n  “You are not special. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We're all part of the same compost heap. We're all singing, all dancing crap of the world.”n

Fight Club is absolutely tragic in its reflection of the real world. I get angry when I read it and annoyed at a world that could cause such a situation. This may be fiction, but it’s full of truth.

The modern world is unfulfilling and depressing. People spend their lives working in call centres or sat behind desks slowly getting more miserable until they become depressed and want to kill themselves. The modern world drives people crazy with its insufferable and suffocating ways. It’s a concrete jungle and not all of us can find happiness amongst the endless grey days of mundanity.

And in a way, Fight Club is a reaction against that. Fighting bare knuckle in the streets is a way of feeling alive in a dead and detached world. It might be painful, but it is something. It’s a feeling, no matter how bad it may be. It’s better than the nothingness that faces these men as they wonder amongst the stones and lights of an insomnia driven emptiness because it is a feeling, a reminder that they are in fact alive. If you’ve ever worked a dead end nine to five job, then you may be able to relate. It can be soul destroying.

n  “I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.” n

This is not a happy book. It possesses no bright spark and like American Psycho it left me feeling thoroughly defeated after reading, and that’s because there is so much truth in these pages. Hard truths. Gut-wrenchingly agonising truths. Truths that might make you question your own existence because they are just so cynical in their viewpoint. It’s all a bit of a mind fuck. And if we’re to talk about the power of words, about how words can affect you and make you perceive something new, then these words certainly are powerful in their terribleness.

You should go read them.

If you dare.

دروغ چرا...؟!تا قبر آ آ آ آ...
اول اولش کتاب رو زیاد دوست نداشتم.مثل مشت توی صورت بود.درد نداشت فقط گیجم کرده بود.اما نه گیجی احمقانه نه٬گیجی وهم آلود.کلن یک سری چیزها (بیشتر کتاب ) هستند که اثرشون روم خیلی بدون درد و محوه.مثلن مثل وقتی که یه گاز بی بویی تو هوا پخش بشه توی هوا و تو استشمامش کنی و فرق کنی(مسموم بشی مثلن).یعنی اثرشون خیلی خزنده است و طوریه که به خودت میای و میفهمی که فرق کردی.فایت کلاب هم برای من همین طوری بود.
جز اون زیاد پیش میاد واسم که یه کارای مزخرف خسته کننده ای که اصلن و ابدن دوسش ندارم انجام بدم که مقدمات یه اتفاق فوق العاده است.اولای کتاب همینجوری بود به نظرم.ولی ۵۰-۶۰ صفحه ی آخر اونقدر خارق العاده بود که مرعوب شدم.خشک شدم.هیچ...
پ.ن:چه قدر از ته دل آرزو دارم زمان به عقب بر میگشت و یکی پیدا میشد با هفت تیر و زور و تهدید منو میفرستاد دنبال رویام مثل ریموند هسل...

Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

Fight Club is a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk.

It follows the experiences of an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia. Inspired by his doctor's exasperated remark that insomnia is not suffering, the protagonist finds relief by impersonating a seriously ill person in several support groups. Then he meets a mysterious man named Tyler Durden and establishes an underground fighting club as radical psychotherapy.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و ششم ماه می سال 2011 میلادی

عنوان: باشگاه مشت زنی (باشگاه مبارزه)؛ نویسنده: چاک پالانیک؛ مترجم: پیمان خاکسار؛ تهران، نشر چشمه، 1390، در 230ص، شابک9789643627379؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م

داستان با این واژه ها آغاز می‌شود: («تایلر» یک شغل پیشخدمتی برایم پیدا می‌کند، و بعد تفنگی در دهانم می‌چپاند، و می‌گوید که اولین قدم برای رسیدن به جاودانگی مردن است؛ با اینکه من و «تایلر» از مدت‌ها پیش بهترین دوست هم بودیم، باز هم مردمان، همیشه از من می‌پرسیدند که اسم «تایلر دردن» به گوشم خورده یا نه؛ لوله‌ ی تفنگ به ته گلویم فشار می‌آورد؛ «تایلر» می‌گوید: ما واقعا نمی‌میریم؛ با زبانم شیارهای صدا خفه‌ کن لوله‌ ی تفنگ را، که خودمان مته‌ شان کرده‌ ایم، حس می‌کنم؛ بیشتر صداییکه شلیک گلوله ایجاد می‌کند، در اثر انبساط گازهاست؛ گلوله صدای زیر قابل شنیدنی هم تولید می‌کند، که به خاطر حرکت بسیار سریعش است؛ برای خفه کردن صدا، تنها باید تعداد زیادی سوراخ، داخل لوله‌ ی تفنگ ایجاد کرد؛ اینکار به گازها اجازه‌ ی خروج می‌دهد؛ و این‌طوری سرعت گلوله، به کمتر از سرعت صوت می‌رسد؛ اگر سوراخ‌ها را، درست مته نکنی تفنگ در دستت منفجر می‌شود) پایان نقل از متن

