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elementary my dear baxter
I can't say I've been present enough on this forum lately to know its pulse on the movie Fight Club, which I love dearly and truly, still, even after having watched it very very recently.
And I won't pretend it's not a weird dark edgy problem fest, that's part of what makes it so entertaining. But like I got the vibe from people in my life and the internet in general sometimes that like, liking Fight Club is how you tell someone is one of "the bad ones" and I don't know, that hurts. Because I love this movie goddamn it. It did take me a very very long time to finally "get" it though, to be honest.
When I was a teen I loved Tyler Durden as a character (and let's be clear, still do) because he was this interesting philosophizing anarchist who was going to burn down all the bullshit and I couldn't figure out why he becomes the villain in the last third of the film. But also, at that time and until embarrassingly recently, I didn't properly understand Marla's role in the story. When the Narrator says "all of this has something to do with a girl named Marla Singer" I didn't really ever vibe with it throughout most of my young adulthood. I thought that was just "a movie thing" where there has to be a love interest.
But I watched it again with eyes a little queerer this time and put together what I was starting to get but not quite yet from other more recent viewings: It really is about Marla. Not as like a prize, but as a person. But wait, let's start earlier.
So we're introduced to our Narrator, who I'm somehow only just now realizing how queer coded he is. In particular I think he may be asexual. But aside from that he's this guy who just fucking hates the civilization he's come up in. And he particularly hates himself, having come up chasing the American Dream, only to find himself living a cushy yuppie life on the dime of a company that burns families. His feelings about it all eventually become so toxic that they manifest in a sleeping problem because he's developed a chaotic alter ego running around pulling disgusting childish pranks on the wealthy for kicks. Tyler Durden.
But it wouldn't have gone any further than that if he hadn't started seeking a less toxic way to deal with his emotions, by vacationing in other people's trauma. Ok I know but it is kind of the point that he's a bit of an asshole at this point in the story. He's using the warmth of these wounded and dying people processing their grief, and Marla comes stomping in all full of piss and vinegar and flagrantly doing what he was trying to keep on the downlow out of some sense of shame at the very least, and he immediately hates her. He's disgusted with her. He even openly expresses apathy at the knowledge that she's attempting suicide and choosing to call him later on in the film.
He's too wrapped out in his own bullshit to see what a kindred spirit she is. Someone who hates the world as much as he does but has the courage to just wear her disrespect for it anyway. She's pretentious and moody and overly dramatic and self-loathing... just like him. And way way way deep down, he wants to get to know her better. But he's still too much a participant in this society he's wrapped up in, so he starts blowing up his own stuff and unconsciously crafting a reason to "meet up" with his anarchic alter ego and learn how to be more like him.
Because Tyler Durden, now there's someone who could easily hang out with Marla Singer. If he can become more like Tyler, maybe he'll connect to her. But it's messy, and chaotic, obviously so when our main character is technically insane. Also as he becomes more like Tyler, Tyler becomes more extreme. He goes well past merry mischief maker into actual apocalyptic cult leader. Fight Club starts as a very repressed outlet of emotion, like crying at a group therapy session, but more primal and visceral. But then it becomes Project Mayhem it becomes a means to actually bring it all crashing down. Tyler is very ambitious after all. And ultimately, willing to kill.
I'd say that's the first step towards Tyler going from this delightful if disgusting mentor to the villain of the picture. When Bob dies. Bob is a sweet gentle guy and the Narrator has a soft spot for him. That Tyler's antics got him killed is where he actually starts to care about how out of hand this has gotten. And I can I just say, when you stop and think about it, as cynical as Fight Club is about the world we live in, the people in it do tend to be really sweet and gentle and caring people, from Bob to the various therapy groups to the cops trying to prevent Marla's suicide.
And only embarrassingly recently did I get the more important information being communicated in the hotel scene after he talks to Marla and she calls him Tyler. Tyler reappears, with a new look and a much more antagonistic tone, and they put the pieces together for the audience if they haven't figured it out yet. This shit always made me uncomfortable when I was younger because again, I didn't understand why the cool guy I looked up to was now the bad guy. It's because neither one of them says it because they don't have to. Tyler wants to kill Marla.
Through Tyler he did get to know Marla better, but also she got to know all the worst and most toxic aspects of him in return. Every morning she came downstairs to a completely different person, expressing open and hostile contempt for her in a way that somehow mirrors jealousy? It all hits him what a complete and utter narcissistic piece of shit he's been to her and now his insane cult leader alter ego wants her dead because she knows too much and will either report him to more competent authorities or help him figure out what's going on and get him help. Either way the plan is off. And Tyler won't have that.
That's why he has the darkly hilarious fight with Tyler in the basement over the bombs, and why it's so important for him to defeat Tyler and gain control of the gun before the Project Mayhem goons arrive with Marla. It's why he's kind of ok just watching the buildings blow up afterward, clearly willing to either face the consequences of his actions or use his skills as a genius anarchist mastermind to escape to some new life elsewhere. It's ok because Marla is ok, and he cares about her. Doesn't matter if it's as a friend or as a lover, he has somebody that he cares about now. That's enough for a fresh start.
