Chuck Palanik published his first novel in 1996. In 1999, David Fincher made it into a movie of the same name, which is the movie "Fight Club" (also known as "Fight Club"). Known as the dark bible for young people. The first half of Fight Club tells that the mediocre protagonist meets the superb Taylor Durton, the second half tells that Taylor Durton’s crazy actions brought the protagonist on the verge of collapse, and at the end the protagonist’s crazier behavior than Tyler Durton ends. Everything.
The film is like Schopenhauer's pendulum, swinging from boredom to pain.
When it comes to boredom, so do we. And we are not ashamed of being bored. For this, go to IKEA on weekends to see those couples who turn their faces over the different opinions on the table color. Why don't we, like the protagonist, want to decorate our home as a magazine. "In the past we looked at pornographic pictures for excitement, now we look at the product introduction." I really want to go to Berlin when I have a chance. How was the decoration of the house that Schopenhauer rented back then? This can help me judge whether Schopenhauer is a hypocritical person, because he said: "The more you have, the more you feel for pain." Of course, his "possession" does not simply refer to matter.
"Work cannot represent you, bank deposits cannot represent you, and the car you drive can't represent you..." About all Chinese people are thinking the opposite of this sentence: My job can represent my status, my bank Savings can represent my wealth, the money in my pocket, and the clothes on my body can all show my difference. You must know that the Chinese are the most "faner". The protagonist in the film understands that these exquisite products can't wrap his empty and shallow soul. In order to overcome insomnia and boredom, he rushes to various disease mutual aid groups, just because "the people who are dying have special weight". His soul is longing for something that has weight.
But all of this was quickly ruined by a woman named Mara. This woman was too similar to herself, and even more eager to hold weighty things than herself. The protagonist saw all his heinous shortcomings in Mara. He felt sick and hated her for not dying. It was then that the extraordinary Taylor Dayton appeared. Dayton used his cleverness and determination to infect the mediocre protagonist. The movie entered the short and agitated honeymoon period between the protagonist and Tyler Dayton. But soon, Tyler Dayton surpassed the protagonist’s psychological bottom line, and the protagonist finally discovered that, Taylor Dayton is actually a mental illusion that he himself split up due to desire. Inevitably, the pain is coming.
All the pain comes from misunderstanding. First of all, the existence of Taylor Dayton itself is the protagonist’s misunderstanding of himself, misunderstanding that he needs to be so extreme, and wrongly estimated his own capacity. In fact, "I" can't be the next Taylor Dayton. The second misunderstanding comes from Mara. Mara can't tell Tyler Dayton and "I". She just needs to grab a straw. She needed something interesting and powerful to fill her up so much. The most serious misunderstanding comes from those "space monkeys". The death of "Bob". "You have a name after you die." —That was obviously a misunderstanding. But the protagonist has long been unable to argue. To be misunderstood, this is the fate of all outstanding people. It is also the pain they must bear. Schopenhauer said: "The more developed the intelligence, the greater the degree of pain." Hegel said while he was still dead: "There is only one person in this world who understands me best." Then he closed his eyes, and the disciples had not had time to cry. Hegel opened his eyes again, "Even this person doesn't understand me." After speaking, he breathed. After his death, his disciples split his doctrine into a school without mathematics according to their own understanding. Just like our Confucius, it is constantly being tampered with and smeared. "Who has seen me on the country road in Lu? Who has eaten the bacon that I personally marinated? Who, in a private conversation, wrote down like a thief/Those terrible words that do not belong to me at all?" (Qingping "Confucius")
Misunderstanding will inevitably lead to loneliness. I think Chuck Palanik is also lonely. It is said that his grandfather murdered his grandmother and blasted his head with a gun. His father had experienced three marriages and met the young Donna through the friends section of the local tabloid. Donna’s ex-husband shot Donna and Chuck’s father, and burned their bodies together with their overnight hut. Adult Chuck lives on a farm far away from the city with a bunch of weird friends, and writes novels about amputee fashion models falling in love with transgender people. What kind of loneliness can force a person to write such a bizarre story as "Fight Club"?
Schopenhauer has an essay called "About Being Alone", which explains the necessity and nobility of loneliness throughout. But I have doubts. I don’t know if Schopenhauer, who has never married, is a hypocritical person. Is loneliness really as enjoyable as he said? "Celebrities in history, who do you want to fight with?" I want to fight Schopenhauer one-on-one. Unlike the ending of "Wraith Fire", I will not choose to commit suicide. Like Dayton, I choose to use singles to strengthen our relationship, although you don't love me, I don't love you. But I fists to the flesh, and I can leave each other with an indelible pain.
If the resistance to boredom and the painful interpretation of loneliness are not enough to make this film a classic. Then the touch of warmth revealed in the ending is the sublimation of this angry movie. "When we met, it happened to be the strangest period of time in my life." This sentence was addressed to Mara, full of love and apology, making the theme of the movie go beyond Schopenhauer's "boring and painful" superior.
*This article has been published in "Watching Movies • Midnight Show August 2012"
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