Fight Club

Right now I'm taking a lit course, and we've just finished Fight Club. I must say I enjoyed the book. It was fresh, vivid and my only regret is not reading it before I saw the movie countless times before reading the book. Beautiful hindsight...

The most interesting element is the 'crisis of masculinity'.... men beating the crap out of one another, because they feel empty, unfulfilled and hollow. Life has become a trite ritual, where you get up in the morning, go to work, come home, sit your ass down and read an ikea catalog... and plan the perfect home. LOl funny thing about this part of the book I guess is, if your gonna plan your life by planing the interior of your home... i.e. if that is the important and significant, joyful part of life; why the fuck to you go to Ikea? Ikea has some great stuff. Its cheap, simple and convenient but have you ever tried to move with cheap, affordable ikea furniture? they fall to pieces after a while. or maybe I've just been careless? When I have moved with my Billy-bookshelf's etc?

Back to the crisis. So the narrator feels that they are a generation of men raised by women... a class mate of mine had a genius epiphany when we discussed this; in the book men = nature and women = society. while most often the view people have on this; i.e. if we break the genders down and look at what they represent; women=nature, they give birth, they raise kids, they keep house, gardens, they nurse, the take care of people etc. while men=society; they go to work, they design, they plan, they build society.

Why are the men in the 'fight club' a generation raised by women? I guess if we look at the historical progress of women; i.e. what type of characteristic the womans sphere has contained through the ages. In earlier times; pre- industrial revolution, women raised the girls and men raised the boys. They had to teach their kids certain traits and skills. This was important for the children as they would grow up and become adults and husbands, fathers, wifes and mothers someday.

Of course this rant can go on forever, and it feels weired to write about all of this with out using citations, LOL thats how indoctrinated I am. I can't write about this without feeling the need to pick up a book and look for a source.

back to fight club, it is quite an interesting read, I like the way the author manages to balance what the narrator thinks, what he does and what he says. And how Tyler is everything the narrator wants to be. Tyler has shed all does courtesies society asks of us. He doesn't have to follow the norm, he can do whatever he wants to. I know some people like that, not in the sense of being crazy and want to blow up every credit-card company and economic centers so that society will have to re-boot itself ;) but they have made their own fortunes and carved out their own paths. They haven't done anything that was expected of them, they haven't found comfort in a 9-5 job, a house with a picket fence and a nice secure car. They have worked their asses of for a year at a time and then taken of to travel the world, or to go to china for 6 months,or picked up and moved to another country because it sounded exiting.

I must admit I admire them, mostly because I wouldn't have the guts to do it. I like my little comforts.