Freedom Through a Fight Club (Kollender)

Introduction
There is no bigger world than that of the World Wide Web. The infinite amount of information that is at the touch of a fingertip makes it a truly special, yet daunting place. It is both a place of learning and teaching, for people of all ages and this is what makes it so unique. Our lives have begun to advance with theses new technologies and the dynamics of literature are changing as well. There is so much information on the internet that users are constantly negotiating what is right or wrong. As Jimmy Wales, the creator of Wikipedia said regarding the consolidation of information into an online encyclopedia, “To me, the key is getting it right. I don’t care if they’re a high school kid or a Harvard professor.” Wales is of course referring to Wikipedia, but this line still applies to readers attempting to negotiate hidden meanings within books. As all interpretations are relative to the particular reader, their is no right or wrong meaning. A good example of how people form different interpretations is the Doubloon in Moby Dick, where the characters naturally formed there own interpretations of what it meant. These different interpretations can spark some very interesting disputes among its readers on the Internet, and this is where the Internet excels for its users. As users in today’s “wired world”, we can negotiate in online communities and come to terms with what we believe the true meaning is. The way that these individual readers come to terms with what they saw is what makes the internet a special place, where collaboration can yield newer and better ideas that nobody could have ever imagined single handedly.

With our generations remediation towards newer forms of media, comes an apprehension of what the future holds. Similar to the way Plato feared what was to come from the remediation of orality to writing, there are speculators who fear what is to come from our current remediation of books towards there digital editions on the World Wide Web. Plato’s fears proved to be irrelevant, as he could have never imagined the possibilities that writing opened up for the world with the continued advance of technology.Plato’s underlying fear was that people would become lazy from this technology, and people today similarly think that we will become lazy as we have easy access to even more information. The excess of information on the Internet allows users to no longer need to draw conclusions for themselves as they can access others thoughts and beliefs by the click of a mouse. Philosopher Frederick Hayek argued against this apprehension by simply saying, “truth is established only when people pool their wisdom”. Instead of just accessing others thoughts, people can collaborate together to uncover even more information and draw better conclusions. Rather than having to be at the sample place at the same time, users can use the Internet to collaborate and pool their wisdom to uncover the truth. These simple words by Hayek explain exactly why our current remediation to the “wired world” will only add to our generation’s capabilities rather than suppress our individual creativity.

For my project, I decided to analyze the online communities that surround a movie that I define as one of the quintessential greats of my generation, Fight Club directed by David Fincher. I chose this movie because it not only has a very strong online presence from its Cult like fans all over the world, but also because this movie was remediated from a book to the big screen and finally to its various internet communities. This movie is filled with messages, some hidden and some not, that leave the reader trying to process everything that he or she saw. All these hidden messages allow its readers to "pool their wisdom" to attempt to unocover the truth. Its fans do a particularly great job at this, and is something they could not do alone. What I found astonishing about this movies fan following was the way they expressed their passion for the movie. Whether it was the countless amount of fan fiction attempting to reinvent their own idea of fight club, to the small scale producers trying to recreate their own scenes, this movie is represented all over the World Wide Web. Since interpretation is more a communal job, fans of Fight Club have used technology to open new bounds for both for the author and the reader to communicate, remdeiate, and share their passion for this 'cult classic'.

Intrepretive Disputes
Part of the Fight Club experience is that you never know what is going to happen next. You are constantly picking up on new themes, problems, and ideas that the characters bring up. The entire movie keeps you guessing, all the way to the very end. In a Rotten Tomatoes review of the movie, long-time critic Joe Lozito claims that the ending of the movie is a “hypocritical cop out”. He goes on to say, “ I don't mind a film with a surprise ending but, rather than enhancing the film, the climactic revelation in "Fight Club" cancels out everything previously seen.” This well qualified critic who has years of experience in the movie business writes a seemingly nice review about the movie until he tears apart the ending to the movie. The debate that ensues from his review is obviously all personal preference because there is no “right or wrong” ending, but from the looks of Joe’s preference of movies (Star Wars and It’s a Wonderful Life ) he seems to enjoy the happy, fairytale endings.

