fighting

“This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.” Pg. 22

Once we have nothing to work forward to, we can do whatever we want. Sever the ties of responsibility and future plans, and we can feel fully alive and present in the moment. This notion is significant to the themes of the book, as it accurately portrays the narrators obsession with death and his desire to find the sublime in the end of existence. However, I see faults in this notion, because the narrator is constantly surrounded by death in his work, yet finds no solace there. He is able to fall into little moments of death every evening when he has cried his heart out with those who face death’s inevitability. But he is alive, and he knows he will remain alive much longer than any around him; he is “the little warm center that the life of the world crowded around.” I feel that him deriving pleasure and peace from comparison with the near-to-dead is not exactly hypocritical, but it is confusing. I guess by contrast he can feel grateful for his own life. But why do the actual dead not provide him, and Marla for that matter, with the same comfort? Why is it that the weeping Bob is so much more impactful than the crisped bodies of the cars he examines? Why do the empty corpses in caskets of funeral not make an impression, but the “real experience” of people who are going to die do? These people are still alive and suffering, they are not dead. But the author equates the experience to perceiving the true nature of oblivion, the end. On top of that, when another death-obsessed faker comes into the picture, the narrator can no longer get the sick pleasure of dying people; he now views what should be the oh-so-sweet end of the fragile Chloe as a non-event, and again he cannot sleep. I cannot look past the inconsistencies in the death and dying notion to truly understand what is being gained by the fake loss of hope.

On top of his obsession with watching dying people die, the narrator also ‘comes alive’ during fight club. He claims, “You aren’t alive anywhere like you’re alive at fight club.” But this is physical violence enacted willingly by two individuals, and the support groups are products of fate and bad luck that end in demise. So then his peace comes from the unknown factor of death, and his livelihood from the consented pain that he brings upon himself. I don’t get that.

Self.

Page 49

"Maybe self-improvement isn't the answer...Maybe self-destruction is the answer."

I feel like this quote basically sums up a lot of the book (well of what I have read so far). This question has appeared in history before (almost all "evil" acts could be related back to this statement), and since it doesn't have an answer, it gets people wondering a lot. And then it gets those people to self-destruct. However, doesn't something negative always turn out from this? And, okay, maybe for something negative to happen might not be the worst thing in your book, but how else could humanity survive. Later in the book, Tyler does mention that his intention is to "...break up civilization so we can make something better out of the world." But how come this hasn't worked yet? Many have tried to bring civilization to ruins, and some people go along with it, but then there are always going to be people, the "good guys" who try and stop it. Because that's what we're taught. Good is good and bad is bad. We like good, we don't like bad. But why? I think that's the whole beginning of the thought that self-destruction might be the answer.

Then again, can't self-improvement be the same thing as, or at least similar to self-destruction? In order to "improve" ourselves, we have to break something down of our identity that we want to reform. So really, maybe the answer is to have just a little bit of both. One has to have a balance, a moderation, with self-destruction/improvement, just like with everything else:)

freedom

"This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom." I hope I can get enough money to buy a new material item so I can be a slave to keeping it in tip-top shape. Fuck that. When you hope for something, you are either let down or you acquire it. In both situations you had to go out of your way to do something to get something so you can end up with something. If you had never hoped for anything, you would be free from going through the steps to get it. Even if this means not going after anything, not setting hopes or dreams for something, you are free to enjoy nothing. Free to fester in your own freedom from everything.

"This is the amazing miracle of death, and it should be so sweet if it were 't for, oh, that one." (35) I just like that quote.

Fight Club Quotes

"...the feeling you get is that you're one of those space monkeys. You do the little job you're trained to do. Pull a lever. Push a button. You don't understand any of it, and then you just die." This quote exemplifies the feeling, that at one point or another we have all felt, that we are out of control of our own life. We go through the motions, but we don't have any connection to what we are doing. It is as the narrator of Fight Club describes his insomnia, life is a "copy of a copy of a copy." There is no real "meaning" or "essence" to a life lived this way, to me at least, because this life is completely disconnected and without thought. However, to the characters of Fight Club, that's all life is and can be; disconnected. Life is defined by the fact that we die, that is what they honestly believe and feel they know. Therefore, this quote does not seem unbelievably depressing and bleak to them, but to me, living life simply going through the motions with no real connection to anything or anyone around me is the worst possible reality to consider.

