Fans + misinterpretation?

[Alexander]

I'm about to go to bed, so nothing long-winded from me, but I completely agree with you. Given the unreliability of the narrator, we're supposed to question the values presented within the text.

[Trey]

In my personal reading, the book is supposed to show how mundane modern life is, and the backwards effects of consumerism when taken too far. Neither side is "good" in the novel, the men are simply reacting to what is going on around them.

[E.]

It should be pretty obvious to anyone who actually read the book that Palahniuk doesn't share or approve of the narrator's ideas. The dude is literally clinically insane, after all.

I do think Palahniuk is (rightly) critical of consumer culture and the mixed messages men receive about their roles, and that's what drives the narrator and his followers to terrorist acts.

[Derek]

The book was born from Chuck's frustration of not being able to get his first book published (Invisible Monsters), and thus this story (at the heart) is really an attack on society itself.

[Florin]

Agree, except with the bit about the feminisation of society and hyper-masculinity. Feminisation may be a factor their frustration, but it's not the only or the most important one.

The rebellion is born out of a failure to realize ambitions in the rules that society imposes on them, so they create other rules. Fighting has almost nothing to do with the idea. As Palahniuk said, they could have been a knitting club just the same. Focus on the rules of the club, not on their activity.

That said, he is certainly not encouraging his readers to release their inner Tyler Durden.

[Joshua]

I think even people who only watch the movie were not paying attention if they think that the premise is to promote anarchy and rulelessness. Some of the other bits are more subtle, like Tyler, Jack and the main female character all being the same person.

[One]

Like most works of art I think it is open up to interpretation from person to person. I thought it as an attack on consumer culture and the search for a purpose to life in an age of decadence. The idea that Chuck was parodying masculinity hadn't ever occured to me, but I don't think that means that I hadn't appreciated Fight Club as a work of art.

[James]

Joshua wrote: "... like Tyler, Jack and the main female character all being the same person. "

Obviously, Tyler would be the id. But would Jack be the super-ego with Marla being the ego?

[Silverpiper]

This is a satire and a really fine one at that. It scares me that people really want to start fight clubs or think they are cool.

[One]

In a world where people can become violently obsessive over things as stupid as religion, politics and sports, is it really that silly or scary to have people admire some of alternatives Fight Club suggests, regardless of how satirical they were meant to be.

[Silverpiper]

Yes. All of those things are self-destructive and I find self-destruction over romanticized and I definitely think human beings are capable of so much more than using each other as punching bags.

[One]

I think 'using each other as punching bags' is an over simplification. The members of fight club fought for the euphoric high that they got from confrontation, from having a method to to release their sense of futility or inability to cope with life's problems. I'm not so sure that the concept of fight club is as absurd as it seems on face value. People seek enlightenment or distraction through countless different ways, i doubt accepting the concept of self destruction is any more absurd than believing that the son of god was crucified to absolve the sins of mankind, or worse than countless other belief systems that people subscribe to.

I'm not suggesting that Tyler Durden's vision made sense, i'm just saying that i know people who believe in the theories of astronomy, christianity, judasism, communism among others. It's simply a matter of persepective when it comes to belief.

[Silverpiper]

Again, it is self destructive. There are numerous ways to release anger and tension. When you choose something self destructive you only hurt yourself. It is not okay to do that.

Fight club IS absurd. Read the book again. Fight club is only the beginning. Remember the garden full of mulched bodies? Yeah, that happened at Auschwitz. They call it genocide.