Was the narrator an anarchist before he met Tyler?
I liked how the movie had these random little bits of cynicism and rebelliousness from the narrator early on...I mean, it's pretty clear this guy has a transgressive personality from the get-go, when he complains about corporate sponsorship of space, and all that "on a long enough timeline" stuff. But I never thought the character really developed that anti-social anarchistic edge until after he met Tyler. ("Met" being used figuratively of course.) He just seems to sort of accept it, almost enjoy it. Whereas in the book, the character doesn't seem so much to accept his life, as he is so depersonalized and ingrained in his life that he can't really feel generate the emotional capacity necessary for feeling ill-will towards it. I mean, there was that one little aspect that I felt really disappointed when it was left out of the movie, which was the story about the narrator pissing on the Blarney Stone after he got out of college. That part of the book was one of my favourites, and to me that passage was saying, "This guy has always been Tyler Durden. At least since college. Pissing on the stone that day was Tyler's birth deep within him. He's always known that he was that rebel, that cynic, that anarchist, he's always been conscious of it, he just never had an opportunity in his life to show it or express it." Whereas the movie, to me, left out that Blarney Stone story, and seem to leave out a lot of that anarchic stuff, and the character came off more as just depressed and anhedonic than the nihilistic anti-social ticking time bomb of the book who loathed his "push a button, pull a lever" life and society.
Does anyone agree with anything I'm saying? I guess basically my question is: does anyone think the narrator in the movie was actually an anarchist before he met Tyler? And if so, do you think that came across much in the movie?
"Reality is what I make of it."
—God
When he starts narrating in the movie he has already "met" Tyler.
Depends on your definitions.
What is:
Nihilism?
Anti-social?
Anarchism?
I wouldn't call any of the characters in the book nihilist. They're far more existential if a philosophical label need be applied.
As for anarchism, most people don't have a definition for it in the political sense, or equate it with nihilism, which as I said, Tyler is not.
"They sold you hippies grunge, hip hop, now liberty activism."
I think he was Presbyterian.
Okay, maybe I wasn't a hundred percent clear...obviously the narrator was dissatisfied with his life at the beginning of both the book and the movie. But, in the movie, at the beginning (by which I mean the "for six months I couldn't sleep" beginning, not the "people are always asking me" beginning) did he actually want to rebel, get destructive, get violent, cause chaos and destruction? Because in my mind, even from the (chronological) start, the narrator of the book had a desire to both (a) change his life, and (
cause chaos, destruction, rebel in some way, against society, the corporations, consumerism, mainstream society. But I'm just wondering if the movie version of the character actually wanted to rebel and destroy or screw with society even from the beginning (on a conscious level that he was psychologically aware of, not counting the Tyler within him), or did he just want to change his unsatisfying and unfulfilling life? I hope that clears things up.
"Reality is what I make of it."
—God
Taking out the philosophical ambiguities clears it up a bit...
Tyler was a manifestation of his unconscious. I think he's so just nth-degree less desiring of Tylerisms in the film for cinematic effect, better contrast, which makes Tyler almost an opposite. But I wouldn't say he's radically different in the book, either. His sarcasm doesn't come off as laid back as it does in the film.
He was of course, desiring what Tyler was. That if was manifested slightly differently from book to film I don't see as a major difference of character.
"They sold you hippies grunge, hip hop, now liberty activism."
I'm not sure about anarchist, at least from the movie point of view, but he definitely is obviously upset with the way he lives his life. He's sick of it and wants to do something to change, so he ends up creating Tyler to make himself feel better, without knowing it.
"How horribly wonderful."