NEW VIDEO: Fight Club & Cultural Fascism

Wow, that was really good. I found the music a little distracting near the beginning because it had kind of a spooky vibe to it and I came in expecting more of a humor piece, but given the subject matter I'm guessing now that was intentional.

Mike Metzler

The Serbians lost the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 and have used that as an excuse to attack Kosovar Albanians ever since.

You bring up some great points. Hopefully we can work some of those ideas into the rewritten conclusion. These themes end up being so abstract, so meta/theoretical, the challenge ends up being: how do you "prove" something that's not explicitly in the narrative, and on top of that, how do you "prove" something that Tyler actively wants to conceal? We'll give it a shot tho! These comments (yours and the others that people have left) are super duper insightful and helpful!

Maggie Mae Fish

I don't have much in the way of smart or insightful feedback on the points made in the video - it's way too nuanced for me to even take a stab at it - other than the fact that I love it, and I actually like the way the conclusion is now. But I'd really love a follow-up video (or a related video) talking about whether (and how) is it possible to sell something bad without making it seem good. And the conclusion of the video kinda touches upon that. I think the video would be more interesting to me, subjectively, if it went into more detail on how Jack is only a trick to placate the audience. Because while I see how this could be true, I struggle to see it myself. I always kinda assume that Tyler is framed as powerful and awesome and right because Jack sees him as such. The fact that Jack is so pathetic actually makes me NOT share his view, I watch the movie not as "Jack is constantly wowed by Tyler and legitimizes him being an asshole, a tyrant and a terrorist" and more as "Jack is constantly wowed by Tyler. Look how easily people without direction are manipulated". The video talks a lot about how Tyler's manipulation is framed by the story and how it actually works, but I personally don't see arguments for how the movie may've set out to make the viewer BELIEVE the manipulation. I mean, people obviously did, based on Fight Club's unfortunate fanbase, but I kinda lean towards "the audience didn't get the point". There had been stories with a message that was similarly misinterpreted, before. "Paradise Lost" led to people thinking Satan is cool, and "Full Metal Jacket" pretty obviously takes a dim view of war, but it has plenty of people thinking the movie, and by extension war and abusive drill sergeants, are just so cool. I could really hear more about how Fincher's intent may have been more, for the lack of a better word, malevolent than Kubrick's or Milton's intent. And I get the vibe from the video that duh, pretty obviously it was. And I may be dumb, but I don't see it. I see a failure to temper Tyler's glamorous behaviour, which is bad, but not intentional-bad. Granted, that's pretty strongly biased of me because Fight Club is still probably in my top ten favourite movies ever (although I do almost feel guilty for it being so after watching the video... the video on Burton movies kinda had the same effect). Honestly, I am continually baffled by how anyone can see Tyler as positive in any way. I've always seen the movie as showing things that seem cool and perfect being rotten to the core, and the fact that Marla or Bob are not shown as particularly attractive in any sense was kinda core to how I watched the film. I interpreted it as "things and people that matter are not as shiny and well-presented as dangerous ideologies and dangerous people", and I think I could point to a few moments that say, to me, how ridiculous Tyler's facade really is. I mean, I thought the fact that Tyler comments on what "a real man looks like" while spending so much of the movie shirtless was the movie's big neon sign saying "Tyler is a hypocrite and a liar". So anyway, TL;DR - I loved the video, but it was heavy on dissecting how Tyler manipulates the audience and I would have *loved* it to be heavier on how Jack is an idea thought up by Tyler intentionally. It's a fascinating perspective, but I feel maybe a tad unexplored?

Michał Sporzyński

This is so good. First time psychoanalytic lack has been explained to me in a way I can understand. I'm going to have to watch it at least 6 times to catch all your points.

Reed

🤗🤗🤗

Maggie Mae Fish

I do want to add that overall it's a REALLY good video.

Super Kate

In the Behind the Green Door section at about 46:30 you say, "...but it can not be separated from the patriarchal society that created it, and especially not from the hyper-patriarchal adult entertainment industry that created it." That repeat of "that created it" seems a bit awkward to me. Maybe drop the second "that created it"?

