The Confusion of Masculinity in Simulated America in the novel Fight- Club

by Chuck Palahniuk.
Name: Lalita. K. M
Research Scholar (English).
Jain Deemed to be University
CERSSE. Palace Road.
Bangalore -560009.
Contact-no.9980566701
[email protected]

Abstract
The simulated American environment around 1980s and 1990s altered human thinking and
perception in the society, immensely due to the extensive advertising media and obsession with
‘signs. Jean Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality is cognizant in the analysis of this novel.
America’s obsession with materialistic wealth, perfect body, dress and home, created a silent
stirring of the soul for many who underwent certain psychological changes during the era. It was
a new association with society, that men during that era wanted to identify themselves with. This
paper examines the psychological underpinnings of the postmodern man, with reference to Giles-
Deleuze’s ‘rhizome’ concept. Other postmodern traits of alienation, fragmentation and reification
will be analysed in the study. American literature has portrayed the anti-hero as a victim of his
socio-economic and cultural conditions. The rebel-victim stance of the protagonist, has historical
connections to the patronage of the free-spirit of the adventurer, the risk-bearer, the wanderer,
the entrepreneur. The definition of certain characteristic masculine features, created pre-
requisites, the sacrifices and moral-disintegration in its fulfilment, never bore constructive effect
in the creation of his identity, either moral or national, concerning the American -Dream.

Keywords: Simulated America, Hyperreality, Rhizome, Reification, Alienation,

Fragmentation, Socio-economic cultural Conditions, American Dream
Introduction:
American society is highly simulated, due to excessive reliance of media and popular-culture in
the peak of the1990s, the novel Fight -Club deeply analyses the inner-conflict in the mind of the
protagonist and anti-hero Tyler-Durden. American youth urge for high consumeristic values and
conspicuous display of progressive lifestyle on their sleeves. Constant bombastic advertisements
on the television, alters the ‘reality’ and how one urges to view such a reality. The Clinton
Government was a government of ‘media-manipulation’. The American alpha- male was
designed by popular culture sentiments. The capitalistic consumerist society, popularised images
of a ‘perfect’ body, ‘perfect’ gadgets, ‘perfect’ home, ’perfect’ and liberal mannerisms, ‘perfect’
lifestyle and so on. The novel Fight –Club has been analysed as rebellion of that sector of the
youth, who could not match that sort of a ‘perfect’ image. The unnamed narrator in the novel, is
disillusioned, disoriented due to the loss of his job, that denies him access to any of these
‘perfect’ ambitions. The suppressed desires of raw masculinity, projects as a split –personality
for the narrator. He meets his alter-ego Tyler Durden who has all the physical, The Fight Club
encouraged, that sector of youth who wanted to project a wild, physical rawness in their
personality. Their disharmony in thought, mind and body caused due to the socio-political
conditions is projected through the course of the novel.
According to the sources in Britannica, the Clinton era ended the discrimination against gay men
and lesbians. This was done with a motive to allure the youth, a major sector of the American
population.("Bill-Cinton")The so-called liberal policies were backed by interests if the vote bank.
He was criticised by the Democrats as well as the Republicans for his innumerable public
apologies. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, “masculinity” refers to attributes or nature
of the male-sex. The novel projects masculinity in confusion with the Christian doctrine and the
flux of postmodern- consumerism..(“masculinity”).
An illustration from the text can be used to display this
The mechanic says, "If you’re male and you’re Christian and living in America, your
father is your model for God. And if you never know your father, if your father bails out
or dies or is never at home, what do you believe about God?
The fragmentation and alienation in the novel are projected through the following
instances.
We are God’s middle children, according to Tyler Durden, with no special place in
history and no special attention. Unless we get God’s attention, we have no hope of
damnation or redemption. Which is worse, hell or nothing?
The rebellion in the society of frustrated men, who were dissatisfied with their roles in life, the
constant need to exert rebellion, towards higher authority, the conflict, and importance of
dissociation. Masculinity that has been in opposition to self and in alliance with the dominant
ideology. The only rule of Fight Club was not to tell anyone about the club. Tyler promotes the
club to a Project Mayhem, a terrorist group involved with illegal activities which aims at the total
destruction of hierarchy in society, another illustration from the text proves it
 You have a class of young strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to
something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don’t need.
Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don’t
really need. We don’t have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we
do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The
great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression. We have to show these men
and women freedom by enslaving them, and show them courage by frightening them.
Napoleon bragged that he could train men to sacrifice their lives for a scrap of ribbon.
Imagine, when we call a strike and everyone refuses to work until we redistribute the
wealth of the world. Imagine hunting elk through the damp canyon forests around the
ruins of Rockefeller Center.

