Fight Club, the 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk and the 2000 film by David Fincher, is the modern day embodiment of many of the ideas on society and truth from philosophers ranging from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, to Friedrich Nietzsche, to Antonio Negri and Baruch Spinoza. From Deleuze and Guattari’s ideas on “making a body without organs”, to Nietzsche’s notions of making one’s own truths based upon one’s perceptions, to Negri and Spinoza’s insights on taking a step back from society and being able to think of things in different lights, Fight Club ties these concepts together with a story about a man unhappy with postmodern society, who finds a way of breaking away from society’s forced “norm”.
In David Fincher’s film, it is made clear that the main character is discontent with his life. The main character doesn’t have a name, nor does it matter that he have a name in that he represents the typical male consumer in modern society. He considers himself “a slave to the Ikea nesting industry,” thinking that the type of dining set he owns will define him as a person. He believes that by collecting designer suits and expensive furniture he can bring himself to perfection. Though he considers his wardrobe and furnishings “very respectable” and making him “close to complete” he still feels empty and useless inside, demonstrating how striving for the “ideal” as philosophers such as Plato and Hegel may suggest, is a useless struggle as the “ideal” is unattainable. The feelings the main character experiences on his attempt toward perfection are truly brought to light when he loses his suitcase full of his designer clothes to the airport officials and then his condo and its contents in an explosion. In the film, the main character looks to his singed, broken refrigerator, on the pavement after it had flown out the window of his condo and notes aloud, “How embarrassing, a house full of condiments and no food.” This reflection is clearly referring to his material belongings, which meant everything to him. Just as condiments are simply a supplement to food, one could not survive off of ketchup alone, the main character’s material possessions are only supplements to life, not life itself.
Deleuze and Guattari would agree with the main character’s realization. Society is responsible for making one feel that material possessions make one who they are. Society determines what one can or cannot do. In Guattari’s The Postmodern Dead End, he argues that “social relations have entered an ice age… poverty and unemployment tend now to be accepted as inevitable evils.”# Guattari is saying that society has determined that there will be people condemned to the bottom of the chain of the hierarchy that is society, and that not everyone has the potential to do what he or she would like. A scene in the film includes a convenience store clerk who lives in a basement level “shitty apartment” being held at gunpoint in an attempt to make him step up to the machine that is society, and get more schooling so that he can get the job he really wanted, that of a veterinarian. Postmodern society forces the idea that some people can become veterinarians making at least $100,000 a year, while others can only work as convenience store clerks scraping by with only $18,000 a year. That particular scene of the film is an attempt to force someone to break away from society’s limitations.
Guattari, along with addressing the social profession issues of postmodern society, also points out that with all of the numerous technological advancements, society has made little progress, because levels of unemployment are growing. In November 28, 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body without Organs?, an essay also by Guattari with the accompaniment of Giles Deleuze, a similar stance on the problem with society is taken. Though the piece describes removing the organs from one’s body as a type of enlightenment, Deleuze and Guattari are not literally suggesting that one remove their physical organs. In fact, the piece is not about the physical human body at all but rather organization, “The BwO is opposed not to the organs but to that organization of the organs called the organism.”# In Fight Club that organism is society.
The main character of the film ends up meeting an unusual individual, Tyler Durden, who is the complementary part (smarter, stronger, more attractive… etc) of the main character. Tyler teaches the main character how to break away from society’s “norm”, and also how to let go. He preaches that society should not be able to determine your worth or potential, saying, “You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet…” By telling the main character these things, Tyler is trying to break the constraints that society puts into place, and that what defines a person and their worth is not material possessions. Tyler and the main character attempt to make their own body without organs by starting an underground club, Fight Club. The members of the club take turns beating each other up; however, this is not the purpose of Fight Club. It’s not simply about punching and kicking one another. The main character says, regarding one of the fighters, “Ricky couldn’t remember whether you ordered pens with blue ink or black, but Ricky was a god… when he trounced the Maitre’de at a local food court… Who you were in Fight Club was not who you were in the rest of the world.” The main character, Tyler, and the rest of the members used Fight Club as an escape from the restraints of society. One’s age, race, wealth and/or intelligence were of no consequence.
In Antonio Negri’s Difference and the Future, these issues along with the organization of society are also brought to light. Negri explains 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s beliefs on the problems with organized society. Both Negri and Spinoza, just like Deleuze and Guattari, are interested in rearranging and reconstructing society. Though Spinoza was interested in reconstructing his society in the 17th century, the same idea of taking a step back in order to fully analyze society and current organization is a concept still important today, as expressed in both Guattari’s The Postmodern Dead End and the even more current Fight Club.