"Tyler's words coming out of my mouth. I used to be such a nice person." this quote exemplifies the journey that the narrator has taken throughout this novel. He started out kind of awkward, lost, and unsure but because of Tyler and his influence, the narrator has completely morphed. Everything he knows, he knows because Tyler knows it. Everything he says because Tyler says it. Tyler's "fantasy" world and the world of fight club have completely enveloped the life of the narrator and caused him to become someone and something that he is not, he is now a reincarnated version of Tyler. This quote from Fight Club I think foreshadows what will be the ultimate demise of the narrator. Him allowing total control of his life to Tyler will eventually come to a drastic head that I think will end in complete or extreme destruction to the narrator or to both of them. As trite as it sounds, allowing someone to so wholly influence your actions and beliefs can only end in disaster and the loss of oneself.

A.D.D.

Attention deficit disorder. That is how I would describe the nature of Fight Club. The author makes an attempt at making the book interesting by jumping around in the timeline and back/forth between storylines. For me this doesn’t make the book more interesting, rather it makes it an annoying read. If you don’t pay complete attention you get lost and have to re-read some three plus pages. Having said this however, the writing style does reflect the theme so the book somewhat. The narrator’s initial job requires him to jump about the country and deal with random and assorted accidents. Then he decides to go to support group meetings, and then he decides to start a fight club. Random and sporadic to the core. This book would be a total failure if the ending did not tie everything together so well. In fact the ending is what makes the book so awesome.

shannon is one of the sweetest girls I know

His insomnia, it appears, is a load of pent up fears and worries which he cannot be rid of. They cloud him into days of unrest until he is in a semi dream trance. When he says that loosing all hope was freedom I believe he means that the hope is all of those insomnia driven thoughts. Letting loose, or crying, is a way to clear his mind of the thoughts, and then sleep. Therefore he is free from the trance in which he lives. When he is free of this trance he can live a more normal life. When he has his freedom he can become more of himself. This is relevant to the rest of the novel because we never know who he really is (until the very end). Its ironic that he can feel this fake freedom when all the while he (subconsciously) is controlling all of his troubles from the inside. Right here I can give more examples, however it would give away the ending, which is where he becomes really free.

Fight Club

It may be hard for some to understand the point of Fight Club. What is the point if it "isn't about winning or losing fights." But Tyler gets something from fight club that he can't from the rest of his regular life. "Nothing was solved when the fight was over, but nothing mattered." Fight Club for Tyler is like the larger idea of hitting rock bottom. It is understanding the pain, and suffering of human life. Maybe he needs this to be able to appreciate life more. Or maybe it just puts his every day actions into perspective. The Fight Club fights are a reminder to all of our mortality and inevitable death. They make every day tasks that, for many, are taken very seriously, and puts their importance into comparison with the larger aspects of life. I think Tyler likes this because it is easier when every little thing isn't a decision, a choice, and a really big deal.



"This is how the Buddhist temples have tested applicants going back for bah-zillion years, Tyler says. You tell the applicant to go away, and if his resolve is so strong that he waits at the entrance without foor of shelter or encouragement for three days, then and only then can he enter and begin the training." I really like this part of the book because I thought it was so interesting that the guys would put up with so much suffering and be patient enough to get into the training for Project Mayhem. I thought it was equally interesting that this was the requirement to get in. It is a good test to make sure the people are committed and sure they want to join. Waiting around in the rain for three days definitely shows dedication. It also shows the participants are strong enough to survive uncomfort and pain. The other part I like about this quote is that he got the idea from Buddhist temples, a place of peace and meditation. But then again, for them Fight Club is kind of like a type of meditation.

Unlikely Hope

Having a lack of direction has much to do with the theme of Fight Club. When the narrator states “what you see at Fight Club is a generation of men raised by women,” on page 50, this becomes apparent. Many men who did not have the presents of their father during their upbringing do become confused as to what exactly their role is. Simply, it is difficult for a woman to raise a man, because it is impossible for her to know exactly what her son is going through for much of his life. She has never had to deal with the problems men face. Instead, she struggled through the things women have to deal with. This makes it so when she is trying to give her son advice a father would usually be dishing out, it may come off as confusing or even an incomplete answer. When you only ever have a mother, you only have half of yourself, and trying to find the other part will always be a struggle because no one is there to give you some of the answers you are searching for. These men who take part in Fight Club do not know what they are meant to do with their lives: they are sitting at crossroads with no clue as to which direction they are meant to go. This is the entire reason why they take part in the fights. It is something they can control, a small bit of their life that is going exactly as planned for once, and they can understand why.

