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Mickey Z
Cool Observer
the Department of Homeland Security.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Love means never having to say you're Tyler Durden...
Note to visitors: Just in case you’re wondering why we’re talking about Fight Club, many of the regulars here (a.k.a. The Expendables) have just finished reading it.
All right, I’ve never been part of an organized book club or reading group before–let alone served as moderator of sorts—so I’m just gonna write whatever comes to mind below and see what happens in the comments section.
I saw the movie Fight Club before I read the book...thus, I was aware of the split personality plot twist. Still, each time I read the book (and this was my third go-round), I find more and more hints. It almost seems as if Palahniuk wrote the book and then went back to plant clues.
I also found myself a little less tolerant of Palahniuk’s tendency to repeat phrases (he does this in most of his books). What seemed like an interesting touch in the first reading was cutesy gimmickry by the third. Still, I remain a fan of this book...and I admire Chuck’s brutal realism and willingness to tackle social issues.
Speaking of social issues, what struck me about Fight Club is how feasible it is...at least on a small level. Palahniuk’s portrayal of an alienated, isolated, angry, confused society is nothing new. As the Situationists said: “The real state secret is the misery of everyday life.” Thus, it’s easy to envision citizens (particularly young men) forming such groups. After all, without a strong civil society to fall back on, something has to fill that gap and we already have militias, we have the Bloods and Crips, we have paintball, football teams, Ultimate Fighting, video games, the military, hunting, and countless conspiracy theories...all of which assuage some of the frustration most of us feel. A populace so desperate to find a scapegoat for its dissatisfaction is a populace ready to be manipulated...and Tyler Durden certainly crossed over from macho self-help guru to Jim Jones-like cult leader without looking back. In many instances, his rhetoric was seductive to me...that’s for sure.
How many Tyler Durdens does it take to screw up a social order?
Consider this (from Chapter 7 of Warren Commission Report): “Perhaps the most outstanding conclusion of such a study is that Oswald was profoundly alienated from the world in which he lived. His life was characterized by isolation, frustration, and failure. He...appeared to have great difficulty in finding a meaningful place in the world. He was never satisfied with anything. (His wife) Marina Oswald thought that he would not be happy anywhere, ‘Only on the moon, perhaps.’”
Who hasn’t felt like that? Such emotions don’t make one a “moody loner” or potential assassin...but might make the idea of a fight club sound appealing. Even so, in 2005 America (assuming Fight Club had never been written), if groups of men formed fight clubs as Chuck described them, I’d imagine these clubs would be commodified within a few months: A reality show, website, celebrity versions...and all that. The social issues, of course, would be scrubbed and bleached away.
What would Tyler do?
Most enticing about Palahniuk’s vision is the way the police were involved in Project Mayhem. I’ve always wondered why cops don’t recognize that they have far more in common with those fighting to change society than those who use law enforcement to protect the status quo. Palahniuk solves this by imagining a movement that covertly includes much of the police force. If only...
If you doubt the power of Tyler Durden, check out #5 here:
http://tinyurl.com/7ednz
(Feel free to respond to what I’ve written above...or just do what most of you do anyway: ignore the main post when it comes time to write your comments.)
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