Fight Club - A model of a social revolution

von: Johannes Hell

Table of content

1. Approaching ‘Fight Club’ 2
1.1. Somnambulism as a basis for ‘Fight Club’ 2
1.2. About the author Chuck Palahniuk 3
1.3. The story 6

2. Introducing the main characters 12
2.1. The narrator – An everyman figure 12
2.2. Marla Singer - A woman in a man’s world 14
2.3. Tyler Durden – A modern revolutionary 15

3. The Revolution of Tyler Durden 18
3.1. ‘Fight Club ‘s’ depiction of our society 18
3.2. Tyler’s means to overthrow the system 20
3.3. Tyler’s idea of a perfect world 23
3.4. Religion in the way of ‘Fight Club’ 28
3.5. The interior versus the exterior revolution 32

4. Analysis and final evaluation of ‘Fight Club’ 33
4.1. All is well that ends well? – A look at the outcome 33
4.2. Effective writing – the language of ‘Fight Club’ 35
4.3. Employing ‘Fight Club’ 39

Table of Literature 41

1. Approaching ‘Fight Club’
1.1. Somnambulism as a basis for ‘Fight Club’

I’m no good at remembering dreams. The second I wake up they elude my grasp of mind and all that is left is a shabby outline I’m incapable of stringing together.
This is why I instantly connected to ‘Fight Club’.
At the time I was a kid I used to walk in my sleep, of course, without realizing it firsthand. The fact that I had absolutely no control over these nightly happenings and couldn’t sidestep them was scary enough already. Finding out that other somnambulists would even try to leap out the window or develop compulsive disorders such as gluttony didn’t ease the situation.
When we dream, we weave the experiences me made throughout the preceding day into dreams in an effort to deal with them. This is an automatic mechanism our brain is conducting when given the chance to rest and it’s vital for the human psyche in terms of information management. That’s why ‘Sleep over it!’ is good advice. Because only at night do we really assess the offenses, the ignoring and the compliments we take during the day. As the phase of rapid eye movement (REM) sets in, our brain can unleash all the piled up emotions we were too shy to act out in front of others – or even ourselves – in a most vivid fantasy that lives up to console our senses.

As for sleepwalking, this is to ordinary dreaming what reading a script is to actually acting it on stage. It’s not a matter of efficiency, it’s all about technique, or maybe preference even. It seems that for some people the amount of emotional distress is so great that their instincts demand release beyond the virtual, thus turning them into somnambulists.
In so many respects, ‘Fight Club’ feels to have been born on similar grounds. It takes the sleepwalking idea up a notch, expanding it onto a whole different level of meaning and possibilities and all of a sudden we face revelations upon daring insights and are brought to ponder the very meaning of life itself and…Yes, I know, one thing at a time. Let me just point out that from some twisted perspective this is solace for everybody who suffers from somnambulism in a sense that things could be worse, much worse in fact.
To begin with, I’d like you to join me on Chuck Palahniuk’s terminal roller-coaster ride towards hitting bottom with special focus on unveiling the social revolution buried inside.
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to ‘Fight Club’.

1.2. About the author Chuck Palahniuk

“I’m not really into comfort books. They have value like Paxil has value, but there’s plenty of them in the world already. There’s a shortage of confronting, stimulating, exciting books.” (4, Palahniuk, Chuck)

Just for the record, Chuck Palahniuk (to spare you the guessing, it’s pronounced like Paula-Nick) was born on February 21st in 1962. He is average tall, has brown hair and green eyes. Palahniuk derives from Ukraine origins. There is little knowledge of and even less interest in his past, which doesn’t imply that there is no interest in him at all. In fact, there’s a heart-sworn community that literally dissects every word to come from their idol, always hungry for more. To show his appreciation, he spends a great deal of time on his fan-base, supplying them with current essays that he publishes on the internet for free and, to answer fan mail in an affordable, yet satisfying amount of time, every once in a while he locks himself up in a hotel for about a month and does nothing but write replies. Considering myself to be one of his dearest followers, I wrote to him and promptly got a response in the shape of a package filled with randomly but handpicked items mostly signed or personalized in some way by Chuck himself, not to forget the two page letter that answered my every question. I shall bring this letter up as research demands it.

Chuck Palahniuk is the kind of guy who, when he is to hold a speech at a conference, enters the room, kicks off his shoes, has a seat on the table and then doesn’t hold back with honesty until you can’t help but just like the fellow. In Fugitives & Refugees, a personal tour-guide through Portland, Oregon, which is as close to a biography as he will probably ever write, he’s telling some oddball stories that involve doing LSD at a rock concert, casually participating in a backdoor porn movie and joining a Santa-look-a-likes rampage in his hometown – a tradition, as he explains. It’s just these kinds of stories that you expect from the lad responsible for such outrageous books as Palahniuk is - or just the other way round. In fact, most of ‘Fight Club’ is either based on self-experimenting or a selection of experiences of his friends. The idea of getting beaten up as some sort of social activity, well, let’s just say it didn’t come out of the blue. Close to every character you can find in his books is a person he knows in real life, maybe a bit molded to suit the purpose, but basically not contrived. It’s these details that add another layer of credibility to his works.

Unlike most writers I have heard of, he has made it a principal to have company, if not a whole party surrounding him, when he’s in the process of writing.
Chuck Palahniuk has specialized in exposing social flaws and mishaps in the most bashing of ways, the comedic. His humor is absolutely devastating, for it’s us who he’s laughing at and worst of all, he’s right to do so. However, his works are rarely depressing, often funny (a sense for dark humor is required, though) and always enlightening. His heroes, if such, are always outcasts, unable to connect to the world they’re forced to cope with. Through them we see on the one hand how we’re mistreating people who don’t follow the masses and on the other hand how we’ve let external forces determine our lifestyle.
In case you’ve already read one of his books you will know what to expect from ‘Fight Club’ – and be wrong in countless of ways.
His sequence of books in order of release to date is as follows. His debut novel ‘Fight Club’ started selling in 1996. In 1999 it was turned into a critically acclaimed movie directed by David Fincher (Alien3, Se7en, The Game, Panic Room) starring Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden, Edward Norton as the narrator and Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer. The screenplay was adapted by Jim Uhls – Palahniuk doesn’t consider himself an option when it comes to writing screenplays. In my humble opinion ‘Fight Club’ is one of those rare movies that succeed at making the transition from book to screen with disappointing neither the reader, nor the maiden spectator. Chuck Palahniuk himself saw to it that his work wouldn’t get ravished over and surely contributed to the outcome.

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