The film ‘Fight Club’ follows, to some degree of accuracy, the archetypal paradigm of the apocalyptic guidelines discussed in English 3910. Specifically the movie mostly deals with the genre of the personal apocalypse. Thus, following suit in relation to such works as ‘Lancelot’, ‘The Violent Bear it away’ and ‘Apocalypse Now’. ‘Fight Club’, essentiality contains the basic premise of these works, that is the purging of one’s identity through extreme measures and crisis; to ultimately arrive at a personal revelation in the end. Like ‘Apocalypse Now’, the audience is lead by narration to give a reflecting insight into the apocalyptic journey of young professional named Jack. Jack works a regular nine to five office job for an insurance company and suffers from insomnia. He finds his cure in attending support groups for the mortally afflicted. One of the first groups he attends is a testicular cancer group and discovers, through an exercise referred to as “pairing up” (to share brotherly emotion with your fellow mortally afflicted), that crying with and hugging these people makes him feel better. He, although he does not have testicular cancer, is spiritual impotent and this group allows him to fill that void in his life. He gets addicted to this, and begins attending different support groups everyday, his faking becomes his foma, he knows like the bokonist, that his new “religion” is lies. “I didn't say anything,” he explains as he forges a series of diseases. “They always assumed the worst.” Nonetheless, his search for tears and experiencing other people’s pain gave meaning to his identity. “Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy (‘the books of Bokonon 1:5’, Vonnegut, 1963).” Jack has no trouble weeping in these strangers’ arms until he meets another phony, Marla, a support-group “tourist” and a reflection of himself that he finds objectionable. She claims to like the emotional workout of being with these people, which is “cheaper than a movie.” However, when Marla abruptly begins to attend all the meetings he is attending. He becomes irritated by her presence because she is a fraud too and doesn’t belong in his grandfallon. Her company reminds him that he is impostor and he doesn’t like that. They workout a deal where they split the days up between them. She gets the breast cancer and emphysema group while he takes the testicu... ... middle of paper ... ... side by side, looking on as the national credit building explodes in flames. With their debt they owed to the material world purged to zero, they head off in a fresh direction as the new Adam and Eve. Like Willard in ‘Apocalypse Now’, Jack’s revelation at the end of his hellish journey is left unclear and complex. In the voice of his narration, perhaps there is a conclusion: “You are not your job. You are not how much you have in the bank. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your khakis. You are not a beautiful unique snowflake. What happens when you can’t sleep? What happens then is there’s a gun in your mouth. And what happens next is you meet Tyler Durden. Let me tell you about Tyler. He had a plan. In Tyler we trusted. Tyler says self-improvement is masturbation. Tyler says-self-destruction might be the answer.” Conceivably, there is a Tyler Durden inside the soul of us all waiting to be called. “I’m simply what you needed and wanted,” Durden said the moment Jack realized they were the same person. Director of ‘Apocalypse Now’, Francis Ford Coppala said it best in an interview during the release of his movie, “I believe that the end was always about choice.”
I learned from the book that a former student reconnected with his old college professoi Morrie who was diagnosed with ALS (a terminal disease). Through their reconnection, Mitch and Morrie begin to meet every Tuesdays to discuss the different problems they face and the meaning of life. Also, choosing not to live his final months in fear. Morrie meditated on life and spread his ideas in the form of short aphorisms.
Born on February 21, 1962, Chuck Palahniuk’s early life was full of strife. His parents separated when he was 14, sending him and his siblings to live with their grandparents. Within a few years of their divorce, both of Palahniuk’s parents died. Carol, is mother, died of cancer, while his father, Fred was murdered. After high school, Palahniuk attended the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism. Graduating in 1986, Palahniuk then held multiple odd jobs. He was a journalist and essayist, as well as, a mechanic and homeless shelter/ hospice volunteer. Palahniuk also became a member of the Cacophony Society, an organization much like his fictional Project Mayhem. Palahniuk did not start writing until he was in his mid- thirties. The first novel he wrote, Invisible Monsters, was rejected by publishers for “disturbing content.” Palahniuk’s response to the rejection was to write a book even more disturbing. However, Fight Club was published; and in 1997, was awarded both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award and the Oregon Book Award. Three years after it publication, 20th Century Fox bought the rights to Fight Club. Palahniuk was asked to write Fight Club’s screenplay, however, he refused.
