--Tyler refers to the current moment (note: 1999) as one without any distinction or great battles. "Our Great War is a spiritual war," he claims, "our Great Depression is our lives." What do you suppose Tyler meant by this assertion? How does it relate to Fight Club? What critiques of masculinity or Americanness does it make?
The infamous quote from Tyler in Fight Club that "our Great Depression is our lives" stirred up controversy. By saying "Our Great War is non-existent; our Great Depression is our lives" he was indicating that there was nothing to fight for--no war, no battles, that things needed to be shaken up a bit. In order to "shake things up" fighting had to be involved. Obviously, this quote is not true to our world today (especially after 9/11) so the movie became very controversial as did many forms of media after 9/11. People were paranoid and became uncomfortable with daily life after viewing the 9/11 attacks. Basically, a movie that persuaded fighting was NOT needed since it instead, made people further uncomfortable. Men in America feel a need to be masculine and one of the key things that a masculine man is involves a true fighter. Someone who takes a stand and fights for something, whether the fighting is necessary or completely irrelevent to anything as it is in Fight Club. Personally, I believe that a truly strong man (since we are on the topic of masculinity, not femininity) stands up for his beliefs and fights when necessary, but I do not believe that a man with strong character fights simply to stir up trouble to get a kick out of one's own boredom.
1 comment:
I couldn't agree with you more. If I had to make ONE critique about the movie it would be that (the fact that a lot of naive young men believe that in order to "be a man" you have to be violent on some level). In more depth, I could specify that many young men today (I was one) almost feel pressured by this "requirement" the society and media presses on us. This mindset creates madness in one's own head if they are not truly a violent person (which I don't believe anyone is) and is unnecessarily harmful to every and all persons around the afflicted individual. In sum, most dudes (in general, but esp. around Pullman I noticed!..?) walk around with the "tuff guy" appearance and swagger which is very detrimental to a society's idealized peace (not to mention inner peace). Otherwise, the movie kicks ass (blowing up big-business credit card companies and such).
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