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.