feeling guilty and ashamed that they are still alive. For other uses, see Nebraska (disambiguation). ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ...

Fertility calls Tender thinking she has called a crisis hotline. Tender soon realizes it's Fertility, so he begins to talk to her in a fake voice. She talks to Tender the voice about Tender, unaware that she is, in fact, talking to Tender. She tells him about her brother's suicide and how she met Tender (he was standing on a ladder, holding a bunch of flowers, and taking notes because he tells people in the mausoleum that he is a graduate student doing research on artificial flowers). She tells Tender that he reminded her of the Creedish cult members, that she believes Tender was Trevor's homosexual lover, and that she finds Tender unattractive. She also asks Tender the voice to have phone sex with her, but he hangs up. Tender, then, stops answering his phone because he is afraid that Fertility will be on the other line; he wants to go out with her but doesn't want her to become attracted to his voice. Since its coinage, the word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ...

During another meeting with his Caseworker, Tender gets the Caseworker to help clean his employers' house. She ends up becoming obsessed with cleaning and soon takes over Tender's job. Also, Tender learns that more Creedish survivors have killed themselves and that some of the suicides look like murders. Later, Tender meets Fertility again at the mausoleum where they first met. There they dance; Fertility tells Tender about how she and Trevor took dancing lessons together. Later, Tender gets a call from a man he recognizes as a member of the Creedish Church; he soon realizes that one of the survivors is going around killing other surviving members in order to get the other survivors to kill themselves. This scares Tender to death because he fears that he is the next victim. Fertility also calls Tender thinking its the crisis hotline. She tells Tender about the dancing and asks to get together with Tender the voice. Tender the voice agrees, but she has to go out on a date with the regular Tender.

On their date, Tender and Fertility are on a bus where a stranger is telling them jokes about the Creedish Cult. Tender laughs at all the jokes until Fertility snaps at the man for telling them; she considers them to be offensive since her own brother committed suicide. When he leaves, Tender recognizes him as Adam, his brother. Then, Fertility takes Tender to a department store that catches on fire; but they survive. Tender learns that Trevor was psychic and saw the future every time he dreamt. Fertility tells him that she now has this power. A joke is a short story or short series of words spoken or communicated with the intent of being laughed at or found humorous by the listener or reader. ...

Tender soon learns that he has become one of the last two survivors of the Creedish Church. The Caseworker has him go over photos of dead Creedish to find the other survivor, but he knows it's his brother Adam. He also gets phone calls from jounalists and agents wanting his story. Then, the Caseworker ends up dead from breathing chlorine mixed together by Adam. The police suspect Tender committed the murder, but he claims innocence. Tender also has called an agent who called him earlier about becoming famous. Tender flies to New York, meets the Agent, and then begins the road to stardom. General Name, Symbol, Number chlorine, Cl, 17 Chemical series halogens Group, Period, Block 17, 3, p Appearance yellowish green Atomic mass 35. ...

The Agent works for an agency that has been planning for years to turn the last survivor of the Creedish Church into a religious celebrity. They create a fake history for Tender and completely overhaul his body. Tender is given steriod injections, fed healthy food, has his teeth capped, and his hair and all other negative aspects of his body changed.

Tender becomes popular because of ideas that the public thinks is his but are actually the Agent's ideas, like his autobiography, the Book of Very Common Prayer (a book of prayer that will make life easier), and the Tender Branson Sensitive Materials Sanitary Landfill (a 20,000 acre [80 km²] repository for America's outdated porn). As his popularity grows, Tender wants to kill himself in front of the whole world; but he can't find the right time to do so. So, he puts it off for later. Then, his popularity starts to wane; and the Agent tells him that he needs a miracle to stay famous. So, he calls Fertility and asks to meet her in a men's room in a restaurant in Spokane, Washington. She gives him a prediction to tell on TV that the public will notice when it comes true. It does, and Tender becomes even more famous as he uses Fertility's psychic powers as his own. Mary Magdalene in prayer. ... PORN can refer to: An abbreviation for pornography Progressive outer retinal necrosis, a disease of the retina Categories: | ... Nickname: The Lilac City Location of Spokane in Spokane County and Washington Coordinates: Country United States State Washington County Spokane Mayor Dennis P. Hession Area    - City 151. ...

Then, while waiting for Fertility and his next miracle, Tender is approached by Fertility and Adam, who has a gun. She tells Tender that Adam is going to kill the Agent the same way that he killed the Caseworker, and Tender will be arrested for his murder as well as the Caseworker's and the other Creedish members'. So, she gives Tender a big prediction that will distract the police long enough for him to escape. Around the same time, Tender is going to be married to some woman during the half time of the Super Bowl between the Indianapolis Colts and the Arizona Cardinals. He will give his big prediction then and escape with Adam and Fertility. The winning Super Bowl team receives the Vince Lombardi Trophy. ... City Indianapolis, Indiana Team colors Speed Blue and White Head Coach Tony Dungy Owner Jim Irsay General manager Bill Polian Mascot Blue League/Conference affiliations National Football League (1953–present) Western Conference (1953-1969) Coastal Division (1967-1969) American Football Conference (1970-present) AFC East (1970-2001) AFC South (2002... City Glendale, Arizona Other nicknames The Cards, The Birds, Big Red Team colors Cardinal Red, Black, and White Head Coach TBA Owner Bill Bidwell General manager Rod Graves Mascot Big Red League/Conference affiliations Independent (1898-1919) National Football League (1920–present) Western Division (1933-1949) American Conference (1950-1952...

