Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Giroux and Szeman suggest that Palahniuk's Fight Club is incomplete in its analysis of consumer culture. In their essay "Ikea Boy Fights Back" they write that Fight Club fails to carry out the critique it undertakes pertaining to capitalistic society. It seems as though neither Giroux nor Szeman actually saw the entire movie or ever read the book. Giroux and Szeman peg Fight Club as an attempt to suggest world revolution when in fact the story is about personal frustration and delusion. They downplay the film by writing that it never addresses many important issues in society, such as unemployment and loss of job security, when in fact the film is not about a nation, or a people. Instead the film is about a person, who relates to a subculture of people who share the same frustrations about their lives. In fact, the film makes it obvious that it does not mean to address issues of a whole society when we find out that Jack is Tyler. Jack's frustration leads him to delusion, and in turn, Tyler Durden. Tyler is not the embodiment of acting without thinking, as Giroux and Szeman suggest, but much the opposite as he is Jack's vehicle to personal nirvana. Fight Club itself is not Jack and Tyler's retreat from feminism, but instead Jack's personal vent from his nine to five lifestyle. Jack wants to change his life, not the world. He's not upset that the IKEA catalogue has sofas for sale at ridiculous prices; he is embarrassed that he bought one. Giroux and Szeman also claim that Project Mayhem is Tyler's army for revolution and model for anarchy. Much the contrary, Project Mayhem is the reader's first hint from the author that Jack is unstable. It also outlines a theory about Fascism dealing with how an individual can step forth and preach to the frustrations of a group of people and achieve enormous power and charisma, just as Hitler did with his Nazi party when he pulled Germany from depression. It seems as though Fight Club was a metaphorical joke in which Giroux and Szeman did not receive the punch line.
Friday, January 16, 2004
Fight Club
Chuck Palahnuik makes it apparent early that Jack despises his personal relationship with consumer culture. Most of what Jack talks about before he meets Tyler Durden (chronologically, not in book order) is filled with angry realizations of how patheically normal and conformist he had become. He satirically compares how friends he knew who use to read pornographic magazines now indulge in furniture catalogs. Jack says that his possessions now own him. He realizes that he is not static to the world around him. Jack is affected not only by people and their actions, but also his Haparanda sofa group and his Johanneshov armchair. Even the way Jack's suitcase was delayed was an element of his conformity; nine out of ten times it is an electric razor, and Jack's case was no different.
Tyler Durden is everything that Jack is not, but more importantly, Tyler is everything Jack wants to become. One of Jack's many moments of self-liberation occurs when his apartment explodes. It is not until this forced seperation from consumer culture that Tyler becomes part of Jack's life, and from this point on Jack begins to trust Tyler. Symbolically, the explosion erases Jack's life and gives him a chance to start anew. The idea of rebirth and revalation seems to be an important theme to the book and will most likely be central to much of the latter part of the story. Tyler does not have Jack's sense of regret about his life, or his need for the support groups. After they become friends, it seems as though Jack is becoming Tyler, or perhaps I should say the line between Jack and Tyler gets blurred. Jack idols Tyler, he wants to be him. As Jack searches for total serperation from his nine-to-five world of imported china sets and designer furniture, Tyler seems to be balanced perfectly with imperfections. It seems that Tyler Durden pulls much of his charisma from his anarchist demeanor; the fact that he lives in condemed housing with no furniture, yet seems to be enlightened allows Jack to easily trust Tyler and mimic his habits. Tyler speaks to views sensitive to normal people; that is what allows Jack to be overcome with him.
Chuck Palahnuik makes it apparent early that Jack despises his personal relationship with consumer culture. Most of what Jack talks about before he meets Tyler Durden (chronologically, not in book order) is filled with angry realizations of how patheically normal and conformist he had become. He satirically compares how friends he knew who use to read pornographic magazines now indulge in furniture catalogs. Jack says that his possessions now own him. He realizes that he is not static to the world around him. Jack is affected not only by people and their actions, but also his Haparanda sofa group and his Johanneshov armchair. Even the way Jack's suitcase was delayed was an element of his conformity; nine out of ten times it is an electric razor, and Jack's case was no different.
Tyler Durden is everything that Jack is not, but more importantly, Tyler is everything Jack wants to become. One of Jack's many moments of self-liberation occurs when his apartment explodes. It is not until this forced seperation from consumer culture that Tyler becomes part of Jack's life, and from this point on Jack begins to trust Tyler. Symbolically, the explosion erases Jack's life and gives him a chance to start anew. The idea of rebirth and revalation seems to be an important theme to the book and will most likely be central to much of the latter part of the story. Tyler does not have Jack's sense of regret about his life, or his need for the support groups. After they become friends, it seems as though Jack is becoming Tyler, or perhaps I should say the line between Jack and Tyler gets blurred. Jack idols Tyler, he wants to be him. As Jack searches for total serperation from his nine-to-five world of imported china sets and designer furniture, Tyler seems to be balanced perfectly with imperfections. It seems that Tyler Durden pulls much of his charisma from his anarchist demeanor; the fact that he lives in condemed housing with no furniture, yet seems to be enlightened allows Jack to easily trust Tyler and mimic his habits. Tyler speaks to views sensitive to normal people; that is what allows Jack to be overcome with him.
Monday, January 12, 2004
i went to the desert on a horse with no name; it felt good to be out of the rain.
