Implementing The Fight Club Philosophy

Although I love the movie (it’s better than the book) it contradicts itself more than the bible.

Right after Pitt says that self improvement is masturbation, they cut to his cut up body that…takes work to achieve.

Also, he’s convincing people like the store clerk to go out and be what they want to be- in his case a vet. So he’s got to go to school to do that, and he’ll probably make some dough, and become part of the same system that Pitt is trying to break down.

It’s a great story, and the movie did really change my philosophical ideas when I saw it, but it can’t be taken literally. And it certainly isn’t something to base your life off of.

And as for the rest of Pahlunik’s books, they suck. It’s essentially the same story, over and over and over and over.

We get it Chuck. You hate consumer culture. Here’s a cookie.

Yeah, the movie has issues for sure, but I like his premise that society/system is anti-man, turning everyone into little serfs who graze happily at McDonald’s. And if society suppresses or kills off the ‘yang’ part of a man, what’s the future of the society?

The book (and the movie) DO make you think.

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Although I love the movie (it’s better than the book) it contradicts itself more than the bible.

Right after Pitt says that self improvement is masturbation, they cut to his cut up body that…takes work to achieve.

Also, he’s convincing people like the store clerk to go out and be what they want to be- in his case a vet. So he’s got to go to school to do that, and he’ll probably make some dough, and become part of the same system that Pitt is trying to break down.

It’s a great story, and the movie did really change my philosophical ideas when I saw it, but it can’t be taken literally. And it certainly isn’t something to base your life off of.

And as for the rest of Pahlunik’s books, they suck. It’s essentially the same story, over and over and over and over.

We get it Chuck. You hate consumer culture. Here’s a cookie.[/quote]

Don’t forget the scene where Tyler and the narrator are on the bus and laugh at the underwear advertisement with the skinny A&F-looking model and the narrator says laughing, “Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?”.

[quote]altimus wrote:
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. [/quote]

Conan the Barbarian FTW

Concerning Fight Club, are we really supposed to take a nutjob’s alter ego seriously? OK, nice character juxtaposition and all, but I think the middle path might be advised here.

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Yeah, the movie has issues for sure, but I like his premise that society/system is anti-man, turning everyone into little serfs who graze happily at McDonald’s. And if society suppresses or kills off the ‘yang’ part of a man, what’s the future of the society?

The book (and the movie) DO make you think.[/quote]

That might be part of the subtext, but my interpretation of it is that for people to realy feel alive, they need something to fight for or believe in, consequences or benefits be damned.

When in life are you truly engaged, fully an with every fiber of your being, without any thought to loss or gain? When does anybody ever completely release themselves to the moment they are in and to the action that they are taking?

Probably no too often if ever, and they know it.

Take when you get punched square in the face for example. You see it comming, you feel it land, and an explosion of pain radiates from that point of contact. You know every minute detail of that chain of events immediately and intimately.

For that one moment, you have experienced something pure and unadulterated by social structure and influence. No thoughts of what the neighbors might think, where the stock market is going or any of the other mundane bullshit that occurs a thousand times a day. Just one exquisite sensation, and not a thought in the world about anything else except that.

Now apply that same accute focus of the pure and honest experience of a punch in the face to everything you do, and you will be truly liberated from the entaglement and suppression of our current social structure.

Or maybe not. I could have misinterpreted it.

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 :wink:

[quote]905Patrick wrote:
abcd1234 wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
Although I love the movie (it’s better than the book) it contradicts itself more than the bible.

Right after Pitt says that self improvement is masturbation, they cut to his cut up body that…takes work to achieve.

Also, he’s convincing people like the store clerk to go out and be what they want to be- in his case a vet. So he’s got to go to school to do that, and he’ll probably make some dough, and become part of the same system that Pitt is trying to break down.

Don’t forget the scene where Tyler and the narrator are on the bus and laugh at the underwear advertisement with the skinny A&F-looking model and the narrator says laughing, “Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?”.

Tyler didn’t exist. This is not a contradiction.
[/quote]

It was more of an irony, given the young men who watch the film and aspire to look like Pitt while ignoring the major themes that oppose this.

[quote]905Patrick wrote:
abcd1234 wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
Although I love the movie (it’s better than the book) it contradicts itself more than the bible.

Right after Pitt says that self improvement is masturbation, they cut to his cut up body that…takes work to achieve.

Also, he’s convincing people like the store clerk to go out and be what they want to be- in his case a vet. So he’s got to go to school to do that, and he’ll probably make some dough, and become part of the same system that Pitt is trying to break down.

Don’t forget the scene where Tyler and the narrator are on the bus and laugh at the underwear advertisement with the skinny A&F-looking model and the narrator says laughing, “Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?”.

Tyler didn’t exist. This is not a contradiction.

Raymond wanted to be a vet but thought it would take too much money. Tyler motivated him to go back to school using the fear of death. It’s a metaphor. We all fear death but rarely have it pushed into our faces in a way that allows us to use it to motivate our pursuit of our dreams.

I’ve listened to a few terminally ill people who say that the day they received their diagnosis was the first day that they started to life - the knowledge that the end was coming a lot sooner than they had anticipated was all the information they needed to stop putting off their dreams and start living THEIR life.[/quote]

Correct.

