Book by Chuck Palahniuk
Film by David Fincher
Characters
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Cornelius (a/k/a Travis, etc): the unreliable narrator
Bitchtits Bob (a/k/a Robert Paulson): the dead dude
Marla Singer: loser death chick
Chloe: a support group member who eventually dies
Tyler Durden: soap manufacturer
Effing Lou: nightclub owner
Angel Face: too beautiful for his own good
Richard Chesler: Cornelius’s supervisor at work
The Mechanic: HIS NAME IS ROBERT PAULSON
Space Monkeys: members of PROJECT MAYHEM
The setting
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In the book version, the setting is Seattle
Could be any overdeveloped huge American city
Closest guess is Wilmington, Delaware (banking hub)
Cornelius works at a sleazy job at a sleazy company
Cornelius lives in a foofy high-rise
He suffers from IKEA NESTING SYNDROME
That is, the conspicuous consumption seen in BoC
He can’t sleep because his existence is so pointless
He starts hanging around in support groups
He first meets Marla Singer
Looking For Answers
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Cornelius finds happiness at the support group
Breaks down crying in Bitchtits Bob’s arms
Sleeps like a baby; starts going to other meetings
Chloe: the dying woman who wants to get laid
Meets (shudder) Marla Singer: the “tourist”
Marla attends meetings to make herself feel alive
Cornelius attends meetings so he can sleep at night
He can’t cry at meetings if Marla is there
They divide up the meetings between themselves
They exchange numbers but still despise each other
Who Is Tyler Durden?
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Cornelius’s alter ego, whom he meets on a plan
Actually Cornelius’s sleepless schizophrenic self
Works as a projectionist and a banquet server
Makes soap in the house on Paper Street
“Meets” Cornelius in the exit row of an airplane
Takes Cornelius in after his apartment explodes
Co-founder of FIGHT CLUB
Co-founder of Project Mayhem
Becomes Marla Singer’s lover
IKEA Nesting Syndrome
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Otherwise known as conspicuous consumption
Somewhat similar to Homeric arete
Owning (and using) things ostentatiously
Gogol mocks Major Kovalyov’s purchases
Vonnegut mocks America’s fixation with brands
Cornelius 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 Syndrome
“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.”
FIGHT CLUB
 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.
Who is FIGHT CLUB?
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.
Aspects of Dystopia
 Ramshackle house on Paper Street with the soap
business down in the basement
 Effing Lou’s Nightclub, complete with sleazy basement
and Effing Lou’s own personal katabasis
 Cancer support groups, where both Cornelius and
Marla scoff at others’ suffering
 Cornelius’s job with the car manufacturer, working out
the recall “formula”
 Cornelius’s boss, Mr. Richard Chesler
 Fancy banquets where Tyler Durden is a server and
urinates into the soup
PROJECT MAYHEM
 Project Mayhem practices
by “sticking it to the man”
 Project Mayhem practices
by taking part in everyday life
 Tyler Durden practices
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 MAYHEM
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Larger, far more organized spinoff of Fight Club
Recalls the organization of the Nazi Party
A nice big side order of Mao Zedong, also
Everything is subject to the leader, Tyler Durden
The members are addressed as “Space Monkeys”
They look and dress and live all the same way
They perform major acts of violence at first
They are working up to something far worse
They will stop at nothing
They are all around the nation
Tyler Durden’s Vision
“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.”
The Tipping Point
 Bitchtits Bob = Robert Paulson = Sacrificed Man
 Shot in the head by a policeman during one of Project
Mayhem’s pranks
 Angel Face says to “bury him in the yard”
 Cornelius:
 Everybody:
 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?
Marla Singer
 “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?