Where to start…where to start? Well, one thing I can start with is that Fight Club once again brings us to dreaming/sleeping and escaping problems. Part of the narrator’s (Tyler’s?) problem is his insomnia, which is actually a product of the commercial/consumer-related job he has. He is a bi-product of a consumer market that requires a job that assesses the damage of careless production. His inability to sleep either creates or is created by the world he is a part of that has shaped him into someone he hates (a nice cinematic touch with "I hate myself" graffitied over and over again on the brick wall behind the two Tylers, as they discuss how "it’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.") Interestingly, he has created an alter-ego who covers the night shift of his life, which we are led to believe he is not aware is himself until later in the story. When he is trying to hunt down "Tyler" after Bob’s death (and keeps "missing" him everywhere he goes), he says, "Was I asleep? Am I asleep? Was Tyler my bad dream? Or was I his?" The narrator seems to struggle (as we have repeatedly witnessed this semester) with reality. At the start of chapter 18, he says, "This Friday night, I fall asleep at my desk at work. When I wake up with my face and my crossed arms on my desktop, the telephone is ringing, and everyone is gone. A telephone was ringing in my dream, and it’s not clear if reality slipped into my dream o[r] if my dream is slopping over into reality" (129). And of course, he explains, "with insomnia, you’re never really asleep, you’re never really awake" – is it really a surprise that he is not aware of his full identity and actions? Ironically, too, when Marla shows up at his support groups, he thinks, "This is the one real thing in my life, and you’re wrecking it" (14) – possibly exchanging his real (and hated) life for his fake life of support groups, or even – and more likely – acknowledging the realness of people dealing with terminal diseases and with issues that genuinely matter and involve true personal interaction (much more so than his worthless, mass-produced actual life).
I also wanted to mention how much I liked the narrative style of Fight Club. Even though some of the narrator’s/Tyler’s thoughts were a bit over-metaphorical/allusive, I appreciated their placement within the unfolding of events – I believe that the Tylers would really think of such things during their daily experiences, perhaps as a result of such a clichéd, mass-produced society. I particularly appreciate the "I am Joe’s/Jack’s ____" interjections. I particularly like "I am Joe’s/Jack’s wasted life" once they get "corporate sponsorship" for the Fight Club via the narrator getting his boss to pay him to remain quiet about what they do with the recall situations, rather than doing his assigned job. Is this a reflection of his once wasted life now serving a purpose by funding a (in his eyes) meaningful mission?
Then, there is the whole deal with "changeovers." I loved this dual-meaning and oh-so-subtle self-awareness within the film and then the book (I watched the film first and actually appreciated searching the text for hints of Tyler’s identity once I knew it from the film!) The key with a changeover, as the narrator explains it, is "The movie goes on. Nobody in the audience has any idea" (18). This is obviously more effective in the film version, as the audience of the film falls victim to the very occurrence the narrator describes! Without having any idea, a changeover happens before our very eyes! And even better, as my husband couldn’t WAIT to point out after we watched the film (and which most people probably already know) is that there is a scene toward the beginning of the film when the narrator is photocopying things at work where a spliced mili-second of film flashes an image of Tyler next to the copier. If you didn’t catch it, go back and take a look (reminiscent of the sneaky insane asylum scene in Memento).