[BOOK REVIEW] Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
FIGHT CLUB
The first rule of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club. The importance of this first rule is reinforced by the fact it is also rule number two. But why? What is the significance behind the message that Fight Club was to remain secret and private? Why was there this attempt to remove language and verbalisation from it's existence. Because, I believe, Fight Club represents an internal struggle. A battle that takes place primarily within oneself. To me, Fight Club is a Zen parable. A story about enlightenment. As contradictory as that sounds, which drives that very notion home even stronger. The true fight was never an external experience.
I have heard it said, and read it also many times, that Fight Club is a misogynistic story, in that it deals with a toxic form of masculinity. To watch the film, or even better, read the book, and come away with that understanding is to fail to grasp Fight Club beyond the superficial surface level. Extreme machismo, or toxic masculinity, represents all that is wrong with male culture. The external need for control, domination, subjugation, and ownership. Ownership of the other, whether the other is male or female. It has given us millennia of wars, rape, child abuse, and other destructive practices. This is not male behaviour per se – it is an unbalanced male energy, and male energy has been expressed more prevalently in the past by men.
Yet Fight Club, the book, deals with an inwardly projected force. It has been owned and turned in on itself. It is, at its most basic level, the story of one man who in his search for self understanding disintegrates, and reemerges a new person, having destroyed that part of himself that sought out its own destruction, and the destruction of that which lay outside itself.
It is, ultimately, a thinly veiled story about one man's enlightenment. We never know his name. We only know the name of the man who both pushes him to the brink of knowing truth, and ultimately stands in the way of his ability to 'just let it all go.'
"Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretence. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true." - Adyashanti.
Fight Club grabs you, challenges you, dares you to dismiss it and cast it aside. It's at times aggressive, demeaning, vulgar and menacing. Yet underneath all of that, a vein of gold slithers through it daring the reader to look deeper.
Touching on consumerism, environmentalism, class struggles, and the apparent meaninglessness of life in today's society, a vision starts to shine from within it's self-centred narrator's internal dilemmas.
Our unnamed narrator struggles with insomnia. A world of self help groups and therapy centres open up to him, and for a while he finds release through them. Through listening to the struggles of other people.
"This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom."
"Every evening, I died, and every evening, I was born.
Resurrected."
Until Marla shows up, stealing the anonymity and meaning he finds in these groups. And stealing his ability to sleep. And from this we meet Tyler. Although he is initially introduced to us at the start of the book:
"Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pointing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die. For a long time though, Tyler and I were best friends."
The narrator loves Tyler, Tyler loves Marla, and Marla loves the narrator. This triangle fuels the story, propelling it full speed through the development of Fight Club, with it's various rules, then into Project Mischief and Project Mayhem. And eventually towards full blown destruction. Self destruction. Until the narrator wakes up, and sees reality for what it truly is, and not what he has allowed himself to believe it is. And thus we have the enlightenment angle I mentioned earlier.
"Tyler says to pay attention because this is the greatest moment of my life.
"Because everything up to now is a story," Tyler says, "and everything after now is a story."
This is the greatest moment of our life.
"Tyler Durden the great, who was perfect for one moment, and who said that a moment is the most you could ever expect from perfection."
The movie was brilliant, and the visuals drove home it's message, cementing it's impact upon my psyche. When it came time to read the book I wondered how it would fair compared to the film. They are two different beasts. I think they both have their strengths and weaknesses. Yet it was the book that shook me far more. It was the book that resonated with me on the topic of enlightenment. And it is the book that I recommend above the film (if a choice was required).
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
5 stars.
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@naquoya
Short Fiction:
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What are you doing, mate!?
Do they specifically state what happens if you do talk about Fight Club? I forgot if they did. It's been a long time since I watched the movie and read the book.
You know, I saw the movie when I was still below the PG age and couldn't understand the themes. I re-watched it again when I was older, and it really opened up my mind to the different philosophies. Who could've figured that a dark dramedy that deals with addiction and depression could be so deep.
You captured all the points effectively, and I can't point out if you missed anything. It's really about an internal struggle, and the destruction of the outside world is representative of what's happening inside.
I was writing about Fight Club, your honour. So I should be free on a technicality.
It's a powerful story. The movie is still on high rotation for me. Entertaining, and still conveys the thematic power punch that is contained in the story. The book delivers on the depth and embodiment of this darker side of enlightenment with incredible ease. I loved the language, the POV, the poetic story telling and imagery.
Aha! You had me at semantics! Proceed :D
Chuck Palahniuk really has a way with words, doesn't he? He's not one of my favorite authors, but his work is highly readable. Maybe some of the themes don't match up to my preference but he writes so fluidly.
I've not actually read any of his other books. And if it wasn't for the movie then I probably would never have looked at reading this one either. But the movie was so good I was intrigued as to how it was written.
The only other book I've read completely was Choke, after watching the movie. I've read snippets of the others though through previews.
I'd be interested to read some of his others at some point, but they're not high on my list at the moment.
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definitely one of palahniuk's better books, but i definitely preferred the movie. something about the movie felt more fleshed out to me, more fully realized than the book, which is not something i normally say about book-to-movie adaptations.
I can see why you would say that about the movie. And I love it. I have watched it countless times. The story is adapted to film really well, with the screenwriters having teased out of it the details that are only really hinted at in the book.
The book however appealed to me on a completely different level. So I'm still unable to pick a favourite overall, just in with regards to the different aspects and expressions contained within them.
"This is your life" perfect poison
And it's good to the last drop. Anyone got the antidote?
Hey, not me. Can't even afford a smile.
What if a smile was the antidote?
How cruel can life be.
I'll take a mortgage
I love the film, but with a bit of shame I have to admit to never having read the book.
Great review of the book and I might actually download it on my kindle :-)
I read it on my Kindle also. I've only just read it, and for the first time. So I was also late to the Book Club.
I have seen the movie too many times to count and rate it as one of my favourites, which is why I was so interested to finally read it and see how it stacks up, and just how that movie was portrayed in the written word.
Glad you liked the review.
Oh, I saw only movie, didn't knew about the book, thank you :)
I have seen the movie a dozen times, maybe more. Love it. I have only just read the book. Same story, but slightly different. Movie ends differently. Both of them are powerful in their own way.
Count me in as a follower moving forward . I recall this as a movie . Some say it's not the same .
The movie is slightly different. Ends differently. I like them both, but for different reasons. Love the movie, but the book just blew me away.
Yeah, it is a good book. Close to the movie in parts with lots of the narration in tact.
Glad you liked the book also. There are both similarities, and areas that differ between them. I like them both. Usually I like one over the other, but not this time.
I watched the movie first, and I found the ending to be better in the movie, though I still liked the ending of the book--it was just so different that I wasn't expecting it
Very nice and real post, thanks for sharing. @naz722
I've always thought Fight Club was one of the few good books that was surpassed by its own movie. I greatly enjoyed your perspective on it though
It's a hard one to pick for me. The movie is definitely brilliant, and stands on its own strengths. I just found the book excellent for its own reasons. But yes, the movie is hard to top.