Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey

""Like most people, I didn't meet and talk to Rant Casey until after he was dead.""

- Wallace Boyer (☼ Car Salesman)

Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey is a novel by Chuck Palahniuk in the form of an oral biography. It covers the life and death of Buster Landru "Rant" Casey through a series of contradictory firsthand accounts, each of which usually mean at least three different things, most of which appear shallow, misinformed or even downright absurdist until The Reveal.

"Echo Lawrence: Consider the source. Maybe Shot Dunyun just wants to slip back in time without any competition. Shot Dunyun: Bullshit."
 * Apocalyptic Log: It is subtly implied that the setting used to be real, before
 * Arc Words: Boosting, the Daytimers, the Nighttimers and Party Crashing.
 * Everything Neddy Nelson says.
 * Reporting for Graphic Traffic, this is Tina Something...
 * Can't Take Anything with You
 * Chekhov's Gun: Many minor characters consistently ramble about grand conspiracies, paranormal activities and seemingly nonexistent technologies that may lead the reader to ignore them.
 * There's a big example early on, when one of the minor characters goes on about a conspiracy theory
 * Clone Degeneration
 * Clone Jesus: Inverted, as the book suggests that
 * Compound Interest Time Travel Gambit:
 * Conveniently an Orphan: More and more characters appear to be orphans.
 * Did Not Do the Research: ...um, not that Palahniuk can really be blamed for this, but the
 * Expospeak: One third of the way in, an entire chapter is dedicated to Shot Dunyan explaining boosted peaks. It's at this point that the novel becomes science fiction.
 * Fingore Toegore: That poor, poor stripper...
 * Foregone Conclusion: The testimonies are given after Rant Casey's death.
 * Future Slang
 * Gambit Pileup
 * Kidanova: Rant did everyone as a kid. Everyone. Girls in his class, at least one teacher...and your mom. Really, he did his friend's mom.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters
 * Masquerade: As it turns out, the story takes place in the dystopian future where urban dwellers are separated into two social classes, the Daytimers and the Nighttimers, the latter's lifestyle involving demolition derbies known as Party Crashing.
 * My Girl Is a Slut / My Girl Is Not a Slut : Played around with very complexly with Echo.
 * My Grandson, Myself: By the conclusion of the narrative,
 * No Longer with Us: Inverted.
 * No Periods, Period: Ha ha, you wish.
 * The Nose Knows: Rant has a supernatural sense of smell, allowing him to divine people's health from their scent, and being able to be able to identify women by...well, see above.
 * : This does not even begin to describe
 * Scrapbook Story
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Many characters are guilty of this, especially the scientists, but none of them are as guilty as Green Taylor Simms.
 * Tear Jerker: The  Doubles as absolute Squick.
 * Techno Babble
 * That Liar Lies: Speakers occasionally accuse each other of lying for selfish reasons.
 * That Liar Lies: Speakers occasionally accuse each other of lying for selfish reasons.


 * The Plague: I think? Well,
 * There's a reason for that, as
 * Turned Against Their Masters: Rant ends up using all of the information given to him by Green Taylor Simms to
 * Typhoid Mary: Rant contracts rabies and then causes an epidemic that inadvertently leads to a Zombie Apocalypse.
 * Urban Segregation: Sort of. The dichotomy is completely time-based (see Masquerade above) with the justification of enabling "effective use and maintenance of infrastructure". This is supposedly motivated by overpopulation, although Lynn Coffey views it as nothing more than systematic oppression.
 * Vomit Chain Reaction: How Rant got his nickname.
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Echo Lawrence is notably absent from this.
 * You Already Changed the Past: