After reading the novel this weekend preparatory to writing a requested essay on it, I’m going to break the first rule here and talk about it. First, this is one of the gayest novels ever written. It’s not really about fighting, it’s about cruising, and if you can’t see that from the very first page, where the protagonist is metaphorically performing a Monica, well, let me introduce you to a concept known among the literati as “the metaphor”. (One could also argue that it’s quasi-occultic based on that scene and later developments, but the Ourorobos theme is not sustained whereas the gay one definitely is.) The suppression and frustration of men should not be taken literally here, it is representational of sexual frustration and the sublimation of homosexual desire.
What I found interesting about Fight Club, beyond the doppleganger aspect, was how the author got the psychological aspects of the transition to becoming a fighter correct while getting the details of physical combat so gloriously wrong. For example, the twenty-minute fight? Even trained fighters are exhausted after six two-minute rounds with breaks in between and many full-contact bouts are scheduled for only three rounds. My guess is that he was involved with a full-contact fighter or perhaps a wrestler for an extended period of time.
I’ll be interested to hear from the VPQF to either sustain or criticize my take on the book. And no, I haven’t seen the movie.