(Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived.
I see all this potential,
and I see squandering.
God damn it, an entire generation
pumping gas,
waiting tables;
slaves with white collars.
Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes,
working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.
We're the middle children of history, man.
No purpose or place.
We have no Great War.
No Great Depression.
Our Great War's a spiritual war...
our Great Depression is our lives.
We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.)
The first rule of Fight Club is - you do not talk about Fight Club.
(With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels.)
The second rule of Fight Club is - you DO NOT talk about Fight Club.
("We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra."
"Martha Stewart."
"Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha's polishing the brass on the Titanic. It's all going down, man." )
Third rule of Fight Club, someone yells Stop!, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over.
(I got in everyone's hostile little face. Yes, these are bruises from fighting. Yes, I'm comfortable with that. I am enlightened)
Fourth rule, only two guys to a fight.
(Fight club wasn't about winning or losing. It wasn't about words. The hysterical shouting was in tongues, like at a Pentecostal Church.)
***
Everywhere I travel, tiny life. Single-serving sugar, single-serving cream, single pat of butter. The microwave Cordon Bleu hobby kit. Shampoo-conditioner combos, sample-packaged mouthwash, tiny bars of soap. The people I meet on each flight? They're single-serving friends.
***
Fifth rule, one fight at a time, fellas.
(Hitting bottom isn't a weekend retreat. It's not a goddamn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just let go! LET GO!)
Sixth rule, no shirt, no shoes.
(WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! Ok, you are now firing a gun at your 'imaginary friend' near 400 GALLONS OF NITROGLYCERINE!)
Seventh rule, fights will go on as long as they have to.
(After fighting, everything else in your life got the volume turned down.)
And the eighth and final rule, if this is your first night at Fight Club ...
(Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing.)
... you have to fight.
Author notes
Yes, this entire work is made up of selected lines from the movie "Fight Club".
(Wanna fight about it?)
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 10 of 10
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Have your read the book? One of my most favorite books and movies indeed. Awsome choice of quotes to use.
"After fighting everything else in you life gets the volume turned down"
"Without pain without sacrifice, we would have nothing"
Words and lessons everyone needs to hear.
Two of my favorite lines; (from the book)
"I want you to hit me as hard as you can"
"How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?" -
I really liked dat movie'
Oh we are in a great war, but thanks to our generations greed and stupidity coming generations will have to find a way out of it, and that won't be done with guns & bombs.--
but like I said, I really liked dat movie.
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I've yet to read the book... but the movie is one of my favorites. I've always thought it was bit poetic (the movie). This just sorta proves it.
I love the single servings lines.
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Wow...I haven't seen you in quite a while! How ya been?
It's probably not a book I'll get around to reading (I've got a list waiting on me that's longer than my driveway...and I live half a mile off the road!) but it's nice to hear that other folks can see the same qualities I see in the lines...even without Brad Pitt's delivery.
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strange how truths and wisdom within life itself revolve within this... yet somehow we become cynical within the lessons. must life always be a fight just to survive?
we all need to think about this my friend!
keep telling us how it is my friend!
Bill
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..."I'll fight ya, par'ner!"
I enjoyed reading this. There's so much truth to it. I'm glad you put this on here.
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Thanks...I gave up fighting with you when you started winning.
I always thought the collected sayings of Tyler Durden would make good poetry...the idea of interspersing them with the actual rules of fight club had two purposed; It was to identify the source for anyone who hadn't seen the flick recently enough or often enough to recognize the quotes, and (once I'd started on that) because I really liked the finality it offered the close.
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I haven't seen the movie, but I enjoyed this read. It is strange, the things that go through the head when reading something- I recalled how my Dad told me that he had once, as a young man, gone to hear Oswald Mosley speak at a public meeting. He said he was so charismatic and his oratory so convincing that he (my Dad) had to physically shake himself to remind himself what the BUF were actually saying. That of course has nothing to do with the poem.
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I remember bits and pieces of the movie now after having read this in its entirety here. There are actually some great lines and trains of thought here.
I was in a restaurant with my oldest son Sunday and they had a poster of Do's and Don'ts on the wall. There was one that read...
Do give up your seat to the elderly, pregnant woman and anyone packing a firearm.
I have no idea why, but reading this brought that to mind and made me giggle all over again.
Thanks for the "enlightenment".
♥ Touchof1der
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Prob'ly because of the appeal of "Well, that's just common sense!" huh?
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