#211 | From Page to Screen: How ‘Fight Club’ Pushed the Boundaries of Storytelling and Why It Endures

episode SUMMARY:

Douglas Vigliotti dives into the cult classic "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, a transgressive, minimalistic literary novel that inspired the now-iconic film of the same name. Discover how this story of an unnamed protagonist battling himself and societal norms became a defining work of 90s art and literature. Delve into the book's enduring themes of masculinity, mental health, loneliness, and disenchantment—all of which seem even more applicable today than when the book was originally published.

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Welcome back to “Books for Men”, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week I have a literary satire for you. It's a short book at 208 pages. It came out in 1996, and it is titled “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk. Probably heard of the title before, if not from the book, then definitely from the movie, which is part of the reason why I'm sharing with you today. I thought it paired well with the other novel that I shared earlier this month. But before I jump into any more about the book, the author, and some of my big takeaways from the work, I did want to remind you that the best way to support this podcast is to click the subscribe button on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this Don. It is the best way for you to help inspire more men to read.

(01:01)

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(01:54)

Okay, so now let's jump into the episode for the month. Who is Chuck Palahniuk and what is “Fight Club”? So the author is a novelist, obviously someone who has written over 20 books when you take into account his nonfiction work. But 19 of those were novels. “Fight Club” was his debut in 1996. As I mentioned at the top of this episode, he came to notoriety during a time when the appetite in a commercial sense at least, was much more open to the style of literature that he writes, which tends to be transgressive, vulgar, profane, graphic, all of the above really. And if I'm being honest, I appreciate and respect what he does and what he did over the last few decades by pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan, let's say, but to me, this novel that I'm sharing with you today, “Fight Club” is just a great novel.

(03:00)

It's a great story, and as I just mentioned, it really pushes the boundaries of what you can do inside of a work of fiction, it does rely on a little bit of trickery, which isn't always my favorite thing, but it worked really well with this novel. Most times I say, if a novel relies on trickery, you can only read it once because it's not entertaining enough to read it a second time. But with this, you almost have to read it two times because you read it once to get the trick and then you read it a second time to say, did he actually pull that off the whole way through the book? And to me, that's just a totally unique quality of this book, one that almost no other book that I've read relies on. And it's more than just a twist, really, because it's so ingrained throughout the narrative that it's essential to the story itself, which in my eyes is probably the key ingredient that makes it such a great story because it's totally cohesive.

(04:06)

From page one to page 208, I am getting a little bit ahead of myself because this is getting a lot more into the takeaways part of the episode. So before I talk anymore about anything else, let me share what this story is about. So in a nutshell, it is about an unnamed protagonist who's fighting against himself and the world around him. So I do think the title of the book is a metaphor for the entire narrative really, but obviously, it has an integral part to the story as well. So this unnamed protagonist meets this man, Tyler Durden, and together they establish an underground therapeutic method for men called “Fight Club” and iconically, there's the line that goes, “You do not talk about Fight Club.” And I think that again, that is meta for this idea that men don't talk about their feelings and don't talk about the things that they are going through emotionally.

(05:13)

So some describe this book as nihilistic, but I'm not sure I see it in that vein as much as I see it as a metaphor for the masculine struggle in society which is alive and fervent more than ever today, making this book probably just as applicable, just as impactful, just as important in the present day as it was when it first was published in 1996. I view it more as an adult coming-of-age story. Yes, it's transgressive, yes, it's in your face, but thematically it deals with some really important topics, things like mental loneliness, and disenchantment, that is probably the closest relative to the nihilistic viewpoint of this work. But I think it handles the battling of standard narratives that are sold to us on a daily basis in a really clever and smart way, boundary-pushing way. Really, in my opinion, you can't really ask more from a piece of art than what this book and movie ultimately give you, which sort of leads me to my first big takeaway or thing that I wanted to share with you about this book, but it seems like I've been doing that throughout this whole episode already.

(06:36)

The 1990s and the early two thousands were such different times for art, and there really is no fiction like this today. And if I'm being totally honest, it's viewed as problematic in a commercial sense. And so you just don't get a lot of it. And I know that'll probably get me in trouble if the right person hears that, or at least it won't buy me any brownie points. But if I'm being objective, I have to call a spade a spade. It is what it is. There just isn't literary work that is coming out like this anymore. Is that because people don't want to read it? Is that because there's no audience for it? Is that because there is a specific narrative that's being pushed down upon us? I don't know. It's probably a little bit of everything. It's always hard to tell what's nature and what's nurture.

