Fight Club and the fringe
[photo credit: hundrednorth]
Tantek, Chris and I were chatting last night, when Chris and Tantek broke into one of those 'Fight Club' moments - you know, madly quoting the rules and other parts of this six-year old movie.
Don't get me wrong. I really liked the movie. I thought it was pretty brilliant. But I have never been able to 'get' what it is that gets almost every man I've ever met so whipped up into a cult-like frenzy. Maybe you know a woman or two who gets it, but most of the women I know either mildly or kind of liked the movie, but don't see what all of the hubub is about. But I think that's the point.
So, we discussed this at length. What is it about Fight Club that touches stuff so deeply within the male psyche?
It could be the movie's total rejection of the feminization of our culture (as Tantek pointed out). A reclamation of non-tainted masculinity. It could be the inner warrior cry it invokes. Who knows? But what we decided we need to do is to get a group of men and women together and show Fight Club and Thelma & Louise (the female cult film - the ultimate 'eff you' to the patriarchy ;)) back to back so we can compare notes.
Either way, what I'm interested in is the way this movie is bound to capture the hearts of men for generations to come. It was actually a 'bit of a disappointment' at the box office (from Wikipedia):
The film was a box office disappointment (although it was #1 at the U.S. box office in its first weekend) and critical reaction was mixed, but a cult following soon emerged as the DVD of the film was popular upon release (with some critics changing their opinions on it as a result of the DVD).This movie, that spoke directly to the most coveted marketing target of our society - the white, heterosexual, 18-34 year old, educated male - and will be loved for generations to come, but no blockbuster. On the fringe. Holding strong. Having longevity and character and connecting with a group of people.
This kind of reminds me of a section of the book Brand Hijack (Alex Wipperfürth) where he talks about using cult-building strategies. Now, although Brand Hijack's premise and initial connection between cults and community was astute, he didn't quite understand that this can never be a 'strategy' - one iota of inauthenticity here wouldn't have achieved this. However, I do think it shows that Chuck Palahnuik (author of Fight Club) weaved a story from a very real angst he felt that connected deeply with others. Fight clubs happen all over the world still and I am still subjected to sitting through conversations about how BarCamp can re-purpose the rules of Fight Club. ;)
Some cult-like linkage:
Project Mayhem
Footage of Silicon Valley's Engineer Fight Clubs
Fight Club comparison with Calvin and Hobbes
Movie Script
Oh...and I was a litle startled by this: Fight Club, the Musical! (NIN to write the music...but still...)
12 Comments:
Illustrating what, I'm not quite sure, but re: gender & Fight Club there's always the fantastic SNL Jennifer Aniston opening monologue.
What's funny is that when describing BarCamp to people, I always repurpose the Fight Club line "If this is your first night, you have to fight" as "If you come to the event, you have to present"
Maybe BarCamp is already the geeky design-and-coding fight club!
Hey, You and Chris are already flying all over the country "setting up franchises". Have you met his Tyler yet?
-Eric S
Well, I loved Fight Club (although I had to look away a lot during the movie), but I'm a Palahniuk fan. I heard him speak once (and I'm sure he's quoted saying this), and he did say that he was horrified by the stats of how almost everyone reading novels were women, so he deliberately set out to write a novel for men.
By the way, my personal favorite book of his is "Survivor", so now I'm wondering if that's the one least liked by men?
Tara, here is what inspired me to bring up this topic last night: my Rules of BarCamp rewritten from FC. There are also just a ton of lines in the movie which can easily be paralleled to BarCamp (e.g. the "setting up franchises" that Eric S pointed out).
Fight Club =
1) I can do something.
2) There is meaning to my life.
3) Damn the Man.
that's really it.
Tyler Durden explained it:
"Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."
Wow, the previous comment with the quote is so right on. Thats one of the reasons I love this movie. The writing is just so fantastic. The lines that are said just resonate so powerfully with the current generation.
I LOVED Fight Club. The idea that Ed Norton's character could blow up his apartment and escape his IKEA life to live in an abandoned house felt like such an escape to me.
I still fantasize about that leaky and broken down house...
After the Dot Bomb, when we lost almost everything, I just thought about Ed Norton living in that leaky house. If he could simplify, so could I.
Kathy -
I think many Palahniuk fans hesitate to say they dislike any of his books. He's extremely polarizing, which is a great thing from a branding perspective. (Not so great if you're trying to honestly dissect the literature.)
I've read all but his most recent book and find that I like the oldest stuff best. Even though FIGHT CLUB was his first published book, INVISIBLE MONSTERS was the first he wrote, and it's still my favorite. So SURVIVOR'S very high on my list, with CHOKE and LULLABY at the bottom.
I think the main reasons men are drawn to him are the combination of theme and style. Very much male themes and very much a minimalistic style. The novels my wife reads are almost always longer than the ones I read.
I didn't see Fight Club (not even on DVD or VHS (remember VHS?)) but I have read several of Chuck Palahniuk's books. I think he is uneven as a writer but I did feel compelled to print an excerpt from one of his books in my February '06 blog.
I don't think he is anymore of a 'guy' writer than anyone else. Although I have read several of his books, I haven't read Fight Club either, as the whole premise sounds pretty retarded. Then again, being retarded does kind of fit into the whole male persona...
Why does the movie appeal to guys so much? The undercurrent of homoeroticism. Like pro-wrestling, only without the silly outfits.
It always amazes me that the message so many men get from Fight Club (the movie) is that they should reject the company of women and go beat each other up.
Fight Club is not about the "total rejection of the feminization of our culture". Fight Club is primarily anti-authoritarian - the bad guys are bosses, big auto manufacturers, credit card companies. Anyone who is really paying attention to the movie realizes that the Tyler Durden alter-ego is sexist, violent, hypocritical, and shallow.
Tyler Durden, and all the anger and hate both he and the protagonist show to women, society, and themselves throughout much of the movie are not the 'answer' Fight Club puts forward.
While much of Fight Club suggests that violence is the answer, the critical part of the movie occurs after 'Jack' (the protagonist) realizes that he is Tyler. At his point, Jack rejects the violence and the nihilism of their 'fight club', and tries to reverse the damage he's done.
There's a reason Tyler dies at the end of the movie. All his rebellion is ultimately shallow. Jack's true rebellion comes when he refuses to become Tyler. Tyler 'talks the talk' but his rebellion is merely a reflection of what he hates: where society tells Jack that all violence is bad, Tyler decides that violence is good. Because Jack feels rejected and unworthy of women ("I can't get married. I'm a 30 year-old boy"), Tyler is misogynistic, and violent towards women.
Essentially, Tyler is the antithesis of Jack's personality when the movie begins. And when Jack is finally able to destroy that antithesis, it is because he has found a third way - one in which he doesn't have to be a corporate drone or a nihilistic rebel.
Why do people focus on Jack's rebellion, rather than his final realization? Probably because most people feel stuck in their own 'Ikea apartments', and rebellion is the next step for them.
mike drips:
Perhaps you should watch the movie before dismissing it? It's a considerably better movie than one would suspect from what you hear about it in reviews, (or blog posts like this one.) I suspect this is in part due to the marketing it received - the movie was marketed as a sort of amateur boxing flick. Understandly, the company decided that focusing the marketing on guys beating each other up would be more successful...
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