So that's why I still love Fight Club ok?
And I won't pretend it's not a weird dark edgy problem fest, that's part of what makes it so entertaining. But like I got the vibe from people in my life and the internet in general sometimes that like, liking Fight Club is how you tell someone is one of "the bad ones" and I don't know, that hurts. Because I love this movie goddamn it. It did take me a very very long time to finally "get" it though, to be honest.
When I was a teen I loved Tyler Durden as a character (and let's be clear, still do) because he was this interesting philosophizing anarchist who was going to burn down all the bullshit and I couldn't figure out why he becomes the villain in the last third of the film. But also, at that time and until embarrassingly recently, I didn't properly understand Marla's role in the story. When the Narrator says "all of this has something to do with a girl named Marla Singer" I didn't really ever vibe with it throughout most of my young adulthood. I thought that was just "a movie thing" where there has to be a love interest.
But I watched it again with eyes a little queerer this time and put together what I was starting to get but not quite yet from other more recent viewings: It really is about Marla. Not as like a prize, but as a person. But wait, let's start earlier.
So we're introduced to our Narrator, who I'm somehow only just now realizing how queer coded he is. In particular I think he may be asexual. But aside from that he's this guy who just fucking hates the civilization he's come up in. And he particularly hates himself, having come up chasing the American Dream, only to find himself living a cushy yuppie life on the dime of a company that burns families. His feelings about it all eventually become so toxic that they manifest in a sleeping problem because he's developed a chaotic alter ego running around pulling disgusting childish pranks on the wealthy for kicks. Tyler Durden.
But it wouldn't have gone any further than that if he hadn't started seeking a less toxic way to deal with his emotions, by vacationing in other people's trauma. Ok I know but it is kind of the point that he's a bit of an asshole at this point in the story. He's using the warmth of these wounded and dying people processing their grief, and Marla comes stomping in all full of piss and vinegar and flagrantly doing what he was trying to keep on the downlow out of some sense of shame at the very least, and he immediately hates her. He's disgusted with her. He even openly expresses apathy at the knowledge that she's attempting suicide and choosing to call him later on in the film.
He's too wrapped out in his own bullshit to see what a kindred spirit she is. Someone who hates the world as much as he does but has the courage to just wear her disrespect for it anyway. She's pretentious and moody and overly dramatic and self-loathing... just like him. And way way way deep down, he wants to get to know her better. But he's still too much a participant in this society he's wrapped up in, so he starts blowing up his own stuff and unconsciously crafting a reason to "meet up" with his anarchic alter ego and learn how to be more like him.
Because Tyler Durden, now there's someone who could easily hang out with Marla Singer. If he can become more like Tyler, maybe he'll connect to her. But it's messy, and chaotic, obviously so when our main character is technically insane. Also as he becomes more like Tyler, Tyler becomes more extreme. He goes well past merry mischief maker into actual apocalyptic cult leader. Fight Club starts as a very repressed outlet of emotion, like crying at a group therapy session, but more primal and visceral. But then it becomes Project Mayhem it becomes a means to actually bring it all crashing down. Tyler is very ambitious after all. And ultimately, willing to kill.
I'd say that's the first step towards Tyler going from this delightful if disgusting mentor to the villain of the picture. When Bob dies. Bob is a sweet gentle guy and the Narrator has a soft spot for him. That Tyler's antics got him killed is where he actually starts to care about how out of hand this has gotten. And I can I just say, when you stop and think about it, as cynical as Fight Club is about the world we live in, the people in it do tend to be really sweet and gentle and caring people, from Bob to the various therapy groups to the cops trying to prevent Marla's suicide.
And only embarrassingly recently did I get the more important information being communicated in the hotel scene after he talks to Marla and she calls him Tyler. Tyler reappears, with a new look and a much more antagonistic tone, and they put the pieces together for the audience if they haven't figured it out yet. This shit always made me uncomfortable when I was younger because again, I didn't understand why the cool guy I looked up to was now the bad guy. It's because neither one of them says it because they don't have to. Tyler wants to kill Marla.
Through Tyler he did get to know Marla better, but also she got to know all the worst and most toxic aspects of him in return. Every morning she came downstairs to a completely different person, expressing open and hostile contempt for her in a way that somehow mirrors jealousy? It all hits him what a complete and utter narcissistic piece of shit he's been to her and now his insane cult leader alter ego wants her dead because she knows too much and will either report him to more competent authorities or help him figure out what's going on and get him help. Either way the plan is off. And Tyler won't have that.
That's why he has the darkly hilarious fight with Tyler in the basement over the bombs, and why it's so important for him to defeat Tyler and gain control of the gun before the Project Mayhem goons arrive with Marla. It's why he's kind of ok just watching the buildings blow up afterward, clearly willing to either face the consequences of his actions or use his skills as a genius anarchist mastermind to escape to some new life elsewhere. It's ok because Marla is ok, and he cares about her. Doesn't matter if it's as a friend or as a lover, he has somebody that he cares about now. That's enough for a fresh start.
So that's why I still love Fight Club ok?
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