The day of the Super Bowl, the Agent dies, Tender is married, and as the police come to arrest him, Tender tell the crowd that the Colts will beat the Cardinals 27-24. The stadium errupts in chaos as rabid football fans chase after Tender. He escapes with Adam and Fertility to a Ronald McDonald House. The three, then, begin to travel across the country in the sections of houses being moved from one location to another. During their journey, Fertility gets separated from the brothers. Parker Anderson-Stanley, four, visits with Olympic gold-medalist Cassie Campbell at Ronald McDonald House Southern Alberta in Calgary on Saturday, 2006-01-14. ...

Adam and Tender, then, steal a car that Fertility told Adam would be unlocked. Glued to the dashboard is a little figurine of Tender. Adam and Tender travel to the Tender Branson Sensitive Materials Sanitary Landfill , which was built over the old Creedish Church compound in Nebraska. As they drive through it, Adam tells Tender that he needs to have sex; Tender is still a virgin. Tender tells Adam that he doesn't want to have sex, but Adam tells him it is because of the Creedish baptism. The Creedish baptism involved the Tenders and Biddies who were to be sent to the outside world witnessing an Author give birth, which scarred them for life. As they talk about it, Tender crashes the car into a giant concrete pylon in the middle of the landfill. Baptism in early Christian art. ...

The crashed causes the airbags to deploy, and the one on the passenger's side sends the Tender figurine into Adam's left eye. Tender pulls out the figurine, and Adam asks Tender to find a rock and bash him on the head with it. Tender reluctantly does so, and Adam dies. Then, Fertility shows up in a cab and takes Tender away from the landfill. They end up going back to Oregon, and Fertility gets a job (she's a surrogate mother) at the house of Tender's former employers. Tender sneaks into the house and begins cleaning it. Later that night, Tender has sex with Fertility. An airbag is a flexible membrane or envelope, inflatable to contain air or some other gas. ...

The next morning, Tender wakes up; and Fertility tells him that she's pregnant. Fertility, then, leaves for the airport to board a plane to Sydney, Australia. He learns that someone is going to hijack a plane and crash it into the Australian outback. He follows Fertility to the airport, finds her, takes Adam's gun that she stashed in her purse, and boards the plane. Tender, then, begins to look for the hijacker until he realizes that he is the hijacker. The book returns back to the beginning, with Tender telling his life story. He also mentions that Fertility told him that there was a way for him to escape from the plane before it crashed in the Outback, but Tender couldn't figure it out. The book ends with the plane crashing, but without any definite word on Tender being alive or dead. He wanted to kill himself with the whole world watching, and this is the perfect time to do so. However, he also long to be with Fertility, and if Fertility knew that there was a way to escape, then Tender must have figured out how (she can see the future after all). It has been stated by the author that Tender survives, and an explanation of how he does is available on Chuck Palahniuk's official website [1]. This is about the city of Sydney in Australia. ... For the restaurant chain, see Outback Steakhouse; for the station wagon, see Subaru Outback. ...

Characters

Tender Branson 

The protagonist. He is the last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult. He starts out as a servant for a rich couple. He was trained by the Creedish to be a menial laborer, but he hates his life because he has to work at such a boring job for the rest of his life. As the novel progresses, he becomes a religious celebrity when he becomes the last surviving Creedish and is credited for ideas and predictions that aren't really his. When the novel ends, he is considered a mass murderer by the public. He is almost arrested by the police during halftime at the Super Bowl but escapes. He hijacks a plane, lets all the passengers and crew-members go free, tells his life story to the plane's black box. The novel ends with his voice talking into the black box as the plane crashes, though it is possible that Tender bails out of the plane before it crashes because he recorded the last chapter on the cassette recorder he found on the plane, and he put it next to the black box to "finish" the story. Tender has similar characteristics with 'The narrator' character from Fight Club.

Fertility Hollis 

A friend of Tender's. She meets him at her dead brother Trevor's crypt. At first, she is repulsed by him; but as the novel progesses the two become close. By the end of the novel, they end up having sex. She has psychic powers; she knows when, where, how, and to whom everything is going to happen, which takes all the fun out of life for her. She works as a surrogate mother; she has sex with rich men so that they and their wives can have kids. But, this won't happen because Fertility is sterile; she is part of a con job with a man named Dr. Ambrose, who isn't a real doctor. She helps Tender by giving him predicitions and helping him escape from the police. She leads him to the airport where he will hijack a plane. Fertility tells Tender that there is a way for him to "survive". The reader is led to believe that Tender's only way to survive is to tell his story to the plane's blackbox, but as already mentioned, Fertility meant it literally.

