Sunday, April 29, 2012

Sally Duff-Outside Reading: Fight Club


Like in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the book Fight Club by Chuck Palaniuk has a lot of Existentialistic qualities.  Freidrick Nietzsche discusses the Ubermensch, or the Overman.  This is the ultimate man.  He lives the best.  Tyler Durden in Fight Club does everything that the narrator cannot.  He is stronger, more attractive and smarter.  He thinks of the idea to start Fight Club, he figures out how to make explosives and he runs Project Mayhem.  The narrator also faces the question of whether to live as himself or to live as Tyler.  Tyler is successful and content, but Tyler is immoral.  The narrator has to decide who to be, miserable or immoral.  This touches on Albert Camus’ idea of the absurd man.  The absurd man does not live by rules and has no regard for ethics.  He does whatever he wants and does not weigh consequences.  Tyler Durden is the absurd man.

No comments:

Post a Comment