[quote]CopingMechanism wrote:
I’m an unapolegetic Chuck Palahniuk nut-hugger, so take what I have to say with that in mind.
Using text from the book for now ,not the movie, which whilst very good was entertainment, and as such, certain themes in the book needed to be be buried others over-emphasised for mass-appeal.
The narrator is suffering from depression. That depression about by the existential vaccum that we find ourselves in at the end of the 20th century.
Maslow’s hierachy of needs are all covered and met. Joe(narrator) finds himself asking ‘Where do I go from here?’ ‘What now?’.
He dosent know.
So he creates distractions. He aneathesizes himself with material possesions in lieu of doing anything or feeling anything real.
Sub-consciously he knows that this is not the way to a complete life, however he does not have the courage to let go, he fears the unknown.
So he creates Tyler Durden.
And blows up his apartment
I think the most pivotal scene in the book, and incidentally, the most applicable and take home message, is at the end of chapter 20 when Joe meets Raymond K Hessel.
“I know who you are, I know where you live, I’m keeping your license, and I’m going to check on you, mister Raymond K. Hessel. In three months, then in six months, and then in a year, and if you aren’t back in school on your way to becoming a vetenarian, you will be dead.”
“Get out of here and do your little life, but remember I’m watching you, Raymond Hessel, and I’d rather kill you than see you working a shit job for just enough money to buy cheese and watch television.”
We live in a new century with new challenges as humans (in the western world anyway). It’s very easy just to survive on a physical level, but on a spiritual level, that as tough as it’s ever been. So you have to find a way, whatever the hell that means to you, to complete yourself.
In conclusion fight club is a self-help book [/quote]
I agree with what you wrote. But many, many people take it that fighting is the way to make themselves complete, when, in fact, it’s only that way for a small piece of the population.
Really, it’s not much different than much what TC has written, or other authors who try to help people change their lives.
I like to say that it’s like a more violent “Office Space.”