 Fight Club  fanatics immediately came to the movies defense by arguing in the comment section that the ending is what completes the message of this masterpiece. Some fans like mister b were infuriated at this negative review, writing immature responses like, “ if you think the ending is a cop out, then you missed the point dickwads”. Jon A wrote in a comment to the review, “ the ending wasn't just the cherry on top, it changed the flavour of the whole ice cream but in a good way. I think it makes the movie what it is. I don't understand how such a revelatory, creative climax can be called a cop out!!”. The most eloquent response came from Charlie T. who wrote, “Well...the ending actually shows us what the story was the whole time and it strengthens the theme with the ending. The story is about Edward Norton's character feeling emasculated in the modern world, so think of the ending in that context and it's actually brilliant that he imagines everything because it is a last mental strive to hold onto his male instincts.” He is one of the few readers who responded using evidence from the movie to try and justify the ending. The entire movie, the narrator is striving to take control of his pitiful life and at the end by actually shooting himself he is able to do that. Judging by the fury and rage in some of these responses, I can tell that some of these fans do not just look at this movie as a story. They have read deeper into the movie and believe that David Fincher's different ending from the book is meant to convey something about the narrator and men in general. They certainly do not believe that the ending is a "cop out" but more so a work of genius. Of course every person is entitled to their own opinion, but by the responses to the critic it seemed that many fans were unhappy with this critical review.

Another dispute that ensued on the YouTube page where Brad Pitt and Edward Norton discuss the meaning or shall I say meanings behind the film, is what the movie means to the viewer. In the comment section, PasoFreak comments, “ Every American needs to see this movie. It's sort of a blueprint or looking glass into our future, if we end up rebelling”. MadPutz immediately commented back saying, “Fight Club actually shows how a misguided revolution would be destructive and fascist (the film purposely alludes to the Nazi's rise to power). The point is not to destroy the system, the ﻿  point is to not let the system control you like Norton or make you a psycho like Pitt - the point is to not give a shit.”

As asburd and crazy as MadPutz's comments sound, what he says happens to be very insightful. He is not saying to rebel like PasoFreak, rather he is saying that this movie shows us why we shouldn't rebel and let this consumer driven world get into our heads. Norton even says this in the video when he tells the interviewer to make sure to draw a line between the film and the character. Norton means that destroying buildings at the end is not what his character wants, rather it is too late for him to do anything once he realizes what he has done. MadPutz realizes that this movie is very similar to the world we live in, but that does not mean that we all should just start forming our own Project Mayhem groups and blowing up buildings to save our own lives. He wants us to realize that instead of driving ourselves mad over our society, just ignore it and live our own lives. We cannot control every aspect of our lives, we just have to go with the flow and let life lead us to where were supposed to be. This is why the ending is particularly special to all these fans, because it is finally when the Narrator understands to let life lead him down whatever path he is destined, destructive or not. Without this "wired world", I would have never been able to think this deeply into this movie and would have taken the ending just for what it was on the surface, a massive explosion.

Remediation


The madness of Fight Club has invoked some crazy themes in its viewer’s minds that have translated to some really amazing fan art, fan poetry, and fan videos. One interesting example is called "A Copy of Copy of a Copy" by SwarlsBarkley.

This picture is actually found in the opening credits of the movie but this artist decided to take it and draw his own twists on the image. The boredom and despair in the Narrator's boring job and life is what makes this actual image significant. He successfully nails the color down, even capturing the insomnia in the Narrators eyes. What I like about this in particular is the long face that he draws with the scruffy beard. It all shows how beat down and tired the narrator is of his life, through over exaggerating certain parts of his body. The crooked tie and awkward shirt give an also eerie feeling to the picture that I think goes really well with the movie. This image is before the Narrator meets Tyler, and he looks like he desperately needs to be saved by some sort of excitement or liveliness.



Another awesome piece of fan art actually came from an artist by the name of Dave MacDowell who uses acrylic art to blend two classic movies, Fight Club and The Breakfast Club into a picture called "The Breakfast Fight Club".

This image first off is visually stunning simply with the use of all the bright, acrylic colors. Second, if you look really closely at the picture you start to pick up on various hidden images. In the background through the window you can see the fire from the building burning down at the end of the movie. Although the narrator is nameless throughout the movie, in the book he is named Jack and the artist makes good use of this throughout the picture. He has the narrator with a name tag that says Jack on it, and the person standing next to him has a shirt on that says “I am Jacks Brains!”. He also cleverly has Marla holding a basket that is labeled on it, “Hello, I am Jack’s basket case”. The most interesting part of this image is the blending of two iconic movies with similar themes, but who are on total opposite ends of the movie spectrum. The Breakfast Club for one is about high school students stuck in detention who begin to discover who they really are through social interactions with other classmates. While Fight Club is about a normal "9-5" worker who discovers who he really is through mischief, mayhem (and shall I say Soap). In the end, all the characters finally know more about themselves although one movie ends with a building crashing down and the other with students freed from a Saturday detention. All of these little touches add up to an image that is clever, beautiful, and hilarious all at the same time. I appreciate how Dave can take such a serious movie and a funny movie, and combine them into an over the top picture that is just amusing to look at.

There are always people who can take something serious and make the same situation hysterical, and this is what a group called HustleBot did to this classic scene. Youtube offers many other remakes of certain scenes from the movie, but I found this one to be perfect and far better than the rest.



