Insomnia and the fear of castration…
There are two main themes that interested me the most in this novel. I liked the view of insomnia the book gave. Having insomnia myself I can relate to the altered state of mind. I enjoyed how the author made it so that as a reader you could not always tell when the narrator was suffering from insomnia or was experiencing the real world. I would like to look further into how this is a post modern statement about the way we are conditioned to look at the world.
We discussed in class the idea of this schizophrenic creation as a way to avoid the female pull in life. I had allows realized that gender played a role in this novel, but didn’t realize to what extent it influenced everything. The testicular cancer meetings, Marla, Fight Club and the discussion of fathers and still being male all were part of this large statement about the world being rather feminine. I can now see how this all was a threat to the narrator and how Tyler was created as a defense mechanism.
In a postmodern perspective I can see how this fragmentation of self and history was really a narrative on how metanarrative control our lives. There are preconceived notions as to how we should lead our lives and Tyler challenged these ideas. I can see several paper topics coming from this book.
I totally agree with Tyler being a defense mechanism. The narrator is incapable of acting the way he wants so he creates Tyler to do it for him. I find it interesting though that he and Tyler form a real friendship, they talk about their hopes and their past experiences. Maybe that’s what the narrator needed, a companion of some sorts, someone to share things with. If he was purely a defense mechanism then Tyler would only come out when the narrator really needed him.