Another theme brought out by a simple statement is when Tyler states “it’s only after you’ve lost everything…that you’re free to do anything,” on page 70. The truth in this depressing statement is dominant throughout the book, but it strangely gives one hope. Fight Club focuses largely on the idea that there is not point to life. This thought may destroy the hope that many have, but it also does just as Tyler implies. When you have none of your original hope left in any situation, you have to start again. Although it’s hard, starting from nothing is the most helpful thing that can ever be done for you. You are given the chance to head in any direction you’d like. You get to build your own hope, rather than clinging to the hope that was built off the lies others had told you. No one’s truth is the same as anyone else’s, and therefore we all have our own version of hope as well. You have to crash and burn, loosing everything you’ve thought you had, before you can even begin to understand yourself, and your own truth. Maybe there isn’t a point to life, but that is beautiful. It means there is nothing set for you to do. You are able to do whatever you’d like.

#1 quote
This quote is describing the way in which the main character of the novel feels about life as a whole, mainly of the lifestyle of those who live within the boundaries of society. This quote basically describes the way the main character feels about society as a whole and how we simply do what we are trained to do, and then just die. This quote also describes the way in which the narrator feels about the value of life as well, he sees our lives as ultimately insignificant, so he tries to add something to his life by causing destruction and attempting to feel alive through fight club and other things.

Page 68
"Its only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything"
This quote explains many of the motives behind Tyler as well as the narrator to tear down their old lives and start over, for that is what the narrator has done throughout the story and continues to do as the novel moves on. This also explains the desire of Tyler and the narrator to hit "the bottom," because once they have hit the bottom they are then free. Throughout the novel, Tyler keeps reminding the narrator of this notion of hitting the bottom, as it is their goal over time.

Fight Club

...the feeling you get is that you're one of those space monkeys. You do the little job you're trained to do.

Pull a lever.

Push a button.

You don't understand any of it, and then you die.

Are we all just like those space monkeys? We are the one to train them that way...maybe because that's all we know how to do. THere are some who question authority or what they are doing, but how many of them really find the answer? Is it even possible to find the answer? No one knows. And no one will ever know really. WE all don't really, and never really know anything. So, instead, we just go with the flow. We create meanings to our actions, and that's what keeps us pushing those buttons and levers without truly understanding what we're doing (whatever that means). You pull that lever to keep the belt running, in order to keep manufacturing Barbie dolls, so that the company can sell them to children, so that you get paid. You work to get paid so that you can then buy other products for your own comfort of your short life, and when a moment of hesitation arises, life becomes a blur. You start to question everything. You don't know what to do. You don't create that meaning of life any more, because nothing simply really makes sense anymore. There's no reason to pull the lever or understand, because you realize the fate of it all. Death. And some people do decide to end their life cycle earlier than it's destined to be ended. However, the majority of us just roll with it. Because what else do we have? Death.

'Nothing is static, even the Mona Lisa is falling apart.'

"Nothing is static even the Mona Lisa is falling apart" This is one of my favorite quotes in this book. I think this comment is talking about the mortality of beauty. Every One strives to acheive beauty, wether it is in art, words, or appearence, But this comment shows how none of that will last forever. Beauty is a temporary acheivement. The most beautiful girl in the world today will be completely different in 10 years. The Mona Lisa which was once considered one of the most beautiful paintings in the world is now loosing its value.

"On a long enough time line the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero."
This quote boldy states what we all try to avoid is that everyone is going to die. Everyone is going to fall to death. So no matter how famous, infamous, beautiful, strong or smart a person is, they will die just as the homeless man on the corner will. Once we except it we can truely plan our lives because we can finally except how our lives will end.

Fight Club: a never-ending, downward spiral.

"This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom."

Fight Club, at this point, almost seems like existentialism in reverse. From an existentialist viewpoint, you are supposed to create meaning in your life. You are a product to what you have created for yourself. This quote is interesting because hope is something we generally associate as a positive thing. Something to work towards. A personality you work towards becoming better at. And in a way, creating meaning in your life is generally looked at as a positive thing. So to say losing hope gives you freedom puts a twist on creating meaning. Many of the other quotes (the one about Marla and her life philosophy about death) is similarly twisted. And maybe, existentialism give you the limitless boundary to push in either direction. But I think that creating meaning a positive journey and not a consistent spiral downward.