The Postmodern Antihero

The postmodernist reading of the novel as examined by Matthew Ortoleva reveals that
predominant materialistic ideology of American culture also called as late-capitalism. This novel
is situated in neoliberalism. America that had just emerged out from the political tensions of the
Cold War and other related financial crisis. An optimism was exuberated, which in excess had its
own disadvantages and the media advertisements of youthful energies further advanced the
narcissist behaviour of young adults keeping them unchecked. The high predominance of
political rhetoric portrays the emasculation of the characters in the 1990s era.
According to Best &Kellner Nietzche’s scepticism of a preferred, knowing position, expands
into a mistrust of meta –narratives, such as Christianity and Capitalism (59). Christian faith
created a duality and deprived people of “vital life energies and inimical individuality”, he also
reasoned in the same way about capitalism. He “loathed what he saw as capitalism’s base
concern for merely monetary and bourgeois values, its alienated labour and its tendency to turn
everyone into industrious ants” (60).

Rhizomatic, Fragmented Protagonist

The narrator’s insomnia, is caused due to the disharmony within himself, in order to get over it,
he joins the testicular cancer support group. His pretence of having cancer serves as an alibi for
him to escape the drudgery of a reality that he hates to exist in.(Ortoleva). Adding to the theory
propounded by, Giles Felix Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, describes about
rhizome as a system that explains heterogeneity and multiplicities, he claims “A rhizome has
neither a centre nor an organization, what is important is the circulation. A rhizome maybe
broken, shattered at a given spot, but it will start up again on one of its old lines (9). This theory
is employed to analyse an interpretation made by Emine Sarkdemir, the deterritorialization
happens when the narrator evolves himself into the character of Tyler Durden. He establishes
more on- lookers for his fight-club popularising it and attracting more and more of members
from across the country. This reflects the popular culture of that period.
There is also the postmodern feature of simulation reflected in the incident. As the Fight Club
grows, it is made available to the public only at particular hours. Soon many branches spread
across the country. The members had to pretend that they did not even know each other outside,
they had to act like there existed another reality realm. According to Baudrillard’s essay The
Precession of Simulacra states

