One minute synopsis: FIGHT CLUB is the super cool story of an office stiff who stumbles upon an underground movement, which he happens to unleash. It's the American Dream, baby, okay, American Day Dream, American Wet Dream. This guy, in his sleep, is leading a new underground movement that is based around these fight clubs. He, and his soon to be legion of disciples, band together to involve more guys into these clubs. These clubs then take a life of their own. They are kept together by their leader at first. However, a set of commandments then takes over as the code each of the members follows. This club gets too huge for even its founder, master, god to tame. Then he has to decide what he is willing to do to stop it from destroying the city or himself. This is power to the people. Rebuttals will come from THE PRINCE, and THE ALCHEMIST.
The Novelist speaks: This samurai taught me to use the blade swiftly, to cut through the B.S. Characters must act. And the actions of characters are a story. At the same time, every act has to matter at many different levels. This book is cool, but at the same time deep. This book is a thrill to read, and dangerous. This book is all action, but there is also philosophy, a code, a purpose. This is as didactic as we like to get. Chuck P. pulls this off by having the narrator at war with this higher principles. He desires this destiny, he has an idea that he’s fulfilling it, he fears the fulfillment of his destiny. He doesn’t know what his destiny really is. Of course, the book is bound together not by the action really, but by the codes, the tenets of fight club, the commandments. They are firm, but not made of stone. They are written in flesh. They are simple, but they are hard to get to, hard to live up to, but you are tough once you do. You have to be tough, not just physically, that becomes clear, this is about mental toughness. In fact, it takes two different minds in one body to create fight club. But once it was unleashed, it was a natural fit. The tenets are given out slowly, and we discover them as if we are one of the disciples. Charcter. Action. A code to live by. This is the type of fiction that matters.
Why Chuck P. is Mexican. There’s fighting. Really, the fight clubs are clicas. In fact, in the version I read, C.P. mentions Mayans in the mountains who still throw down as part of an ancient ritual, or ancient fight club. Furthermore, these parking lot pugs are working class. They are against the system. They are workers. Also, once his crew knew the code, once they believed in the code, they walked in step. That was how the Aztec Empire rose out of the cactus eaters from the swamps of Mexico. We are great team members, we are loyal, we see beyond ourselves for a greatercause, be it our family, be it our family’s neighborhood, a cause for raza.
