"F*** Martha Stewart," a man doesn't need most of modern life for his survival, but the thing that he really needs for his survival is an adventure. Tyler Durden, whose insomnia is quite like the Narrators, has hobby-jobs that put adventure into modern life, and has a philosophy on life that accepts pain and suffering as more real than comfort at all costs. "That really hurts." Pain is reality, reality is pain. Feeling pain is to feel alive. The overemphasis on creature comforts, like cars, clothes, electricity, running water, heating, windows, locks, and anything else are rejected in Tyler's life.

The logical end to which Durden's life and priorities took him was the Fight Club. Men who saw in him a man, the man who reflects in their own soul, whom they are both terrified and enthralled with. Voluntary fighting, for the purpose of experiencing pain, not just for pain itself, but for the realness that comes with pain, realness that we seldom find elsewhere.

The theme of fatherlessness is explored in detail. In a moment of soul-sharing, Tyler Durden proclaims the person he'd fight would be his dad, and explains the lack of guidance, time spent, and general fatherhood he missed out on. "We're a generation of men raised by women. I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer we need." How many men can relate to that? As a man struggling to reclaim my manhood from the evisceration I received at the hands of a fatherless upbringing, and a societal curriculum that drugs maleness to make it more feminine, I relate. What I'm talking about is the use of Ritalin - 95% of all prescriptions are for boys, and the rest are probably for adults; I was not on Ritalin, this is simply a symbol for something much broader in Western culture.

"A guy came to Fight Club for the first time his ass was a wad of cookie dough. After a few weeks he was carved out of wood." This is a picture of the transition into genuine manhood that we are looking for. "[Looking at an underwear advert] Is that what a man looks like? Self-improvement is masturbation. Now self-destruction..." The primal, animal urges are what man is looking for. The skinny beanpole going up against someone three times his size is not looking for a solution to a problem, not looking to fix anything, but simply having a reason to live, and a reason to be strong.

After a couple months, Marla calls him, wanting to get in on his therapy, and ends up moving in with Tyler. This masquerade seems to be the invasion of femininity on the genuine manhood emerging, but actually represents real womanhood; independent and disillusioned with the crap she has been fed, attracted to the strength coming forward in the man, and coming alongside the adventure. The sexual illustration used to portray the man's strength being offered to the woman, saving her from a certain depressing death, might be a little raw for some folks, but the rawness is what makes it real. In my analysis, the abstraction of the illustration is more important than the act itself. The movie starts by alluding to Marla's causality of the situation the Narrator finds himself in. A man really doesn't need to be a man, unless there is ultimately a woman to be a man for.

The turning point of the movie is the lye chemical burn. Tyler Durden comes out with a full philosophy of nihilism, forsaking all hope. The Narrator fully succumbs to the inner man. He cares no longer for the consequences of his job, and begins Project Mayhem, his magnum opus. Some crisis situation usually has to invade the life of a man for him to make the important step of abandoning the lost cause that is the shell he invented to protect himself, and invested so much in building up that the loss of which feels like death.

At this point the movie just goes insane. Manhood, left guideless, fatherless, god-less, when it rediscovers its strength, may be doomed to travel the path of destruction. Nihilism taken to its end is portrayed as a dead end, which leads us to where I sit. Alone, soon to be divorced, a stranger in my own home, drinking Crème Sherry and watching Fight Club; it's a good way to start a new year, and this is where the commentary departs, because this is where the nihilism goes so far that I can't assimilate.

Self-destruction may be taking it too far, but certainly the point comes across that the endless pursuit of "self-improvement" isn't getting us anywhere. Then again, the damage and destruction is what we're all afraid of in the first place right? It's the raw and unedited power of man-ness that we drug. It's the dangerousness and explosiveness that we fear, and thus we mitigate, and medicate, leaving shells of boys in the place where men belong. Strength that is strength, but is not used for harm, is humility. Weakness that shows itself by not doing anything is nothing like humility. If a man has potential for causing destruction, in other words is strong and powerful, but chooses not to use it, his soul is not lost. If a man has no potential in the first place, he has already lost it.

What do you think of this movie - it's philosophy, direction, music, human statements, theological statements, and so forth? Whether you like it or not, share your valuable opinion.