Grendel, his mother, and every monster just like them were “spawned in that slime, [c]onceived by a pair of those monsters born [o]f Cain, murderous creatures banished [b]y God, punished forever for the crime [o]f Abel’s death” (Beowulf 6). Anglo Saxon culture centers around the slaying of monsters in the pursuit of gold and glory, however this obvious allusion to the Bible allows the author to incorporate some Christianity to explain the origin of these creatures. Both Grendel and Cain share the same evil nature about them, bringing horror and grief to the people they came in contact with, and they pose as enormous threats to their kingdom. Since they do not live like good Christians, God banishes Cain and Grendel from their respective kingdoms and dooms the two to a horrible afterlife. Of course, God had banished Cain on his own, removing him from Eden and sending him down to Earth; however, God banishes Grendel with the help of Beowulf. This infusion between the will of Beowulf to banish the threat of Grendel from Herot and the fate set by God for not being a good Christian foreshadows what eventually happens to any unfaithful Christian. The author makes it abundantly clear that “all non-Christians, no matter how virtuous or heroic, were damned” (Brown 2). This served to not only convert the Anglo Saxon audience but reminds them to stay faithful to Christianity’s pillars or they would be doomed to an eternity of
“I had to know what Tyler was doing while I was asleep. If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?” (Palahniuk 32). When Tyler is in action, narrator is not contemporaneous in a sense that he is Tyler now. Tyler is someone who doesn’t give any importance to money-oriented world but he indeed believes in the willpower of constructing a classless society. The narrator is insomniac, depressed, and stuck with unexciting job. Chuck’s prominent, pessimistic, radical work, Fight Club, investigates inner self deeper and deeper into personality, identity, and temperament as a chapter goes by. Through his writing, Chuck Palahniuk comments on the inner conflicts, the psychoanalysis of narrator and Tyler Durden, and the Marxist impression of classicism. By not giving any name to a narrator, author wants readers to engage in the novel and associate oneself with the storyline of narrator. The primary subject and focus of the novel, Fight Club, is to comment socially on the seizing of manhood in the simultaneous world. This novel is, collectively, a male representation where only a single woman, Marla Singer, is exemplified. “Tyler said, “I want you to hit me as hard as you can” (46). This phrase is a mere representation of how to start a manly fight club. However, in the novel this scene is written as if two people are physically fighting and splashing blood all over the parking lot, in reality it’s just an initiation of fight club which resides in narrator’s inner self. The concept of this club is that the more one fights, the more one gets sturdier and tougher. It is also a place where one gets to confront his weaknesses and inner deterioration.
“Raging Bull” (1980) is not a so much a film about boxing but more of a story about a psychotically jealous, sexually insecure borderline homosexual, caged animal of a man, who encourages pain and suffering in his life as almost a form of reparation. Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece of a film drags you down into the seedy filth stenched world of former middleweight boxing champion Jake “The Bronx Bull” LaMotta. Masterfully he paints the picture of a beast whose sole drive is not boxing but an insatiable obsessive jealously over his wife and his fear of his own underling sexuality. The movie broke new ground with its brutal unadulterated no-holds-bard look at the vicious sport of boxing by bringing the camera into the ring, giving the viewer the most realistic, primal, and brutal boxing scenes ever filmed. With blood and sweat spraying, flashbulbs’ bursting at every blow Scorsese gives the common man an invitation into the square circle where only the hardest trained gladiators dare to venture.
Society becomes so rationalized that one must push himself to the extreme in order to feel anything or accomplish anything. The more you fight in the fight club, the tougher and stronger you become. Getting into a fight tests who you are. No one helps you, so you are forced to see your weaknesses. The film celebrates self-destruction and the idea that being on the edge allows you to be beaten because nothing really matters in your life.
Beowulf, which is considered the oldest English masterpiece, celebrates the three great fights of Beowulf. Whether Beowulf is a Christian poem written based on pagan story or a pagan poem rewritten under Christian influence remains unknown, considering that the poem combines pagan and Christian elements rather seamlessly. While Beowulf is described as a hero with admirable Christian virtues, he is still essentially a pagan hero. The poem does not reject the pagan heroism. However, Beowulf’s oldest manuscript was written by a Christian for freshly-converted Christians, thus the poem as we know it shows the superiority of Christianity over pagan religions. The three great fights can be interpreted as a criticism of Beowulf’s flawed characteristics from a Christian’s perspective.
Beowulf has been estimated to have been written over twelve hundred years ago. According to The Norton Anthology Of English Literature, “It is now widely believed that Beowulf is the work of a single poet who was a Christian and that his poem reflects a well-established Christian tradition,” (37). This conclusion was likely drawn by accounting for the time at which Beowulf was written and factoring in most people in the area of where it was believed to be written had already been converted to Christianity. In a way, this provides the best explanation for why Beowulf contains a high level of Christian influences for the story to have taken place when it did. Dr. J. Michael Stitt of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas says that, “Much of this epic poem is dedicated to conveying and exemplifying the heroic code which values such attributes as strength, courage and honor. Conflicting with this ideology are other factors such as Christianity, and these tensions affect the lives and decisions of the narrative's characters.” If the one of the main focuses in Beowulf is the heroic code and the heroic code convicts with the authors beliefs than why did he write it? This is not to say that authors do not write about things that they ...