To start, the scenery outside the bar looks almost identical to the one in the movie. The costumes worn by both Tyler and the Narrator are identical to the ones in the movie. The acting as well as the cuts of the camera are very similar to the original scene too. The only deviance from the movie that I can notice is that the script is slightly modified to say “Kiss Me” instead of “Hit me”. But, this is what makes this scene absolutely hilarious. In the end of this scene, instead of fighting like the movie, they just keep kissing.

This scene is significant because it is the first time the Narrator gets his senses knocked out of him, and actually displays serious emotions. The way a "magical kiss" could open your senses to life, a not so magical punch can do the same. With all that aside, this video is supposed to give its viewers a nice laugh. The comments under the video were all positive, fans of Fight Club were saying things like, " mischief﻿ mayhem lipstick" adding their own comedic spin on the movie. It is nice to see that people can take a serious film and create some down right hilarious videos about it.

Fight Club Fanatics (Cult Movement)
Not only did Fight Club establish a cult within the movie called Project Mayhem, but they have inspired cults all over the world trying to accomplish some of the same things. Just this past year in a Washington middle school, officials discovered a year long “fight club” that was taking place. Every Friday, close to thirty students would join in via text message to hear the new location of the club and would meet there at the designated time. They had the same rules as the normal fight club, except this fight club was not going down in the basement of a bar, it was happening on the school grounds. Ultimately this was discovered when one student broke the first rule of fight club, do not talk about fight club, and the school caught on to the kids. These students claimed they would do it to imiatate the movie and to gain respect at school. It is scary to think that this movie could inspire a cult at such a young age, but as you can see from the movie, people will do anything to gain respect and a sense of belonging.

The infamous Yin and Yang table that was in the movie was recently sold for close to five thousand dollars. This was the only table left after the other two were broken while filming scenes in the movie. This just shows the types of fanatic fans that the movie has. It was originally an Ikea table, which represents the blandness the Narrarator is constantly trying to ward off the whole movie. All of the prosceeds were donated to helping homeless dog's. The author of the book, Chuck Palahniuk re cently received an email from a Ukranian group called the UA Resistance. They have been peacefully protesting the increasing cost of housing in Ukrain along with the corruption that goes along with it. In the email was an interview with a local news station alongside a member of the resistance explaining their most recent protest. They cleverly took one of the iconic symbols from the movie (the smiley face) and put it to use in one of the major apartment buildings in Ukrain. This simple protest actually got a huge amount of attention for its success and its non-violent approach. Although this cult is not actually a Fight Club cult, they employed some tactics that Project Mayhem used in the movie. After weeks of this, more and more citizens started to take notice of this eerie image. The Police could not get involved as these were all private apartments. Ultimately, the resistance got the publicity it needed through the local news interview where it got its real message across to the rest of Ukrain. I think this story is truly amazing because they took a violent image from the movie and transfered it to a peaceful protest. People were unsure what was going to happen to the building (especially after seeing Fight Club) and this is what originally got the Police's attention. Besides this real world use of the movies message and tactics, there have been tons of cult-like fans trying to imitate the movie. Just like the work from this group of fans, there have been both short collages of some of the best scenes from the movie as well as countless reenactments of individual scenes posted all over YouTube. This one titled, “60 Second Fight Club” was entered into a festival for 60 second clips and is one of the best YouTube videos I have ever seen. You can see the passion that the director Alison Parker poured into this short clip. Not only are the effects impecible, but the scenes that are copied are flawless reencatments. From the cigarette smoke of Marla to the fighting scene, everything is a spitting image of the movie. For the acting, as hard as it is to replace Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in a flim, both James Birkbeck(Narrator) John Mason(Tyler Durden) did an impeccable job of reenacting their roles. James Birkbeck successfully captures all of the Narrators emotions, especially in the scene where he is at the group therapy session with Marla. His face seems pale and ghostly while his tone almost mimics that of the Narrators depressed state. What really sets this video apart though is the acting from John Mason who is exuberant and spot-on with his portrayal of Tyler Durden. This all adds up to a pure 60 seconds of enjoyment that even David Fincher and Chuck Palahniuk could appreciate. If anything, this just shows the extent that Fight Club's Cult-like fans will go to bring new life to their favorite movie.

Cool Links and Resources to Check Out (For You Fight Club Fans)
Fight Club Wiki



Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club Fan Site

MovieWeb: Fight Club Forum

Fight Club Fan Fiction

I am going to ask that you watch this video to the right. Whether you are a fan of the movie or of Florence the Machine, this is an amazingly well done video. Although it did not have room to fit in my presenation, I would highly recommend it. Enjoy!