fight club pres (2)
TRANSCRIPT
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FIGHT CLUBA Marxist Analysis
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Quick Reminder
Marxism is a movement that grew up aroundthe philosophy of Karl Marx
It is a reaction against Capitalism It seeks a fairer distribution of wealth among
the under classes It believes in the ultimate dissolution of
centralised government It is different from Anarchism, though they
share many of the same beliefs
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The World of the Film Jack works in a
regular job, lives inan apartment andbuys Ikea furniture
Fincher sets him upas an everyman someone everyonecan relate to
He is shown as beinga slave to a systemwhere everything hasa price
I flipped through catalogs andwondered: What kind of dining set
defines me as a person?
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The World of the Film
In this world, people are commodities like anythingelse:
A new car built by my company leaves somewheretravelling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. Thecar 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-courtsettlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is lessthan the cost of a recall, we don't do one.
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The World of the Film
He is a drone: an unmotivated worker goingthrough the daily routine of life
His life is consumed by shit we dont need
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The World of the Film
This state of affairs is according to Jack the fault of thecorporations (likeStarbucks)
When deep space exploration ramps up, it'llbe the corporations that name everything,the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy,Planet Starbucks.
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The World of the Film
Fincher puts forward a cynical view of theworld in which people are at the mercy of bigcorporations and have no individual power
We are taught to consume from an early ageto keep the wheels of capitalism moving
We are so desperate to keep the things thatwe have that we mindlessly conform to thisparadigm without every challenging it
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Enter Tyler Durden Fuck off with your sofa units and
strine green stripe patterns, I saynever be complete, I say stop beingperfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the
chips fall where they may.
Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all thispotential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waitingtables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobswe hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. Nopurpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritualwar... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe thatone day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we'reslowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
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Enter Tyler Durden
Tyler is Jacks alter -ego. Tyler isJack as he wishes he could be
All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like youwanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable,and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you arenot.
If you wake up at a different time in adifferent place, could you wake up as adifferent person?
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In Tyler We Trust Tyler is presented as emancipated: free from
normal social conventions He pays no taxes as he has no legitimate earnings
He is committed to bringing the old orderinstitutions (like banks) down He wants all men to be free from normal social
conventions like him:
It's only after we've lost everything that we're free todo anything. He wants anarchy
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In Tyler We Trust In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the
damp canyon forests around the ruins of RockefellerCenter. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you therest 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 someabandoned superhighway.
Notice the ruins of great financial centres: Rockerfeller,Sears, etc.
Notice the intrusion of the natural world (elk, forests,vines)
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A Socialist State You're not your job. You're not
how much money you have in thebank. You're not the car you drive.You're not the contents of yourwallet. You're not your fuckingkhakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.
The all -singing, all-dancing crap of the world is a reference to theworking class, the proletariat, thenormal people who bringrevolutions about...
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What Tyler Wants
Corporations to be torn down For man to get in touch with his primitive
(animal) side No more advertising, consumerism or money An end to the established order of rich and
poor All men to be truly equal
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What Tyler Wants
It's getting exciting now, two and one -half.Think of everything we've accomplished, man.Out these windows, we will view the collapse
of financial history. One step closer toeconomic equilibrium.
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Is Fight Club a Marxist FilmYes
It presents a cynical viewof capitalism
It champions the working
man We follow a group of
people who want todestroy financialinstitutions and are
invited to share theirpoint of view In the end: the terrorists
succeed
No Jack fights against Project
Mayhem he is thecharacter we are invitedto empathise with themost
We are shown the abusesof power by Tyler willhis world be any better?
Although the terroristssucceed, Jack/Tyler endup dead (fair enough theyre terrorists), butalso Marla (who is aninnocent bystander)
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The Final Word
Fight Club has Marxist elements to it and wecan certainly use Marxist criticism to analyse it
The film criticises the capitalist world in whichwe live, but the alternative it offers is not seento succeed
Tyler is more of an anarchist than a Marxist, ashe does not believe in the social state