Philosophy can be found everywhere. Like math, it is used to solve problems, or at least used to begin to understand those problems. Most individuals expect to heighten their philosophical knowledge through readings or by reading a professors notes. One may even consult their own mind to help them grasp a concept of a philosophy. Attainting philosophical guidance by the sources above is common yet it is also quite common to see philosophical themes in movies and novels. A movie with a philosophical message is “Fight Club”. The movie “Fight Club” examines an idealistic question known as “What is Real?” though the main character. The movie examines three idealistic statements: One cannot trust appearances to determine what is real, one sees and feels only what their subconscious mind allows them to see and feel, and finally, ones mind determines what is personally real.
...edits. It is then that emptiness at the film's center becomes apparent, no matter how urgently it proclaims its story and themes. Unrealistically, it centers on men lamenting their loss of manhood, even as they have obviously enabled the emasculation every step of the way. It then decides that only violence is the answer, equally going to less than admirable reasoning on the parts of these victims. Lastly, it chooses to absurdly ignore the homo-social dimensions so integral to its own being. Then, presenting itself as probing important issues in a highly dramatic way, Fight Club is ultimately too cowardly in concept and execution to truly take on the real issues it pretends to tackle. Although homosexuality, hyper-emasculation and the other issues the movie encompasses, Fight club will be one of the utmost controversial movies America has yet seen to hit Hollywood.
Pornography today is only a click away, sometimes not even that far, and often times making unrequested appearances on the edges of otherwise innocuous websites. Indeed, a 2008 online survey about pornography exposure concluded that 9 out of 10 male and 6 out of 10 female respondents were exposed to it during adolescence (Sabina, Wolak, & Finkelhor). Those numbers are not likely to decrease, given that pornography is a profitable business with an estimated 13 billion dollars yearly revenue (Jackson, 2012), and that it has never been as easily available as it is now since about 95 percent of the current U.S teen population has full access to an internet connection (Madden, Lenhart, Duggan, Cortesi, & Gasser, 2013).
Pornography has been around for a very long time and has been created in many different mediums. The most recent of these mediums is the Internet. It is essential to take a look at how this new medium has impacted the production and use of pornography. Specifically, it is important to examine the ways that the Internet has made the pornography more dangerous. Pornography has many potential dangers such as emotional and sexual dissatisfaction, poor body image, unhealthy views of women and sexual relationships, and the exploitation of children. Many aspects of the Internet have changed pornography and the way it is obtained and used. Because of the Internet, pornography is more easily accessible, can be used anonymously,
Pornography can be defined as the use of sexually explicit materials which are intended mainly for sexual arousal. It has been a subject of great concern especially in connection to violence against women as well as moral degradation in the society (Slade). The emergence of the internet has resulted to greater consumption of pornographic materials by individuals of all ages, mostly the youth. Pornographic content is more graphic than ever before in the history of mankind, while accessibility has become much easier. This is a great social problem which has stirred a lot of debate in many spheres, including feminists, politicians as well as liberal thoughts (Easton). One of the most damaging effects of pornography is that it destroys relationships among people since it affects the perceptions that individuals have about others. Furthermore, it encourages unrealistic sexual expectations, degrades women, enhances disloyalty in families and also encourages violence and promiscuity. More young adults are obsessed with the use of pornography content than those 20 years ago and research shows that this obsession has negative effects such as difficulty in face-to-face interactions. It might seem that censoring pornography would eliminate the obsession, but if censorship increases, then so will curiosity about porn and that will lead to increased use, resulting in back and forth struggle rather than a solution.
Rae, Michale C. “What Is Pornography?” Wiley.com 17 Dec. 2002. Michael C. Rae. 26. Mar. ffffff 2014
To some, pornography is nothing more than a few pictures of scantily clad Women in seductive poses. But pornography has become much more than just Photographs of nude women. Computer technology is providing child molesters and child pornographers with powerful new tools for victimizing children. Pornography as "the sexually explicit depiction of persons, in words or images, Sexual arousal on the part of the consumer of such materials. No one can prove those films with graphic sex or violence has a harmful effect on viewers. But there seems to be little doubt that films do have some effect on society and that all of us live with such effects.