The watcher/reader of Fight Club eventually learns that the main character and Tyler Durden are the same person. This is where Nietzsche’s ideas on truth and perceptions seem to truly come into play. Though the physical embodiment of Tyler did not actually exist, the main character saw him, talked to him, fought him…etc. Toward the end of the film, Tyler has a gun pointed at the main character, who realizes that since they are one in the same person the gun could just as easily be in his own hand. Just as the main character realizes this, he looks down to see the gun no longer held by Tyler, but in his own hand. All that is Fight Club and Project Mayhem, a destructive subgroup involving the bulk of community helpers not only in the main city but also across the nation, is real because of the main character’s perceptions, i.e. his creation of Tyler Durden, which satisfies his need for escape.
The word “slide” is introduced early in the film. The main character, before meeting his other half, attends support groups for people dying from cancer, parasites, Tuberculosis… etc. At one of the meetings for cancer patients, the idea of escaping one’s pain by reverting to a cave and imagining a power animal is presented. The main character’s power animal is a penguin symbolizing potentiality, in that penguins are winged birds which have the potential to fly but cannot. Penguins are generally perceived to be wearing suits, representing the typical professional male consumer. This power animal introduces the word “slide”. This word is brought up many times throughout the film, referring to the main character’s need to simply let go, to stop trying to control everything and just let go, slide. The idea of letting go was an important element in November 28, 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body without Organs?. Deleuze and Guattari imply that all there is, is just being, that there is a type of indifference that the BwO achieves. That state of indetermination before the body reacts, where a variety of resultant actions can occur, is such a state of indifference or complete potential. Towards the end of the film, the main character, Tyler and two members of Project Mayhem are driving in a car. Tyler is at the wheel and removes his hands from steering. At first the main character tries to grab the wheel and control the car, and situation, by steering back into the correct lane, but Tyler convinces him that the situation “does not belong [to them]” that the main character needs to “forget about what [he] thinks about life, about friendship…etc.” Finally the wheel is left alone, and the passengers let the car take over, but not before putting on their seat belts.
Even though Tyler seems to be promoting a type of complete chaos, disrupting society by having members of Project Mayhem destroy corporate franchises and beat brand new Volkswagens with baseball bats as well as beat each other, he always instills rules and guidelines. In Fight Club Tyler makes the rules clear to the members, “The first rule of Fight Club is -- you do not talk about Fight Club…etc.” The list of rules includes guidelines on keeping only two to a fight, as well as trimming one’s fingernails. These two particular rules are clearly there to keep anyone from being injured too severely. These rules are put in place to keep some type of order in the system Tyler is creating. The same can be said for putting on his seat belt in the car. Deleuze and Guattari would agree. It is important that one not segregate oneself too far from organized society; otherwise one will no longer have a place at all. The cautionary section in How Do You Make Yourself a Body without Organs warns of this. Without any rules or guidelines there is complete and total chaos. In attempting to “make yourself a body without organs” it’s important to be very careful. The path to becoming enlightened in this manner requires extreme caution by those partaking in it.
There are numerous other parallels between the philosophies of Deleuze and Guattari, Negri and Spinoza, and Nietzsche, along with many philosophers and Fight Club. The list could go on and on. However, one of the most important themes to be taken from the novel/film is the idea of being able to remove oneself from the constraints of society. Also, to be able to take a step outside of contemporary organization in order to look at one’s surroundings in a new light, and perhaps see a way to change or rearrange the current organization if needed. At the same time it is crucial that one be very cautious. In Fight Club both of the main character’s BwOs got out of hand. Project Mayhem went too far, with people getting hurt and even killed, and the main character was not able to control Tyler, instead the Tyler personality almost took over completely. From Nietzsche’s ideas on truth and perception, to Negri and Spinoza’s explanations on the reconstruction of current organizational systems as the need for change arises, to Deleuze and Guattari’s notions on creating a body without organs, to being able to let go and just be and not letting society force too many restrictions, Fight Club incorporates all of these themes through the story of a modern day generation X male fed up with the disguised problems and constraints of organized society. The message behind Fight Club is that one should not try to aspire to society’s ideal or to some great model of a perfect individual. Rather it is more important to use one’s own perceptions to identify who one is and to interpret one’s own truths.
Note: These views represent only one interpretation of the content of the literary work/film Fight Club. Do not allow any of these perceptions to be constraints against deducing something entirely different from the material.
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