Boys Behaving Badly

[Starke]

Pilfering from Mark Twain, Bob?

Fight Club worked because, tragically, it was right. People will slurp up whatever prepackaged dreck is placed in front of them. That blind adherence to the path of least (intellectual) resistance is comforting, or something. So, Tyler tells them what they should think, and that's the route they go. Like apocryphal lemmings looking for a cliff.

 

[Starke]

I think people here have absolutely no idea why precisely Tyler Durden is such a resonant character...

You know, after saying something like that it's a good idea to actually explain your opinion, otherwise you risk sounding like a pretentious douchebag.

For me, Tyler's point of existence in AND out of the movie is summed up by one sentence "I'm all you ever wanted to be but couldn't."

Tyler is wish fulfillment. And, he's at least as toxic as any other wish fulfillment character. At least Palahniuk seems aware of that. I'm not sure how much of it's intentional. Fight Club always left me with a vague feeling that it's smarter than it's supposed to be. And any kind of serious analysis of it always leaves me feeling slightly dishonest. *shrugs*