Finish It – Fight Club (book + movie)
by Chuck Palahniuk, film by David Fincher starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton.
Attention Spring Breakers: Here is the best way you can spend your time if you aren’t traveling. Read the book “Fight Club,” and watch the movie “Fight Club.” The book is just over 200 pages, and the movie is incredible. So this is entirely doable, even if you aren’t a reader.
“The first rule about Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club,” so I shouldnt really tell you about this book or movie. Breaking the first rule of Fight Club here is worth it — it’s a must-read. The movie is a much-watch. Most people saw the movie before they read it(myself included). It’s worth reading(especially) even if you’ve seen the movie. Overall, the movie is an angst-driven visual bible of counterculture anarchism that has inspired many.
Fight Club, in the novel and movie, is the creation of Tyler Durden, an anarchic genius whose jobs as a projectionist and a waiter allow him to take part in his small and large instances of rebellion. Ultimately, his vision calls for violent revenge on an empty consumer-culture world.
“Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler’s pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die.” Can you put the book down after reading that opening line?
The publishers describe the book as, “Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the country, young men with white-collar jobs and failed lives take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything.”
Pay attention to the soap theme — the idea of taking a part of one person to service another without their knowing it as a method of exploitation. Good stuff.
And for those Brad-Pitt’s-body-enthusiasts, the movie will leave you pausing the disc, as it showcases his ripped, sweaty physique many times.
“Fight Club” has one of the most beautiful endings in cult-movie history, which begins with the wondrous music of The Pixies.
So if you’ve already seen the movie, read the book that spurned the movie masterpiece. And vice versa. This way, you can allow yourself to become the next person inspired by it.