باشگاه مبارزه؛ روایت تجربیات شخصیت اصلی بی‌نام رمان است، که از بی‌خوابی و اختلال هویت، رنج می‌برد؛ او پس از اینکه در گروه‌های گوناگون روان‌ درمانی گروهی، نقش فردی بسیار بیمار را، بازی می‌کند، آرامش می‌یابد، و از بی‌خوابی نجات پیدا می‌کند؛ اما پس از آشنایی با دختری به نام «مارلا سینگر»، مجدداً به بی‌خوابی دچار می‌شود؛ تا زمانیکه با شخصی به نام «تایلر دردن» آشنا می‌شود؛ آن‌ها با یاری همدیگر باشگاه زیرزمینی مبارزه‌ ای برپا می‌کنند، که اعضای آن در مبارزه با یکدیگر، عقده‌ های خود را خالی، و به نوعی، روان‌ خویش را درمان میکنند

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 24/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 06/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

[6/10]

I think I had the exact opposite reaction to this book than what the author intends: it was fine. I can see people either loving or hating this one. I guess because it's so well known and I sort of expected it's absurd, over-the-top style, it didn't hit me as it might have had I read this back in 1996 when it was just coming out and gaining traction. I also don't know how I feel about the message it's sending? In 2020 this book probably reads very differently than it did back in the day. I'm not sure if I will watch the film adaptation—which many of you told me during my reading updates is arguably better than the book—because it is so graphic and dark. We will see. But I can't really imagine myself picking up any more Palahniuk books since they seem, from my research, to revel in shocking the audience over anything else, and that style isn't really for me.

"His name was Robert Paulson."

The insomniac (and slightly unhinged?) narrator meets Marla in Support Groups (plural), and he meets Tyler Durden by way of a fight in a car park; his world remains forever changed when Tyler brings him into the urban underbelly that is the Fight Club, and he drags Marla into this sub-world too. He loves Marla, Marla loves Tyler, Tyler loves him, but most of all... Tyler loves Fight Club and the changes to the status quo it can bring.

A classic debut novel by agent provocateur Chuck Palahniuk. Surely this is the type of debut we'd all love to write? Groundbreaking, innovative, unforgettable, and overall a compulsive read! Palahniuk's Generation X rooted, satirical and darkly comedic attack on the norms set by previous generations, is both scary and almost majestic in its implementation. A gorgeous read that most certainly should be devoured, before the very good movie version. 9 out of 12.

Book #2 Nephew chooses my December TBR

Fight Club was a huge part of my adolescence. In high school, all of the angsty kids would bust out a Chuck Palahniuk book in theatre class or on the bus ride home. One time, a group of friends and I watched the movie and immediately went outside on a giant trampoline to recreate our own Fight Club with disastrous results. I ended up breaking my finger without realizing it, and it’s slightly crooked to this day. Another kid crawled back inside on his hands and knees, breathing heavily, freaking out my friend’s mom. Oh, to be a young man again at the turn of the millennium.

I realize now I’ve broken the first and second rules of Fight Club. I also realize I’m the first person to ever make that joke. Anyway…

This book (and the movie) absolutely hold up 25+ years later. Palahniuk weaves so many themes into this short story, and he was absolutely ahead of his time with this one. Half of the sentences feel like they would be retweeted or posted on Instagram with a dark, gloomy background.

If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?

It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.

Maybe self-improvement isn’t the answer, maybe self-destruction is the answer.

You are not your job, you’re not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet.

On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

OK, I’ll stop. There are so many more, but I can’t make my entire review quotes from the book.

This is your life and its ending one moment at a time.