[quote]abcd1234 wrote:
905Patrick wrote:
abcd1234 wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
Although I love the movie (it’s better than the book) it contradicts itself more than the bible.

Right after Pitt says that self improvement is masturbation, they cut to his cut up body that…takes work to achieve.

Also, he’s convincing people like the store clerk to go out and be what they want to be- in his case a vet. So he’s got to go to school to do that, and he’ll probably make some dough, and become part of the same system that Pitt is trying to break down.

Don’t forget the scene where Tyler and the narrator are on the bus and laugh at the underwear advertisement with the skinny A&F-looking model and the narrator says laughing, “Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?”.

Tyler didn’t exist. This is not a contradiction.

It was more of an irony, given the young men who watch the film and aspire to look like Pitt while ignoring the major themes that oppose this.

[/quote]

I took as more of a conflict between looks and functionality. Yeah the underwear model had a decent build, but how would he do in a fight. Life is what you can do, not how you look, or something like that.

[quote]Spike9726 wrote:
abcd1234 wrote:
905Patrick wrote:
abcd1234 wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
Although I love the movie (it’s better than the book) it contradicts itself more than the bible.

Right after Pitt says that self improvement is masturbation, they cut to his cut up body that…takes work to achieve.

Also, he’s convincing people like the store clerk to go out and be what they want to be- in his case a vet. So he’s got to go to school to do that, and he’ll probably make some dough, and become part of the same system that Pitt is trying to break down.

Don’t forget the scene where Tyler and the narrator are on the bus and laugh at the underwear advertisement with the skinny A&F-looking model and the narrator says laughing, “Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?”.

Tyler didn’t exist. This is not a contradiction.

It was more of an irony, given the young men who watch the film and aspire to look like Pitt while ignoring the major themes that oppose this.

I took as more of a conflict between looks and functionality. Yeah the underwear model had a decent build, but how would he do in a fight. Life is what you can do, not how you look, or something like that.[/quote]

I don’t think that’s what it was. The movie itself is much more ironic than the book just by having Brad Pitt in it.

Point being- as soon as they say that on the bus, they cut to a ripped Brad Pitt. Is the man supposed to look like the underwear model? Or Brad Pitt? Because they looked pretty much the same, but there’s Pitt bashing on teh underwear model.

[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 :wink: [/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.”

best movie ever. If you want to live it out just like do the same stuff. find a crappy house to live in. Dress like Tyler. Ride a push bike around in your house. I bought a pair of nun-chuks after seeing it as well. (when hes smashing that chair in the phone scene.)

I really enjoyed the part of the book where the rich lady dumped out a several bottles of expensive perfume, after finding a note stating that one of the bottles had been urinated in.
there was no way to know which one, so she was forced to dump them all… beautiful.
don’t know why that part wasn’t included in the movie.

as far as incorporating the philosophy of fight club into your life - the only bit I would implement is experience life.

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Spike9726 wrote:
abcd1234 wrote:
905Patrick wrote:
abcd1234 wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
Although I love the movie (it’s better than the book) it contradicts itself more than the bible.

Right after Pitt says that self improvement is masturbation, they cut to his cut up body that…takes work to achieve.

Also, he’s convincing people like the store clerk to go out and be what they want to be- in his case a vet. So he’s got to go to school to do that, and he’ll probably make some dough, and become part of the same system that Pitt is trying to break down.

Don’t forget the scene where Tyler and the narrator are on the bus and laugh at the underwear advertisement with the skinny A&F-looking model and the narrator says laughing, “Is that what a real man is supposed to look like?”.

Tyler didn’t exist. This is not a contradiction.

It was more of an irony, given the young men who watch the film and aspire to look like Pitt while ignoring the major themes that oppose this.

I took as more of a conflict between looks and functionality. Yeah the underwear model had a decent build, but how would he do in a fight. Life is what you can do, not how you look, or something like that.

I don’t think that’s what it was. The movie itself is much more ironic than the book just by having Brad Pitt in it.

Point being- as soon as they say that on the bus, they cut to a ripped Brad Pitt. Is the man supposed to look like the underwear model? Or Brad Pitt? Because they looked pretty much the same, but there’s Pitt bashing on teh underwear model.
[/quote]
tylers body was the illusion created by the media ‘i look how you want to look, i fuck how you want to fuck’, superficial images given by the media that cause odd obsessions in people about appearance and action that have nothing to do with their thoughts, happiness and health.

tylers actions chipped away at this until at the end the narrator sees himself as good enough and capable without a show body or some product and that his world will not end by giving up the supposed safe job to go after what he really wants in life. thats what the telling hessel to go to school was about, think going to school is hard try looking in the mirror 20 years from now when you realize you could have done what you deep down wanted to do.

But Brad Pitt was RIPPED in that movie dood!!!

I’m totally going into ketosis until I’m 156lbs and 8%!

egh

Too many people tried to get “as ripped as brad pit in fight club” since that movie.

Was he ripped? Yes. Was he strong? Probably not.

Strength > Leanness