You're Not Special

In the past, when people bring up the movie/novel Fight Club, I shutter a little at the things I hear from them. I think that a lot of people who watch the movie are intrigued by the freedom the narrator has in his life, and they being to fall in love with the theories and principles it teaches, while they miss the point. It’s a lot like The Wolf of Wall Street. Many came out dazzled and convinced by the character’s lifestyle that they glorified it instead of seeing it was a cautionary tale, not a celebratory one. Up until now I’ve never been able to truly articulate what “point” they were missing, as I didn’t really have the patience to rip apart the pseudo-babble philosophy Project Mayhem is built around. Since the novel was almost going to be on our contemporary novel list, it’s appropriate to mention the book. Actually, I was going more for the movie. I’m as guilty as the rest of the all singing, all dancing crap of the earth, and this weekend when I watched the movie adaptation, I spotted a few examples that may imply David Fincher saw the flaws in the true-good to believe philosophies Tyler Durden spoke about. It all came from a one  second shot of Tyler Durden’s feet. When the narrator is attempting to disable the bomb in the van, Tyler kicks him out the back and jumps down to the narrator’s level. It reveals that Tyler is wearing designer shoes. I can’t for the life of me remember which designer - if it’s Calvin Klein, the same designer they see in the bus when Tyler gives his “men shouldn’t look like underwear models”scene - but they’re corporate sell out shoes. On top of that he has an extravagant fur coat on. When the narrator is scrambling around the country finding all the fight clubs, he says the line “Tyler was turning fight club into a franchise”. Again, this shows how hypocritical Tyler’s philosophy is. He’s sold out. It also enlightens a certain paradox in chaos. Only an organized system can topple another organized system. The appeal of project mayhem and fight cub is that everyone in it is taking control of their lives, and sticking it to the “man”. What ends up happening is that they leave one system with rules, and into another society with a set list of rules, which are even more heavily enforced.  The reason why they must be militarized in order to topple the system they see unfit is explained in this beautiful quote by George RR Martin: “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, they cling to the realm or the gods or love. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.” The members of project mayhem are those who want to be rid of their realm, or are socially exhiled from it (like Bob with B***h T**s).