Hallucinatory, Inspirational, Revealing Satire of Modern American Society
“There is nothing a blue collar nobody in Oregon with a public school education can imagine that a million-billion people haven’t already done…”
Initially published in a short-story compilation entitled, “Pursuit of Happiness” in 1995, self-proclaimed blue collar nobody, Chuck Palahniuk, expanded the 7-page story entitled “Fight Club” into a full length novel that was released in 1996. As Chuck pointed out in the afterword, the novel followed the short story and then came Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter and David Fincher and the rest, as the cliché goes, is history—a cult following that spawned a movement unique in literary history.
The story follows an unnamed (and unreliable) Narrator, the enigmatic Tyler Durden and the eccentric Marla Singer through a series of seemingly unconnected yet interrelated vignettes that are fast paced, intriguing, deceptive, inviting, hallucinatory, hilarious and shocking—such that a common idea, that of organized fights, is presented in a manner and in a voice we’ve never experienced before, which makes ‘Fight Club” un-put-downable.
The Narrator suffers from insomnia and, as a solution, visits support groups because it is there that he feels people listen—they aren’t just awaiting their time to speak—and he is able to let go of his inner demons, his low self esteem, his feeling of inadequacy, the monotony of his life, the shortcomings of his stature at work and with his family. Importantly, it is only when he began visiting the support groups that he was able to sleep. Then another “faker” named Marla Singer enters the scene. She appears at the same support groups, (even to testicular cancer). The Narrator cannot sleep while he knows another person like him visits the support groups, and he negotiates with Marla to split their visits.
Later on, the Narrator meets Tyler Durden, a mysterious man with extremist ideas, on a nude beach, (which is one of the few contrarian aspects of the film, where the introduction occurs in an airplane). After an explosion destroys the Narrator’s condo, he asks Tyler if he can move in with him, and Tyler agrees, but utters the most famous line of the story: “I want you to hit me as hard as you can.”
This is when the story takes off, as the Narrator’s and Tyler’s first fight leads to the establishment of Fight Club, with requisite rules including (1) you don’t talk about fight club; (2) you don’t talk about fight club; (3) when someone says stop, or goes limp, the fight is over; (4) only two guys to a fight; (5) one fight at a time; (6) they fight without shirts or shoes; (7) the fights go on as long as they have to; (8) if this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight.
Meanwhile, Marla notices that the Narrator has stopped attending the support groups and calls him while under the influence of pills, which she took in an effort to overdose. Tyler returns to the house, picks up the phone to Marla’s drug-induced rambling, and rescues her. The relationship between the Narrator, Tyler and Marla is cryptic, with Tyler and Marla never in the room at the same time as the Narrator, but it is her unique views on life that make her unforgettable:
Marla looks down at me doing by Prince Charming routine with her shoes and she says, “I let myself in. I didn’t think anyone was home. Your front door doesn’t lock.”
I don’t say anything.
“You know, the condom is the glass slipper of our generation. You slip in on when you meet a stranger. You dance all night, then you throw it away. The condom, I mean. Not the stranger.”
As the fight clubs spread around the US, Tyler organizes its members into an organization he calls Project Mayhem, which proceeds with a series of pranks and destruction against corporate interests. Slowly, the Narrator realizes, and dislikes, the results of Project Mayhem, culminating in an argument on a highway with the Mechanic whereby, upon swerving out of the way of oncoming traffic, the mechanic declares to the Narrator, “You had a near-life experience,” and it is here we understand why the Narrator (and Tyler) act as they do.
The reason that Fight Club resonates after all these years, (and I suspect will do so in perpetuity), is that most humans have inherent hopes and desires and goals, but we arrive at a time in our lives when we realize, (or fear), the ascent has halted, (particularly applicable for Americans, particularly true for Gen Xers the novel was originally geared toward, but no doubt relevant for millenials presently).
The dream isn’t attainable, whatever it was, for whatever reason.
“Remember this,” Tyler said.
“The people you’re trying to step on, we’re everyone you depend on. We’re the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed. We guard you while you’re asleep. We drive the ambulances. We direct your call. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about you. We process your insurance claims and credit card charges. We control every part of your life. We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we’ll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won’t. And we’re just learning this fact,” Tyler said.
“So don’t f*** with us.”
The bottom line: Mr. Palahniuk noted that he wanted to provide men an outlet to rationalize their lives; women have “The Joy Luck Club,” after all. And in “Fight Club,” which some folks mistakenly believe is about a bunch of thirty-year old white collar dudes brawling in the basements of bars, he provides a paradigm that suggests it’s OK not to conform. It’s OK not to be the next Bill Gates. It’s OK to live within your means. It’s OK not to go shopping on Black Friday. It’s OK to be frustrated. Because it is only when you realize your weaknesses aren’t really faults, but can instead be a source of strength, that you can rise above, believe in yourself, and move forward. Until then, you’re fighting the tide, its pushing back upon you, wave after wave, and you don’t understand why you’re losing—in a phrase, remember what truly matters in this 80-year journey, because when you take a step back, and think, you realize that your life is ending, one minute at a time. Don’t waste it.
- Goodreads rating – 4.19
- REVIEW – Raeden Zen