"It's Project Mayhem that's going to save the world"

It's not so much this initial quote that I highlighted but more so the entire idea of Project Mayhem itself. As it works, he who loses his fight in fight club, is the one who will have to carry out the project that week. The goal being "the complete right away destruction of civilization." As inately competitive creatures, we have the desire to win. Winning a fight in fight club will alleviate the having to participate in project mayhem, but then why fight in the first place? Im going to make the assumption that the fighters involved in the project believe in its capacity to do harm. So do they weaken themselves to participate?

This probably didn't make much sense.....my apologies.

Fight Clubb Prompts

Insomnia:

"This is how it is with insomnia. Everything is so far away, a copy of a copy of a copy. " The interesting thing about insomnia is that every action is so removed. A person is so distanced from the original occurrence of something, that it's not really processed. Without sleep, it's almost like you're not really experiencing your life head on. You're just seeing copies of experiences without actually engaging in activities. "All night you're thinking, Am i asleep, have i slept?" A person is so delusional that there is no distinction between reality and dreams. You just feel half alive. You retrace thoughts over and over again to attempt to discover what you have really experienced.

" On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will eventually drop to zero."
This statement can go back and forth between ideas. It either adds meaning to life, because it's "structured by death." Or it can deplete the value, causing others to think, well I'm going to die eventually, what is there to enjoy? This can make people think that live is just an empty experience only to be controlled by death.

"This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom"

I found this quote powerful because it underlined the simplisticness that this book is writen with. The idea of a life not based on meaningless hopes that drive us to do things like get a car, work a job, get a wife, etc... is so abstract in my eyes that I appriciate the amount of commitment that I could never see myself doing. This quote also goes off the first quote ("Pull a lever. Push a button...") by depicting the amount of spiritual freedom gained from loosing this daily routine to achieve these meaningless life goals.
As Tyler says later in the book, "Only after disaster can we be resurrected", it takes the narrorator hitting rock bottom to begin his life with a different consience. With his hopes being shattered and his morals being challenged, he is able to view the world in a new light (as cliche as that sounds). The sense of nothingness that is valued by Tyler creates total freedom and maybe even to the point of anarchy. The book depicts the physical crumble of charectors (when fighting), then illustrates the moral breakdown that they embrace.

2 Paragraphs posted on Tuesday!

In this novel, I feel that death is a serious overlaying theme throughout. The quote "On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero," is a pretty good indicator of that. Everyone dies eventually, and in Fight Club, they do not show any fear or remorse for the dead. It is more like it just happens. The narrator of the story seems to be the most passive over death then anyone else. It's almost as if Tyler and Marla are the hope for the narrator to keep living in a world where all he feels is apathy towards death. Without them, his life really did have no meaning, but these characters have kept him alive, even if he does not seem to acknowledge this.

I feel that the quote I selected describes this pretty well. "Cancer will be like that, I tell Marla. There will be mistakes, and maybe the point is not to forget the rest of yourself if one little part might go bad." I think this is the narrator's sense of hope. He is saying that just because one thing goes wrong, you should not get hung up on it and not to forget that you still have the rest of your life to do everything. Cancer is bad, but is not something that should keep you from living how you want to live. In the narrator's case, his life may just be to bring down the rest of the world to the bottom with him, but he recognizes that even at the bottom, there is still life to be lived. Being at the bottom, having problems, is not a bad thing but instead just another reason to keep doing what you do. How about you?

Shannon looks like a teacher, which is just another way of saying that she is both intelligent AND gorgeous.

"One a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero." --- pg 17

This follows the theme that what most people do in their life has no effect. Everyone becomes a corpse 6 feet underground with out any to show what they did for the world. The theme of project Mayhem is to release the world from conformity. To release people into freedom. We pace through life at a social clock. We have our first kiss, we have sex, we go to college, we get a job, we find love, we marry, we have kids, we raise them well, we retire, then we die. We all go through this monotonous cycle. Everyone having to go through these steps. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. etc. Eventually, we all die. Period. Tyler shows the narrator that he can choose his life. He can choose where it leads. He doesn't have to be his boss's little bitch. Most of us don't do anything other than obey this social clock.

"Please. I smile big enough to split my lips."----pg 117

This is when the narrator is threatening the president of the hotel he was working for. He is getting fired and instead of just pouting about it like most people, the narrator takes Tyler's advice and threatens the president that he will let the newspapers know of his little deeds. Pissing in soups, farting on creme brulees. He starts punching himself, knocking himself into the wall. He is in a physical fight by himself. Yet it looks like the president did it to him. Who in their right mind would punch his own face? The narrator smiles so big that he splits his lips. I picked this line because it shows how crazy he is. How he has transformed into"a monster."

