sylleptic | (Reply)

From:

I really liked Fight Club for the way it tells the story. I'm a bigger fan of the book than the movie, and just the way it's written and the voice, I just love it. (It's first person, digresses a lot, you never find out the narrator's name and it's amazingly done, I am v. shallow.) I admit I loved it less after reading more of Palahniuk's stuff (that just seems to be the author's voice, not the character's, which was something of a let down), and I don't particularly recommend any of his other stuff. But Fight Club is such unreliable narrator and done so well. I think part of what the movie missed is that the narrator is just not on with what's going on and tries to stop it and then the movie changed the ending entirely (in the book, he ends up in a mental hospital). But, yeah, I think Fincher was more interested in the violence than in the fact that the narrator is a passenger in his own story and then tries to put the breaks on it and has to fight back against his own creation. The book lets you into his head so you see more, but you also see a lot less.

But, yeah, even in the book, it's all the narrator's story. Marla is more of a plot device so the author can explore how the narrator can be in a love triangle with Tyler and how this completely confuses Marla.

From the books of his I've read, Palahniuk does seem to have a Type as his protags. It probably says a lot about me, more than about him, that I loved Fight Club, and was meh on his other stuff. ;)

But, yeah. I completely understand what you're saying about Fight Club. If you like twisty narratives and unreliable narrators and excellent writing, maybe pick up the book? But, yeah. I understand. :)

And final edit, I promise: you might enjoy the Fight Club - Circus vid. Tyler's a put on a show kind of girl. ;)