Chuck Palahniuk (pronounced PAULA-nik) is a writer of disturbing novels and short stories that frequently expose the unpleasant underbelly of modern society and the human psyche. Palahniuk was born in Washington State and still lives in the Pacific Northwest. He went to the University of Oregon where he received his B.A. in journalism. After a short stint as a journalist, Palahniuk became an assembly-line mechanic for Freightliner. During this time he attended a writing workshop led by Tom Spanb more...
Chuck Palahniuk (pronounced PAULA-nik) is a writer of disturbing novels and short stories that frequently expose the unpleasant underbelly of modern society and the human psyche. Palahniuk was born in Washington State and still lives in the Pacific Northwest. He went to the University of Oregon where he received his B.A. in journalism. After a short stint as a journalist, Palahniuk became an assembly-line mechanic for Freightliner. During this time he attended a writing workshop led by Tom Spanbauer, a disciple of Gordon Lish's minimalist approach to fiction writing, and a powerful influence on Palahniuk's literary style and philosophy. After his novel INVISIBLE MONSTERS was rejected for being too disturbing (it was later published), Palahniuk wrote the even more disturbing FIGHT CLUB, based in part on his experiences as a member of the Cacophony Society, a loose-knit organization specializing in pranks and rowdiness. After its publication FIGHT CLUB was made into a film by David Fincher, starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. The film created a devoted cult following for Palahniuk, and his subsequent novels have all achieved mainstream commercial success. Though occasionally accused of using shock value and sexism in his work, Palahniuk's sick and twisted tales continue to fascinate his mostly young audience, and have drawn comparisons to Irvine Welsh and Bret Easton Ellis.less...
A must-read for any guy who is bothered by the fact that he finds himself going to tanning salons, returning day after day and year after year to a job he hates, getting manicures. facials, or having his chest waxed on a regular basis. REAL men don't (or at least shouldn't) do these things, as some of us (including Palahniuk) know. Modern men (some of them, maybe even most of them) have become feminized and that is one of the main issues that this book is warning us about. This novel is nihilistic ("Losing all hope was freedom"), pessimistic ("The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression"), and frighteningly accurate when it comes to modern man's plight in a politically correct, anti-male, feminized world. Nihilism and pessimism, it's clear, are sane and natural reactions in this insane, upside-down world.
One of the 20th- and 21st-century's maladies is rampant materialism and consumerism. "You have a class of young strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don't need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don't really need."
Another modern-day malady Palahniuk dubs "the nesting instinct": "You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got the sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. ... Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you."
The purpose of men-only fight clubs is to allow men to temporarily forget the dreariness and emptiness of their daily lives. Fighting allows these men to vent their rage at the world--in particular, their bosses, their jobs, their feeling of emptiness. A fight between two men is REAL, you can't fake it and when it's through the men have been rejuvenated by their cathartic fight experience. As Jim Morrison once said, "I feel most alive when I'm closest to death." Mike Tyson made a similar comment in an interview with Joyce Carol Oates: "Outside of the boxing ring life is so boring."
Another important thing to keep in mind here is that today there are almost no exclusively male bastions. (I can't think of even one at the moment.) Even hockey and boxing (all sports, actually) have become co-ed. Palahniuk understands and emphasizes that men need a place to be with other men, to talk about "guy" things without women around to distract them.
"Fight Club" is a modern and accurate commentary on the plight of men in today's society. Masculinists will love and appreciate this novel; feminists will hate it.
A must-read for any guy who is bothered by the fact that he finds himself going to tanning salons, returning day after day and year after year to a job he hates, getting manicures. facials, or having his chest waxed on a regular basis. REAL men don't (or at least shouldn't) do these things, as some of us (including Palahniuk) know. Modern men (some of them, maybe even most of them) have become feminized and that is one of the main issues that this book is warning us about. This novel is nihilistic ("Losing all hope was freedom"), pessimistic ("The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression"), and frighteningly accurate when it comes to modern man's plight in a politically correct, anti-male, feminized world. Nihilism and pessimism, it's clear, are sane and natural reactions in this insane, upside-down world.
One of the 20th- and 21st-century's maladies is rampant materialism and consumerism. "You have a class of young strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don't need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don't really need."
Another modern-day malady Palahniuk dubs "the nesting instinct": "You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got the sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. ... Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you."
The purpose of men-only fight clubs is to allow men to temporarily forget the dreariness and emptiness of their daily lives. Fighting allows these men to vent their rage at the world--in particular, their bosses, their jobs, their feeling of emptiness. A fight between two men is REAL, you can't fake it and when it's through the men have been rejuvenated by their cathartic fight experience. As Jim Morrison once said, "I feel most alive when I'm closest to death." Mike Tyson made a similar comment in an interview with Joyce Carol Oates: "Outside of the boxing ring life is so boring."
Another important thing to keep in mind here is that today there are almost no exclusively male bastions. (I can't think of even one at the moment.) Even hockey and boxing (all sports, actually) have become co-ed. Palahniuk understands and emphasizes that men need a place to be with other men, to talk about "guy" things without women around to distract them.
"Fight Club" is a modern and accurate commentary on the plight of men in today's society. Masculinists will love and appreciate this novel; feminists will hate it.
