Fight Club

I hate ‘how to mob’. I loathe it when a man failed all his life writes a book called ‘You Can Win’. I hate Paulo Coelho and I detest Robin Shrama. I denounce everyone who imposes his personal depravity on others.

But do I really????

Then why the fuck do I get back to Roark every time I am down? Why I visit Hugh’s blog regularly? Why I watch Fight Club every time I need a kick to crawl forward. Why I find a close affinity with people like Anurag Kashyap? Why I believe every ounce of his existence is a stuff he should be proud of?

Probably, for the fact that I once read and I often re-read- "Show me your achievement, and the knowledge will give me courage for mine." Ayn Rand in Fountainhead.

Every man seeks a personal guidance, consciously or subconsciously, to lead his life. And that is the reason Coelho, Rand and Deepak Chopra are published and are among bestsellers. That is the fact fantasy of Batmans and Supermans is lived and cherished in print and on 70 mm. The source of the drive and thus the outcome from it may differ but the premise for the drive remains the same-personal upliftment.

And it was on one such drive that I watched Fight Club the sixth time last night. I was down and out and needed a kick to realize there exists a Taylor Durden inside me. I badly needed to convince myself beyond my immediate mediocre self there is an alter ego that is able to perform super things. It exists in everyone. But it’s killed every time, every second in our every day life-In our cubicles-in classrooms-on dining table-on playgrounds-in pubs and in café. Every time we try to share our great grand fantasy our bosses, our teachers, our parents, our coaches, our friends, our girl friends-they all end up making our dream a butt of joke-

“It’s great …but…”

“Are you sure????”

“There is a lot of gamble. Why try when you have other options.”

“I don’t believe this!!”

“Be practical.”

“You will end up making a practical joke of yourself.”

WTF! WTF! We wanna scream at them but we can’t. These are the people who matter to us. These are the ones we care about. And it’s not as easy as Ms Rand said ‘just live for your own self.’

No wonder we seek fantasy flights just to have few hours of personal solace once in a while. And no wonder I saw Fight Club yet another time-

Fight Club Snap Shot-

The film is about what happens when an insomniac, looser, typical 9 to 5 guy meets a go-getter, fuck-all wanderer. They end up creating fight-clubs for all hopeless souls around. The duo shows them how getting beaten up is the greatest way to resurrect. And what if both men reside inside the same mind??? It’s a masterpiece. Who says voice over is quaint? It’s not. David Fincher yet again proves his credentials as a master story teller. A complex-est of story and with the use of voice over and technology and irregular narration Fincher ends up giving us a great cult classic. Brad Pitt has the best dialogues with his side but Edward Norton- mind-blowing.

And these days I don’t mind pasting dialogues so here are a few-

“When you have insomnia, you're never really asleep, and you're never really awake.”

“The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything. ”

“Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha's polishing the brass on the Titanic; it's all going down, man”

“I say never be complete. I say stop being perfect. I say let's evolve. Let the chips fall where they may”

“How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight? ”

” 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.... no purpose or place. We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives.”

“You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world”

“No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide”

I have decided to finally read the book itself. But I would be glad if you, too, brace yourself up at least for the visual bout in this fantastic Fight Club (if you haven't been in the ring already).