…the whole point of Fight Club was the narrator realizing he was a terrible person…
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say a character is a flawed human being without writing them off entirely like this? Narrator is stunted, broken, looking for fulfillment in all the wrong places. He’s isolated, he’s disconnected, there is no one in his life for him to care for, or who cares for him. How good a person should anyone expect him to be?
…the film starts with him exploiting dying people so they will listen to him. Not recognizing that the only people open to listen are those dying, and he’s exploiting their openness to lie to them and get the “crying” he needs.
Narrator angrily explains pretty much exactly this to Marla. Refers to himself a “faker.” I think he recognizes.
He does explain “When people think you’re dying, they really, really listen to you,” but he could very well be referring to himself as the listener. He isn’t depicted speaking at the meetings he crashes. “If I didn’t say anything, people always assumed the worst.”
“When people think you’re dying, they really, really listen to you,”
My main takeaway is always going to be that the people who are actually suffering are the only ones really willing to listen to others who are suffering. He thinks this, but he’s proof of otherwise, he isn’t really listening to any of them.
Ask me how I know after three years of cancer proving to me people could give fuck all about listening. Sorry, just grinds my gears, because the people “really, really listening to you” are the people who are fucking dying.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say a character is a flawed human being without writing them off entirely like this? Narrator is stunted, broken, looking for fulfillment in all the wrong places. He’s isolated, he’s disconnected, there is no one in his life for him to care for, or who cares for him. How good a person should anyone expect him to be?
Narrator angrily explains pretty much exactly this to Marla. Refers to himself a “faker.” I think he recognizes.
He does explain “When people think you’re dying, they really, really listen to you,” but he could very well be referring to himself as the listener. He isn’t depicted speaking at the meetings he crashes. “If I didn’t say anything, people always assumed the worst.”
My main takeaway is always going to be that the people who are actually suffering are the only ones really willing to listen to others who are suffering. He thinks this, but he’s proof of otherwise, he isn’t really listening to any of them.
Ask me how I know after three years of cancer proving to me people could give fuck all about listening. Sorry, just grinds my gears, because the people “really, really listening to you” are the people who are fucking dying.