Fight Club

"This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom." This quote really poped out to me because I feel like, in a twisted way, it is very true. Hope is what keeps us going, the powerful force that drives us forward, but at the same time it can be a serious disappointment. When we hope for something enough, we almost convince ourselves that it is going to happen so when it doesn't we are filled with remorse and disappointment. To lose all hope means to lose all desire, and although it is a depressing point, that is true freedom. Freedom from desire, freedom from hope is the freedom from all things the cloud your mind. Humans are constantly setting goals so that they can achieve their life's ambitions, but what if you had no goals, you had no hopes? Wouldn't that mean that your mind is completely free. There would be nothing to work towards and nothing to disappoint you. I don't agree that people should lose hope, because when you lose hope you lose passion and when you lose passion you lose fulfillment. Without hope your mind could wander freely, but at the same time you would accomplish nothing. Hope is what drives us and causes us to set goals and achieve greatness, but if you think about it without hope our minds would be completely free.

The second quote that really caught my eye was this, "It's only after you've lost everything, that you're free to do anything." When you are able to completely let go, even if it is the hardest thing to do at the time, eventually it will open the doorway for new experiences and new ideas. The same goes for losing something, or in this case everything, only when its is completely gone can you move on and pave a new way. If you think about it, many things that are precious to us are really just an impedement. You may love your kids, but they do significantly restrict your choices and actions. Everything that you truly value, in one way or another, is really just holding you back in some regard. When you have lost everything you no longer have to worry about them (which doesn't mean they aren't still on your mind) and you can truly experience things burden free. It may sound harsh but it is the truth, everything we value has some way of holding us back.

Fight Club Quotes.

On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero. (17)

This quote is significant because death is inevitable. Everyone you know and love and care for are going to die in the end and so are you. I think the author is trying to make the point that there's no reason to love or fight for someone because they're going to die anyway; you're going to die. There's no point in wasting all the effort when no one is going to remember it. Give it some time and YOU won't even be remembered. One day, the world is going to end. Humans will drop down to zero, and life as we know it will be over. I think this quote represents the main theme of the book because throughout the whole thing, Tyler is always saying you have to hit rock bottom. You have to realize you and all those billions of other people, are going to die. It sucks thinking about it, but it's true.

"Recycling and speed limits are bullshit," Tyler said. "They're like someone who quits smoking on his deathbed." (125)

I have to admit, the reason why I like this quote so much is that it reminds me of Telluride. Where everything is about recycling and "going green." Not that there's anything wrong with that, I think it's awesome, but this quote has some truth to it. The world is finally realizing that we have some major cleaning up to do, but if you look at the broad picture, it's really too late. We've dug ourselves a HUGE whole and trying to fix everything at the last second just isn't going to cut it. I think that's what this quote is saying. Sure, if you stop smoking because you're on you're dying is great- it makes you feel better about yourself- but in all reality, it's not going to help you, it can't save your life, you're on your death bed. I think this explains why Project Mayhem came into work; the world is ending and there's nothing you can do about it; recycling and speed limits really don't matter in the long run; so why not destroy the world and become famous for it? At least for a little while. I'm not sure if I agree with this quote or not, but it does make an interesting point which is why I underlined it.

Chancee is the best person ever. She's beautiful, intelligent, and I hope to grow up to be just like her!.

"One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it, but one minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection." I think that this passage creates a very good picture of a greater theme of the novel. I think a larger theme of the novel is perfection and how it doesn't exist. This group of people come together to essentially be imperfect by fighting each other. With the cuts and bruises all over their bodies in their regular daily lives they are physically imperfect. I think there is usually a perfect moment every once in a while and when it does come around it doesn't last for long but every person then looks for it and can recognize it as a perfect moment. This one sentence adds more to the book then any one really notices until the book is finished.

"I am Joe's Boiling Point"(71) I really like the contestant reference to this guy named Joe. He tries to explain his feelings in terms of what is happening to said Joe. I think this adds a lot to the style of Palahniuks writing as an author. It definatly adds to the whole "ADD" generation theory that Mr. Lavender was talking about. Its a little random and very to the point and I enjoy hearing about JOE.

Shannon Looks like a Teacher

“Nothing was solved when the fight was over, but nothing mattered.” At the end of the fight nothing mattered because they were not fighting over anything specific, they were just fighting to fight. The concept about nihilism ties into this phrase because it means nothing matters. To Tyler nothing matters, he brings these men together to fight; but what are they fighting about? These men all come to fight club to fight about something, but they really fight just to get their anger out. But then Tyler always says that he always wants to destroy everything beautiful, burn the Amazon forests and pump chlorofluorocarbons straight up the ozone. Tyler wants to destroy the beautiful things in life. For example in the book he destroys many things, such as buildings. The beauty in buildings is, in my opinion, the structure of them and what goes on in them during the day. These buildings being burned are the buildings of wealth; their business makes a lot of money. But if nothing matters than why do they want to destroy everything?