The schizophrenic characteristic is a result of the emptiness of his personal life and the dull
routine of his job, and insomnia, that he suffers. Although he is well-of financially, the post-
modern consumerist American society blurs the lines of identity and creates a crisis of the
masculine image in the novel according to Edurardo Mendieta. (394-408)
Aligning the same theory with Deleuze and Guattari, the same can be analysed as
Desire “is a machine, a synthesis of machines, a machinic arrangement–desiring
machines (Anti-Oedipus 337). It will be illuminating to note, however, that the notion of
“machine” has a literal meaning, not a metaphorical one (Anti-Oedipus 12). In Desert
Islands and Other Texts, Deleuze defines machine “as any system that interrupts flows”
adding that “desiring consists in interruptions, letting certain flows through, making
withdrawals from those flows, cutting the chains that become attached to other flows”
(219-232).
In the conscious world, the unnamed narrator, who is purposely kept discreet by the author has
detached himself from the constraints of the society. Initially, the excessive freedom brings him
the much required through excessive infliction of physical pain. The ultimate objective is
realised through Project Mayhem, which aims at destroying civilization. In the novel Fight-Club
the cycle of capitalism, is confined to a fully-furnished condominium, constant business travels,
that offer him an encapsulated form of life. He considers ‘suicide’ as an escape route to his
mundane lifestyle. (25). Tyler lives all- alone in a worn-down villa, without basic facilities. In
order to escape this drudgery of a poor lifestyle, he ends up selling high-end soap for a living. He
does so by stealing excessive human fat from a liposuction clinic. In order to rebel against the
system, he even works as a projectionist at a cinema-hall, by splicing pornographic stills and
infuriating the audience. He was employed as a waiter for serving buffet in a luxurious hotel,
where he urinates in the soup, farts on meringues and steals from others to bring out his
frustration stealthily.
It was argued by Susan Faludi that the after the Second World War, the abandoned sons entirely
depended on the image-based media to learn roles and responsibilities. Tyler criticizes in the
novel: “We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we’ll
be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won’t. And we’re just learning this fact”
(166).
He resists the subjugation confined on him, with the help of his doctor’s advice by attending to
different disease groups like leukaemia to melanoma, brain parasites, blood parasites,
tuberculosis, cancer and so on. The narrator reaches a moment of self-realisation, when he
sympathises with Bob, the whose testicles are removed because of his excessive use of steroids,
creating a therapeutic effect on him. This venting out of emotion prevents him from taking
soothing drugs which he was addicted to. However, Bob can be visualised as a victim of late
capitalism, he was a body builder once upon a time who had consumed excessive steroids, to
gain a coveted ‘built’ image of the body, which in turn is an advertised product of America’s
‘alpha-male’ image.
The 1980s was period of punk rock music and psychedelic drugs. This period witnessed
excessive use of speculative consumeristic products, that led to anarchic narcissist behaviour.
The substance abuse deteriorated moral values, basic human values are ignored by the characters
in the novel as their consciousness has been blurred by what is real and the unreal projected
scenario. Any era is the product of the robust political activity, and the socio-economic system.
Chuck Palahniuk in one of his interviews revealed that Bill Clinton opened out an ambitious
agenda to accelerate the federal budget deficit. The political events were immensely
transformative and the thread that ran through all the domains was technology.
Media and technology, had an uncontrollable, deep impact on the minds of the youth. The
growing power of the internet and globalisation made the world look at America and its youth in
a different dimension. A country where the President himself made a glamourous impact on the
youth. According to the web source History.com, he appeared on Arsenio Hall Show, and instead
of speaking policy, played his saxophone. He smoked onscreen. He employed MTV as a
legitimate media outlet to propagate his messages and connected with the ‘cool’ youth of the
country.
In Simulations and Simulacra, the motivation is ambiguous but tied to the fear of the "collapse of
the political" and/or an obsession with powers existence. (180-1). In the essay Baudrillard asserts
that
Unlike 'true' power which is, or was, a structure, a strategy, a relation of force, a stake -
this is nothing but the object of a social demand" (179). Consequently, power is subject to
the law of consumption, supply and demand. Hence, power can only produce (supply)
itself, while it is the desire (demand) of the consuming social that it do so. However, the
aspects and motivations of the demand made by the social change throughout
Baudrillard's theory. In The Masses, Baudrillard asserts that the mass’ "deepest desire is
perhaps to give the responsibility for one's desire to someone else" (215). In this case, the
masses delegate their "power of desire, of choice, of responsibility ... to apparatuses
either political or intellectual, either technical or operational, to whom has devolved the
duty of taking care of all these things" (p. 215)
Another indispensable study in the American masculinity, is The Avatars of Masculinity: How
Not to be a Man, an article by Eduardo Mendieta is analysed through frontal critique of
consumerism, empty eroticism, anachronistic militarism and resulting sociological theory of how
the author ‘s novel fights against male docility that social acts of reliance imply (Moreno as qtd
in Mendieta). Such a reading of the novel exposes the hidden aspects of reality, that opens the
minds of the reader to scrutinize, the lines that divide the reality in their inner and outer worlds.
Hyperreal Simulated America
Jean Baudrillard, in his book America, emphasises on the excesses in America, the abundance of
materialistic gratification, that he compares to Utopia, which was behaved from the very
beginning as though it were achieved. Compared from the view of a European, every aspect in
America seems to be in perfect simulation. Exaggerating the materialistic values, he emphasises
the microwave, the waste-disposal, the orgasmic elasticity of the of the carpets: this soft, resort-
style civilization irresistibly evokes the end of the world. All their activities here have a
surreptitious end-of-the-world feel to them: these Californian scholars with monomaniacal
passions for things French or Marxist, the various sects obsessively concerned with chastity or
crime, these joggers, sleepwalking seemed to have escaped from Plato’s cave. An analysis of the
same can be drawn towards Tyler Durden’s charge of blasting the condominium, the meandering
cave that led to entrapment of simulated luxury. To escape from the cave of Fight Club/Project
Mayhem, or its obsession with perfection, probably Tyler Durden saw ‘suicide’ as the last resort.

Conclusion
The socio-economic and political conditions surrounding an era have a direct impact on the
formation of the anti-social anti-hero, the protagonist usually suffers, due to his own past
upbringing, morals, values and in-built characteristics. American society is highly simulated due
to the heavy influence of media, entertainment, and politics. The article sufficiently explains how
the media houses, during that presidential era of Bill Clinton, optimised hope of the American
Dream, what such a propaganda fails to realise is the moral blind spots created, in the
characteristics of the youth. The youth has been forced to a speculative consumeristic society
that has developed a dangerous self-anarchic attitude leading the common –man into an abyss of
drudgery and nihilistic attitude of life. In an urge to meet the standards of modern-living, the
common-man, gets entrapped into a vicious circle, from where there is no escape. The
protagonist slowly realises that the only escape is to surrender to the higher ideology.

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