I just finished watching fight club. Aside from
its action/thriller fascade, its themes, of strength in masculinity and
fighting and humilty towards a greater cause, irrespective of whether
good or bad, really underpin a lot of thoughts that I have had during
my life as man. Giving up my life to adventure, to a greater cause, one
that challenges the question of my very existence is something I often
think about in great detail. I recall giving some advice to a good
friend the other day that was along the lines of 'who you are and what
you think are but a grain of sand on a beach with respect to the
vastness of God', while in the film Tyler's way of saying something
similar is a lot more vulgar; 'you're the all singing, all dancing crap
of the world'. What I said was not meant in any discouraging way but
rather a challenge that can only be realised through some form of
revelation and it takes a degree of strength and wisdom to come away
after hearing that with humility and the realisation that there is
actually no negativity implied. From this thought it can be taken that,
you as an individual have little control over your surroundings and the
world you live in and any attempt you make to control it is almost
futile; this is inferred in some of Tyler's mantras 'you are not the
clothes you wear, you are not the car you drive etc...'.
To find satisfaction, it is necessary to give your entire self over to
something greater; in the film this was a socialist vigilante group, in
reality that bigger thing is God and actually it might be just as hard
mentally to give up everything and join some underground militia as it
is to give up everything to God. I've certainly found this over the
last few months, that I've been in a place where I've had to give up my
rights to certain relationships and to my future career plans etc...
and give it all to God. I've certainly not achieved clarity in this
yet, but I've realised that it does require a lot of strength to be
humble before God and trust my life to him and his greater good. But I
can rest assured that wherever I do go from here will be an adventure
I was gonna blog a bit more about other parallel themes I spotted in
the film, but I can't find the words and its late. But one thing I did
think of was how do women feel/respond to Fight Club?? I thunk this
after Tyler said 'you are a not pretty snowflake'....... If
this was said to a girl in the same context would she be a bit disheartened
rather than edified?? :S
