1. You don't talk about fight club
2. You don't talk about fight club.
3. When someone says stop, or goes limp, even if he's just faking it, the fight is over.
Fast forward.
8. If this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight.
These words are God-like to many I've met in my lifetime. Their history? They come from the book Fight Club, written by Chuck Palahniuk, the notorious American transgressional fiction novelist.
For anyone that has seen the movie "Fight Club," directed by David Fincher, starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, which was released in 1999, I would recommend reading the book for it is a thousand times more enthralling, shocking, creative and fascinating. While some may argue "Fight Club" is old news, I beg to differ. The book is a timeless classic that brings up issues that have yet to go away.
The book's basic plotline is parallel with many people's lives in America: the protagonist works a dead end jobs he hates, with a boss who is mind-numbingly boring, he can't sleep, he buys material items to fill something inside him and he rushes around from airport to airport. Welcome to the life of a typical American.
He starts attending a testicular cancer support group to see what suffering is like and becomes addicted to going to support groups where people are dying of a horrendous cancer or disease.
Only the plot line twists as the character Marla Singer is introduced. Palahniuk creates a jagged, disturbing, depressed, suicidal mess that is the epitome of someone who has hit rock bottom.
When the infamous character known as Tyler Durden is thrown in, the rebellious nihilist who opposes all material items and capitalism, the book becomes more gripping. With his famous line, "I want you to hit me as hard as you can," Tyler takes the protagonist into a psychotic yet truthful world of destroying yourself in every way in order to make something of yourself.
For "Fight Club" isn't just about punching someone to release anger; it's not about watching Brad Pitt walk around with his six-pack bulging and V-cut drawing eyes in; it's not about destroying everything our society creates just to be rebellious - it's about hitting rock bottom and destroying yourself in order to reach true freedom.
Chuck Palahniuk does a superb job in crafting a mind-blowing story. And not only is he a gifted writer, but he is also an educated, intelligent, generous person. According to the Web site following him known as the Cult, at random times every few years, Palahniuk will personally read fan letters to him, write back and send a gift package along. He also sends in monthly essays to the Writer's Workshop for the Web site.
Palahniuk originally studied journalism at the University of Oregon. While in school he worked as an intern for National Public Radio. He would soon work for a diesel mechanic and wrote manuals on fixing trucks. Later in his life, Palahniuk would volunteer at a hospice.
When reading Palahniuk books, there are many stylistic things that reel you in. For example, he writes in a way that people actually talk, not with this obnoxious descriptive jargon that many writers use to sound smart. He writes in verbs as opposed to adjectives. He also repeats certain lines numerously throughout chapters.
I respect Palahniuk because I feel all his books, such as "Survivor," "Diary," "Choke" or "Invisible Monsters," hold many truths that society refuses to recognize because it is socially unacceptable. Maybe they are told in a gruesome, bizarre, disturbing way, but it is the work of a master genius who knows how to make a reader want to vomit and pass out yet refuse to set the book down.
Palahniuk has faced much rejection because of his "disturbing content." One woman in particular wrote a rude, inappropriate review of Palahniuk, in which Palahniuk responded with, "until you can create something that captivates people, I'd invite you to just shut up. It's easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It's a lot more difficult to perform one."
I end with my favorite quote from "Fight Club."
"I've met God across his long walnut desk with his diplomas hanging on the wall behind him, and God asks me, 'Why?' Why did I cause so much pain? Didn't I realize that each of us is a sacred, unique snowflake of special unique specialness?... I look at God behind his desk, taking notes on a pad, but God's got this all wrong. We are not special... We just are, and what happens just happens. And God says, 'No, that's not right.' Yeah. Well. Whatever. You can't teach God anything."
Write to Meira at mabienstock@bsu.edu
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