(07:26)

It was just much different in the 90s culturally as well as in the early two thousands. And this was apparent on the screen with the music, with everything. It had more of a 1970s feel in the 90s, which was kind of a lashback to the over-commercialization that happened in the 80s coming off of the 70s. And so when people say, well, that's just where art is going, I always think to myself, it could always go back in the other direction because we saw that in the 70s to the 1980s, to the 90s, early two thousands into the late two thousands, it was this cyclical, more risky, more aggressive or transgressive art that gets pushed to over-commercialization to then have a lashback or rebellion against it. So I don't like to write anything in stone, and one is not better or worse. Certainly, I have my opinions on what I like better, but it is what it is.

(08:32)

And I'm not here trying to lobby or fight against that. And hopefully if this podcast does anything, it shows you that there is a wide range of things that I like to read, probably with some similarities in taste elements that appeal to me and that I think you would like. But other than that, I'm just trying to be objective with how I see the landscape currently. One of the other things that I wanted to point out is something that I read the author Chuck Palahniuk write in his 2020 memoir, “Consider This”, which if nothing else shows you that someone who can write. So transgress can also be extremely thoughtful with his work. He makes a comment about how reading is by its very nature. So you choose as the reader to read the next sentence, the next page. And at any point, you could close that book and stop.

(09:32)

It's very hard to do that with TV or movies or music, as in if it's a transgressive piece of work and it is playing, you're not going to be able to stop yourself from hearing it or seeing it. Sure, you could walk out of a movie, but when was the last movie you walked out of? Or when was the last time you went up to the DJ and say, don't play that song. Right? You're not going to be able to unhear it with books. If you're reading something you don't like, you could always just close it. And so, and that's what makes certain things okay on the page that may not be okay in other forms of media. And I thought this was a really clever way to look at literature and explains a lot about the author's intent. For me, no matter what the medium is, nothing is off the table if it is necessary for the story that is being told.

(10:32)

And the other big reason why I shared this book now and this month is because like “Mystic River”, the novel that I shared two weeks ago, it's another great example of what a novel to movie could be, almost to the point that the David Fincher cinematic version of this story might be even better than the book. And I feel like that's the same with Clint Eastwood's, “Mystic River”, and these are both books and stories that I really like, but the movies really are that good. And it's because the essence of the story is not lost. It's amplified on the screen, and they stay relatively close to what happens in the books with some changes to the endings “Fight Club”, a lot more so than “Mystic River.” For the twist that “Fight Club” has in it, it is interesting to see how David Fincher translated this on the screen to make it work, not to mention the Great Performances by Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, who just do an amazing job with these performances as the unnamed protagonist.

(11:50)

And Tyler Durden. It's funny, when the movie first came out, it didn't get very good reviews, and I heard Edward Norton tell a story about how him and Brad Pitt went to go see a screening of it, and it got booed and people were walking out, and this was an early test screening, and they turned to each other and said, this might be the best thing we've ever done. And I think it's interesting to see how the movie really grew legs over time and became one of those cult favorite type of movies and for good reason as this episode has tried to articulate. All right, so for sake of time, I'm going to wrap this up. Unfortunately, I didn't get to share some of my favorite quotes from this episode. Tyler Durden has some memorable ones for sure, but if you're interested in knowing what those are, then either go look 'em up or sign up for the monthly newsletter at BookforMen.org because I will be sharing them in the newsletter at the end of the month.

(12:48)

Remember, if you enjoyed this episode, please click the subscribe button because it's the best way to inspire more men to read and support this podcast. If you want to connect with me, you could do so on Instagram @douglasvigliotti. It's the only social media that I have. Or visit my website, DouglasVigliotti.com. And lastly, if you're interested in listening to me read my 2021 poem collection, you can do so on the podcast, “Slightly Crooked: Good Stories, Told Well.” So the name of the collection is “mini heartbreaks (or, little poems about life)”. It's raw, it's unorthodox, and it's a mini-memoir of sorts. And if you're interested in listening to it, there will be a link in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening and for more information on this podcast, you could always visit BooksforMen.org.