Super Kate

So excited to finally get to see this! Some thoughts/notes(?) At ~39min, an alternate reading (or probably just the "text" level reading) of the "I'm a 30 year old boy" line, is that he doesn't feel like he's matured at all into an adult and feels unworthy of adult responsibilities. Possibly this plays into another instance of Jack as absences- absences of maturity. Perhaps this ties into your point about Jack always asking "Why" like a child. The reading you posit feels a tiny bit off, but I see the point it makes in service of your wider argument. Clip at ~28 min from The Universal Clocks feels a bit long, found my attention wandering, possibly needs to be cut back a bit or broken up with something in the middle. Really appreciated the use of different voices for all the quote readings, hadn't seen that method before and really helps punctuate the statements. And in reference to the timing of the films release, I feel the film reads differently in a post-9/11 world. Tyler's speech about being the middle children of history with no great war to fight, reads completely off-base following the start of wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The manipulation of that speech seems decidedly less seductive. . Also, the few stories I've heard around town about working with Fincher, is that he is, to put it politely, a pain. Overall fantastic video, that presented yet another new way to read this movie, at least for me.

Though I will say as A fan of Mr Robot, I think it exceeds Fight Club. Since the "erase the debt" plot is basically act one of the show, it's ends up being very critical of the messiah Tyler narrative. Spoiler turf, but especially in Season 3, when the main character starts to take personal blame, and is even then has a personal destruction of the idea he is that big a deal in the grand scheme of the plot. Though it still has a "have it's cake and eat it" in terms of him still being a super-hacker. He hasn't really 'won' much from super hacking. But the contrast being that he is winning on the feeling front, which Tyler fully disavows.

WGM

Finished watching! Man that's a dense video essay. I was introduced to Fight Club by a close friends, who was adamant about the view that it's critical of Tyler. But gradually got a bit disenfranchised from that view once I saw more and more how co-opted the film is by the alt-right. I've been told the book does a better job painting Tyler as a villain directly, but I'm not sure how to believe that based on middle-roady quotes I've seen from the Book's author. I've got the impression he views his authorship in a more documentary like light, and his take is that Tyler is bad and the solution is to appease the emasculation based fear of these men before they turn terroristic. which is uhhhhhhh

WGM

Oh, and it was amazing and totally made me rethink the movie which is incredible because it has been super analyzed already

Russell Bauman

Great video... I feel like this one more than your others is going to help you stand out more. What I see on YouTube a lot tends to be like the 100-200 level classes and this video is the more advanced 300-400 level stuff. That being said, it is a lot having a video this long that is covering this many topics in this depth and I feel like people may end up checking out early. Do you have any thoughts of splitting it up into two (or three) videos? The length is definitely warranted, but some breaks in there would help the mental digestion. Also, your ending... I feel like you have it there and you're stating it, but then you're kind of undermining yourself at the same time by not fully committing to it (this is what I wanted to DM you about on Twitter, didn't want to spoil anything or put any feedback on blast). I think you have a solid thesis (that you state several times throughout the entire video) and you just need to push through and deliver it.

Just finished, couple of notes, I hope numbering them isn’t obnoxious : 1) Hair, make-up, and jewelry are on point. Tough to pull off big hoops but you do it! And somehow it works as a great juxtaposition to the griminess of Fight Club. 2) Expecting more talk of incels specifically 3) the moment in Fight Club that always got me was “is that what being a man is” on the bus. Even on first viewing I thought, “these guys are douches” 4) other movies where the director’s anti masculine intention was lost: Sucker Punch, Predator, Starship Troopers...etc? 5) I need to learn more about the whole idea of presence in a movie, seems like a recurring weapon of fascism

Russell Bauman

Whoops. I started that without looking at the running time. The first twenty minutes are good... I'll have to watch the rest later. :)

HipsterVideo.com

Woo it's here

WGM