FIGHT CLUB - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

FIGHT CLUB

Book by Chuck Palahniuk

Film by David FincherSlide2

Cornelius (a/k/a Travis, etc): the unreliable narratorBitchtits Bob (a/k/a Robert Paulson): the dead dudeMarla Singer: loser death chickChloe: a support group member who eventually diesTyler Durden: soap manufacturerEffing Lou: nightclub ownerAngel Face: too beautiful for his own goodRichard Chesler: Cornelius’s supervisor at workThe Mechanic: HIS NAME IS ROBERT PAULSON

Space Monkeys: members of PROJECT MAYHEM

CharactersSlide3

In the book version, the setting is SeattleCould be any overdeveloped huge American cityClosest guess is Wilmington, Delaware (banking hub)Cornelius works at a sleazy job at a sleazy companyCornelius lives in a foofy high-riseHe suffers from IKEA NESTING SYNDROMEThat is, the conspicuous consumption seen in BoCHe can’t sleep because his existence is so pointless

He starts hanging around in support groups

He first meets Marla Singer

The settingSlide4

Cornelius finds happiness at the support groupBreaks down crying in Bitchtits Bob’s armsSleeps like a baby; starts going to other meetingsChloe: the dying woman who wants to get laidMeets (shudder) Marla Singer: the “tourist”Marla attends meetings to make herself feel aliveCornelius attends meetings so he can sleep at nightHe can’t cry at meetings if Marla is there

They divide up the meetings between themselves

They exchange numbers but still despise each other

Looking For AnswersSlide5

Cornelius’s alter ego, whom he meets on a planActually Cornelius’s sleepless schizophrenic selfWorks as a projectionist and a banquet serverMakes soap in the house on Paper Street“Meets” Cornelius in the exit row of an airplaneTakes Cornelius in after his apartment explodesHouse on Paper Street: Liminal ExperienceCo-founder of FIGHT CLUBCo-founder of Project Mayhem

Becomes Marla Singer’s lover

Who Is Tyler Durden?Slide6

Otherwise known as conspicuous consumptionSomewhat similar to Homeric areteOwning (and using) things ostentatiouslyHomeric heroes are fixated on possessionsGogol mocks Major Kovalyov’s purchasesVonnegut mocks America’s fixation with brandsCornelius works hard for the car manufacturer

Cornelius is traveling literally all the time

Cornelius’s refrigerator has all condiments, no food

Cornelius is fixated on his own IKEA furniture

IKEA Nesting SyndromeSlide7

“Look, nobody takes this more seriously than me. That condo was my life, okay? I loved every stick of furniture in that place. That was not just a bunch of stuff that got destroyed, it was ME!”“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 of years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your 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 that you used to own, now they own you

.”

IKEA Nesting SyndromeSlide8

“A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.”Cornelius’s JobSlide9

1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB. 2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB. 3rd RULE: If someone says "stop" or goes limp, taps out the fight is over. 4th RULE: Only two guys to a fight. 5th RULE: One fight at a time. 6th

RULE: No shirts, no shoes.

7th

RULE: Fights will go on as long as they have to

.

8th

RULE: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB, you HAVE to fight.

FIGHT CLUBSlide10

Man, I see in Fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place... We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.Who is FIGHT CLUB?Slide11

Ramshackle house on Paper Street with the soap business down in the basementEffing Lou’s Nightclub, complete with sleazy basement and Effing Lou’s own personal katabasisCancer support groups, where both Cornelius and Marla scoff at others’ sufferingCornelius’s job with the car manufacturer, working out the recall “formula”Cornelius’s boss, Mr. Richard CheslerFancy banquets where Tyler Durden is a server and urinates into the soup

Aspects of DystopiaSlide12

Larger, far more organized spinoff of Fight ClubRecalls the organization of the Nazi PartyA nice big side order of Mao Zedong, alsoEverything is subject to the leader, Tyler DurdenThe members are addressed as “Space Monkeys”They look and dress and live all the same wayThey are basically ROBOTSThey perform major acts of violence at firstThey are working up to something far worse

They

are all around the nation

PROJECT MAYHEMSlide13

Project Mayhem practices COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

by “sticking it to the man”

Project Mayhem practices

CULTURAL COMPETENCE

by taking part in everyday life

Tyler

Durden

practices

ETHICAL

LEADERSHIP

by guiding Project Mayhem toward important public affairs tasks

Destroying all of the credit recording organizations would give the entire world a new start

All on a campus that is friendly, encouraging and

helpful!

PROJECT MAYHEMSlide14

“Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.” “In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower.

“And

when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway

.”

Tyler

Durden’s

VisionSlide15

Bitchtits Bob = Robert Paulson = Sacrificed ManShot in the head by a policeman during one of Project Mayhem’s pranksAngel Face says to “bury him in the yard”Cornelius: HIS NAME WAS BOB! Everybody:

HIS

NAME IS ROBERT

PAULSEN

!

Cornelius realizes that Project Mayhem has gone completely out of control

Much as Kilgore Trout realizes that

Now It Can Be Told

is a very dangerous book

What does

Cornelius decide to do?

The Tipping PointSlide16

“Marla's philosophy of life is that she might die at any moment. The tragedy, she said, was that she didn't.”Is she an actual flesh and blood human being with her own tormented life?Is she an invented female alter ego expressing Cornelius’s guilt and pain, the way that Tyler Durden is a male alter ego expressing Cornelius’s hate and anger?Is she a sort of guide, or at least a muse?

Marla SingerSlide17

Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight and become BFFs, fight monsters and anger Ishtar. Enkidu goes too far and becomes the “Sacrificed Man.”Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout are on a collision path; Dwayne loses his mind and they fight, making him the “Sacrificed Man.”Cornelius and Tyler Durden fight in the very beginning and in the very end of the film, which makes him the “Sacrificed Man.”

The Sacrificed ManSlide18

Cornelius has gone on a dystopic katabasis, much like Ass-Lucius, Everett, Antigone, Major Kovalyov, and Kilgore Trout: hell is right where you liveNo wisdom figure here: rather the narrator becomes his own wisdom figure at his own ARTI MANTHANOTwo “Sacrificed Men,” the monsters are all human beings; that scene with the liposuction fatLike Ass-Lucius and Kilgore Trout, Cornelius is reborn and wants to have a sane existence with Marla

Takeaways