While reading this book i really liked when Chuck Palahniuk brings up insomnia. For example i high lighted "...i come dragging in with every muscle bruised inside and out, but my heart's still racing and my thoughts are a tornado in my head. This is insomnia." Personally i thought this line was very interesting because he has insomnia, and he cant sleep ever. The only way he can sleep is making himself depressed. He does this by going to meetings for the ill or attending fight club. At night time all he does is thinks, he can't get any rest because of this insomnia. In this book he always is confused if he is sleeping or not, he thinks that he could be dreaming or it could be reality. I just enjoyed reading this because even sometimes i can't sleep, or at other times I think I am sleeping but i am really not.

WHAT??L;.LPJMIKN;CTÎÁΩCGU ;,

Fight Club

9. May I never be complete.

May I never be content.

May I never be perfect.

Deliver me, Tyler, from being perfect and complete.

I really like this passage because I feel like this is the narrator's tone in the majority of the book. I feel like he is always doubting himself and relying on Tyler to save him. He always says "I know this because Tyler knows this." I think that he is upset and not comfortable with himself so he relies on Tyler for his happiness.

One of the things I underlined was on page 22 near the middle of the page "This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom." I like this quote because sometime it takes forgetting everything and not letting anything bother you for you to feel free and not stressed. There are so many things that can take over your life and just take away from you being yourself. In this situation I think that he is saying that him being able to just forget about everything is freeing him and making him less worried and insecure. If you have hope in something and it isn't happening and it looks like it isn't ever going to happen that hope will over ride you and make you feel like thats all your living for, and you miss out on so many other good aspects of life because you were so focused on that one thing. That is what I think the narorater was thinking when he said this.

Did Donnie Choose?

The movie Donnie Darko centers around a boy stuck in a parellel Universe and his angst filled problems. We watch as he struggles to find himself through normal teen, and abnormal situations. He is haunted by visions of the bunny Frank, and becomes riddled with many Existentialist questions. However, does this make the movie an existentialist movie? I don't think the overall theme of the movie focused on existentialism, (although I'm not really sure what the overall movie theme was) I think the philosophies of existentialism were not presented strongly enough for the film to be included on the "Top 10 Existentialist Films" list.

The biggest problem I have with this being labeled an existentialist film, is the basis of existentialism is that people have free will. They say people have choices and decisions, and there are no predetermined destinies or ultimate truths. Yet in the movie, there are many times in which Donnie is NOT given a choice. For example, he didn't CHOOSE to be transported to the parellel universe. The Artifact that was transported through the time vortex randomly landed on his house, therefore causing him to be the Living Receiver. Once he has been chosen as the living receiver, he must "return the Artifact to the primary universe". If the movie was truly existentialist in nature, Donnie would have a choice to travel between the primary and unstable parallel universes.

Also the weird bubbly things that come out of the characters chests seem to show that people have predetermined paths, even if only into the next room or seconds into the future. This, again, contradicts the views that each moment is requires constant decisions and should therefore be a constant source of anxiety.

But then again maybe I am looking at the whole thing wrong. Perhaps the bubbles only show the persons intent, not their predetermined paths. They may be showing the decisions that the person has already made, but then again why would Donnie's bubble lead him to the gun?

I guess I was just disappointed with how vague the existentialist themes were and also how many contradicted each other, I still liked the movie a lot though :)

ramble rumble

I realize that The Plague by Albert Camus is not such a confusing book as I thought when I began to read it. As I progressed along I found that it was not so much that I was getting confused about what was happening, but rather that I was letting my mind wander during those long series of pages where the narrator would ramble on about seemingly irrelevant topics. As a result the book is about as boring as a late 1940’s movie. I guess it was due to the fact that I was not reading deeply enough into those sections in an attempt to find correlations and higher meanings to the story as a whole. Or maybe I was trying too hard to get stoked and excited by and entirely unexciting book. Now I don’t want to send the wrong message, this book is much better than The Handmaids Tale, and as far as completing the existentialism topic for this month, The Plague does a very good job of giving voice and image to “existence precedes essence.” Maybe I’m just more of a nonfiction kind of person.