The Caseworker 

Tender's caseworker. Her name isn't given because Tender didn't want to get her into trouble. She was assigned to him after the Creedish mass suicide. She has an unfulfilling life. One day, Tender gets her to help him clean the house of his employers. She becomes obsessed with cleaning at that point and takes over Tender's job, even though she does a poor one at that. The Caseworker also likes to diagnose Tender with mental disorders from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. She ends up dead after inhaling chlorine made by Tender's brother Adam.

The Agent 

Tender's agent. His name isn't given either, and the reason is never revealed. The Agent is the brains behind Tender's popularity. He comes up with all the ideas that Tender is credited for, such as his autobiography, the Book of Very Common Prayer, and the Tender Branson Sensitive Materials Sanitary Landfill. He is also responsible for Tender's physical transformation; he claims that no one wants to listen to a fat messiah. He also believes that the key to Tender's success is to get as much publicity as possible. The Agent dies from inhaling chlorine that was put into his cologne by Adam.

Adam Branson 

Adam is Tender's older brother by three minutes. Because he came out first, Adam got to stay in the Church Compound in Nebraska and have kids, while Tender had to go to the outside world as a slave. He also survived the Creedish Mass Suicide. In fact, he called the cops and told them about the Creedish Church's child slavery ring because he found out about the Creedish baptism. Since then, he has been traveling the country in the sections of houses being moved from one location to another. He kills surviving members of the Church by making it look like a suicide, which causes several other members to kill themselves. He also kills the Caseworker and the Agent and makes it look like Tender did it. He meets up with Fertility so that he can get to Tender. As they go on the lam, Tender and Adam return to the Creedish Church Compound, which is now the Landfill. As they argue over the Creedish baptism, Tender crashes the car, which sends a figurine into Adam's eye. Then, Adam tricks Tender into killing him.

Fight Club[1] (1996) is the first published novel by American author Chuck Palahniuk. ... The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual published by the American Psychiatric Association The poopDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association, is the handbook used most often in diagnosing mental disorders in the United States. ...

Themes

Free will 

Fertility Hollis is obviously modelled after Cassandra, who according to ancient Greek mythology could see the predict the future, but was cursed by Apollo so that no-one would believe her predictions. Similarly, Fertility Hollis cannot influence the future in any way, suggesting the absence of free will.

Commercialism 

Like other of Palahniuk's books, Survivor explores the commercialism prevalent in contemporary American society. The people that Tender works for in the first half of the book, the prefabricated houses, the agent and his crew, and what Tender becomes when he is made famous are all used to explore the subject of commercialism. The way an innocent being would react to the "rotten" morals of today's society is also explored.

Nihilism 

The book contains many themes that could be labelled Nihilistic. Tender seems not to care much about life and death and in an extended passage, suggesting that human existence ends with death, Palahniuk writes:

Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to ourselves. ... Painting by Evelyn De Morgan. ... Nihilism is a philosophical position, often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche. ...

Film adaptation

When the film rights to Survivor were first sold, no movie studio was willing to commit itself to cinematizing the novel. This was due to the fact that the protagonist of the novel hijacks a civil airplane and crashes it into the Australian outback. After the attacks on The Pentagon and World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 the movie studios apparently deemed the novel too controversial. However, in mid 2004 a studio decided to commit itself to the film. Not much is known about the movie at this time but it's unlikely the film will be made in the near future.^[1] A movie studio is a controlled environment for the making of a film. ... The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located at 48 N. Rotary Road, Arlington, Virginia 22211 (Map). ... This article is about the former twin towers in New York City. ... The World Trade Center on fire The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. ...

Trivia

• The book's chapters and page numbers are put into reverse order - it begins with Chapter 47 on page 289 and ends with Chapter 1 on page 1.
• The phrase "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage" was used by the band Panic! at the Disco as a song title. Although they didn't cite Chuck Palahniuk in their liner notes, lyricist Ryan Ross has credited the author in interviews and his online journal.

The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage is a song by Panic! at the Disco, sometimes shortened to The Only Difference for radio. ... Panic! at the Disco is an alternative rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada. ... George Ryan Ross (b. ...

Notes and references

1. ^ Palahniuk Films In Development; Survivor. A Writer's Cult, LLC (2005). Retrieved on 2006-11-12.

• Palahniuk, Chuck (February 1999). Survivor. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04702-4. 

2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 12 is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 49 days remaining. ... Charles Michael Chuck Palahniuk (IPA: )[1] (born February 21, 1962) is an American satirical novelist and freelance journalist living in Portland, Oregon. ...

Editions

• ISBN 0-393-04702-4 (hardcover, 1999)
• ISBN 0-385-49872-1 (paperback, 2000)

A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Survivor (novel)

• An excerpt from Survivor courtesy of W. W. Norton & Company