Fight Club Reflection
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk has become a modern day classic movie and book. In it, an unnamed narrator establishes 'fight clubs' around the country in basements of bars where men can fight each other for 'as long as they have to'. The book is extremely witty, angsty and edgy. The book circles around this narrator, Tyler Durden and Marla Singer-–him chasing Tyler, Tyler chasing Marla and Marla chasing him. Except the narrator is Tyler, and both love Marla Singer.
Not all books have an immediate and obvious lesson for the reader at the end, and I think Fight Club is one of those books. At least, I don't think the reader is supposed to adopt Tyler's crazed anarchist ideals––establishing arsonist clubs and hurting others to remember that they can. Now that I think about it, even though the narrator agrees with Tyler's crazed ideas, Tyler eventually becomes the antagonist he tries to stop. In that sense, everything Tyler stands for is bad?
I think this analysis of the book would make a lot of sense if the narrator puts down the gun at the end of the novel and goes home with Marla and the support group people. A sort of "no matter how much you fuck up, people will still love you and you can always change" moral. But instead, he pulls the trigger. And the last scene is with "God", reflecting on his actions. No, it's not that everything Tyler stands for is wrong. That's why he kills himself and talks to God at the end. It's also not that everything Tyler stands for is right. The truth is somewhere in the middle, and the book is simply showing both sides.
Fight Club reminded me of [[1984 Thoughts|1984]] once Tyler started rounding up all the space monkeys and committing little acts of rebellion nobody could stop. A huge part of 1984 is that the proletariat (common people) could overthrow the government if they simply realized how much power they really had, but they never do. Tyler establishes fight clubs and arsonist groups and misdemeanor groups to remind people how much power they really have, even at the bottom of the totem pole where they seem unable to do anything. Once he reminds the common people of the power they have, he amasses a huge amount of power even the law is unable to stop.
It also reminds me of 1984 because his followers are completely and totally brainwashed into doing his every bidding. "Space Monkeys", he calls them. It's not good to be a space monkey.
The fight clubs exist to remind people of the power they *actually* have in their lives. How they can actually hurt someone else, and how they can actually get hurt while still being ok. Fight Club satirically tears apart the modern order of things by pissing into rich people's soup and splicing pornography into movie reels. By using people's fat to create soup and sell it right back to rich people. It pushes the bounds of what you can do to remind you, "this is how much wiggle room you actually have in life", because far too often we stay in line just because we have to without questioning how far away from the path we can stray.
I'm excited to watch the movie. The interpretation of a schizophrenic narrator––protagonist and antagonist––between two actors is going to be interesting. Scenes like kissing lye into the back of his own hand and creating the hand of god which is only perfect for a moment will be interesting to see. Eventually, I think I'll want to come back to this book and read it again, because after knowing the narrator and Tyler are one and the same, so many scenes will be different.
05.28.24