Fight Club clocks in at just over 200 pages (just over 5 hours of audio) which is half the size of most contemporary fiction, but it packs a huge punch. The story starts completely off the rails, and it completely unravels and gets even more out of control as it rolls along. It was interesting to read it now and look back at stuff in history where a group’s shared ideology can propel them to something completely insane. How an underground fight club can suddenly become Project Mayhem. And this was all in the early stages of the internet and before social media.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes insomnia, support groups, friendship, and soap. Also recommended for anyone who hates corporate greed, consumerism, and/or accepting the status quo. But you’ve probably already read this one.

n  

“It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.”

n

Can somebody slap me in the face? I've had this on my tbr list since I first set up a goodreads account and I read it now after almost 3 years. Why didn't anyone make me read this? It was freakish-ly amazing. I am at a loss for words..

I don't know how to talk about the book without giving away spoilers and breaking the first rule of Fight Club: "You do not talk about Fight Club.".. I can only say that the narrator is a troubled person with lots of stress and confussion and anger towards the world, so he copes with it in a very special manner.

Take me on my word and read this if you haven't already, you have no idea what you're missing out on.

This was one of those books I was dying to read for quite some time. I usually keep them for a rainy day when I feel like I'm losing interest in reading. I must say my enthusiasm for literature has been properly refreshed. This is easily Palahniuk's best.

Even though I already watched the movie, this was still a ton of fun. Revisiting the character of Tyler Durden is a pleasure. He is larger than life to the point of overshadowing our humble nameless narrator. Not naming the narrator is statement piece of it's own. Maybe he is us. People sick and tired of the boring everyday existence. Clammering for some excitement in our dull lives. In a way I am jealous, I wish a had a Tyler in my life.

It's difficult to write a spoilerless review, so I will say is that things go from crazy to insane in the second half. I found myself rooting for the narrator instead of admiring Tyler. In a way I was rooting for myself as he was trying to get a grip on his life spiraling out of control. Something I would do in his place. A thriller masterpiece!

Un tipo con insomnio comienza a ir a grupos de autoayuda para enfermedades que no tiene, solo porque eso le permite sentir que aún hay calidez humana y conciliar el anhelado y reparador sueño. También frecuenta el secreto y exclusivo "Fight Club" donde un grupo de hombres se reúne, sencillamente, a sentirse vivos cagándose a piñas entre si ¿Es todo esto, en definitiva, volver a la bases? ¿Es una evasión a los mandatos de la modernidad? ¿La fuga a las imposiciones que esta sociedad materialista nos ha impuesto a todos pero, en particular, a los hombres? ¿O podemos vislumbrar algo más? La crisis existencial y la crisis de la masculinidad brillan en todo su esplendor al ser diseccionadas en esta historia que se luce con una prosa admirablemente sencilla, mordaz y con una gran carga psicológica.
Fight Club es una historia tan conocida como imprescindible.

"We are God's middle children, according to Tyler Durden, with no special place in history and no special attention. Unless we get God's attention, we have no hope of damnation or Redemption. Which is worse, hell or nothing? Only if we're caught and punished can we be saved"

I adore the way Palahniuk writes, it's like having someone back you into a corner and not knowing if they want to hit you or fuck you...the tension is immeasurable. His language speaks to the gut, the primal drives that undulate in all of us just beneath the surface of our civility. THIS is the authors magic, the ability to make us feel so much with stripped down and raw language. The words roll around in the head and make us THINK about our role in the modern consumer society: Who am I? What does this mean? Where am I going in this ocean of chaos?

A lot of people have indicated that this is a purely masculine novel, written from and for the sweaty depths of the male mind. I understand but disagree, I do not think that the content/context narrows a woman's ability to "get" the meaning. I internalized this novel as much as any male. I GOT the meaning of the aggression, I GOT the tension that one feels wriggling in the box society has fashioned for us.I GOT the nauseous feeling thinking about our existence in a world where passive aggressive interaction is the norm.
Rather than condoning violence for the aggression's sake, Palahniuk offers it as a route to enlightenment, a way to turn inward and fulfill oneself rather than allowing society to do it for us. The fighting is simply the initiation into our personal reality, one that has been subverted over time and space... on purpose...because it's easier than looking at the Self.

Chuck Palahniuk and Tom Robbins are the men of my generation that tapped into our need for a modern mythos and initiation rituals. They began providing it by creating new places for one to explore the world as well as reinvigorating ancient tales and applying them to modernity.