Few times in my life has a book or a movie resonated with me as much as Fight Club did back in 1999. Had I been five years older or five years younger it is quite possible that I would have either misunderstood or dismissed the film outright. The thing about literature is that, in order to appreciate it, you have to be going through a point in your life where the themes of the work are relevant. For example, a book on caring for a newborn would be of absolutely no interest to a 12 year old boy, but for a woman who is on the verge of giving birth, this is required reading. This is fairly obvious. But you could see how there might be problems if all the critics who wrote the articles that determined what works were regarded as "good" and which had an influence on society were 12 year old boys decades away from giving birth.

When Fight Club came out, I was overjoyed to see that a major studio had taken the time to explore and engage the ideas and conflicts that were most relevant to my life. The film has a wholly adolescent outlook on the world that combines rage and frustration with a typical youthful exuberance and sense of invulnerability. I sat in awe for the complete running time and felt for the first time that one of America's major cinematic propaganda machines actually did understand me. For some reason, that was a great feeling.

Everything was there. The fury and confusion of youth. The sense of displacement and uncertainty. All waiting to finally be engaged and discussed responsibly.

But what happened?

The critics tore the movie to shreds.

My brief euphoric bubble was burst and subsequently torn down in flames. Few times have I read reactions as harsh as those that were bestowed upon Fight Club. The critics simply didn't want to deal with it. They called it an endorsement of fascism (which is absolutely absurd) and used even uglier, harsher phrases to send people scampering away from the film as fast as they could go. As a result, David Fincher (the director) completely lost his balls and went on to direct crap like Panic Room. Edward Norton hasn't been able to make a good movie since then, and Brad Pitt's returned to his crappy "superstar" roles. They all seemed to have shellshock from having participated in a film that dared to engage the angst of adolescent men. So instead of a series of films or books based on this theme, the trend began and ended with Fight Club.

Yes, the consensus was clear. The critics found Fight Club irresponsible. They angrily declared that such a movie shouldn't be made, that it's themes were irrelevant.

Middle-aged critics.

And what went on to win the Academy Award that year? American Beauty, a film virtually identical to Fight Club except that it has fast-forwarded the age of its antagonists to come more closely in line with the asshole critics. Oh....now that the EXACT SAME THEMES are being catered to middle-aged assholes instead of twenty-somethings....NOW they are relevant....NOW they are worthwhile.

Fuckers.

Let me tell you something, this is just an example of super lazy thinking. Actually, it is rather amusing to go back and read those original reviews of Fight Club and bear in mind that the film has withstood the test of time and has proven itself to be relevant despite what the "professional" critics predicted. And the other thing that is truly amazing is that despite what those self-absorbed idiots thought, the themes of Fight Club could not simply be ignored. They all wanted to go back to their happy little homes and continue with their happy little jobs and whistle past the graveyard and pretend the world was perfect. Fight Club suggested it wasn't and world events came along and proved the film right.

What themes am I talking about? Well let me just back up a second and make a few general comments about literature. There are several different types of texts. There are texts that are just meant as escapism where the outcome is already known by the author and he/she is just writing for entertainment. Then there are the type of novels where the author is exploring a theme. These kind of books are far more interesting to me because oftentimes the author doesn't know what conclusions they are going to reach. The book then becomes a kind of "thought experiment" which may or may not just disintegrate into propaganda depending on the skill of the writer. Books like these are a lot more courageous to write because if you are true to your reasoning you might get let to conclusions that are contrary to what people in your culture want to believe.

Like...hmmm...I don't know...that the US isn't as great as it thinks it is?

Most films start with kind of a stupid premise that is meant to draw people in to see it and get them thinking about what the film is going to do. For example you might have something like "Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito are TWINS!" and you, the audience, are suppose to go to this film already laughing at how absurd this idea is. Well, Fight Club was something more like "our society is disintegrating, people hate us, and the ugly end is inevitable because we refuse to accept the truth." This concept, of course, just made people angry.

Remember, Fight Club came out in 1999. This movie was an EXPLORATION of an idea. It was tossing out themes and leaving an open-ended question like "hello, maybe we should think about these things." But critics and members of the mass media reacted in fury. They used Fight Club as cannon-fodder that they could systematically destroy for the sake of painting themselves up to be superior, highly-moral people. "How dare Fight Club suggest these things...How dare Fight Club use so much blood...etc." The one thing they refused to do was take any of the ideas in Fight Club seriously. They refused to even consider them.

Fight Club ends on a terrorist act. The movie suggests that the current American system is pissing people off and if we continue doing things the way we have been, people are going to get organized and bring down our buildings in towers of fire.

Absurd! Scream the middle-aged critics.

I don't want to even think about that! Screamed the mother's groups.

What an evil, sadistic movie! That could never happen. Screamed the churches.

And then on Sept. 11th, 2001, a bunch of angst-ridden young men flew planes into the world trade center buildings and destroyed them utterly.

Fight Club doesn't justify this....it predicted it. The terrorism didn't come from America's own youth, but it's still a fuck of a lot closer to the mark than anything Nostradamus predicted. It anticipated the violent, murderous rage, it gave us two whole years to think about it and engage the issue. It allowed us to take seriously this dark cloud that so many young people feel is hanging over our very way of life. It gave us this amazing gift of early preparation.

And what did our "intelligent" "scholarly" "intellectual" leaders do with this info? They used it for their own gain, they threw it back in the faces of the people who championed it.

Even now, with this connection so obvious, is anybody backing up to learn from their mistake? Of course not, they just want it to go away, and to me, that's the biggest crime of them all.

What if people had taken Fight Club seriously and began to explore the issues that confront our society on a daily basis that the film so succinctly expresses? Could Sept. 11th have been avoided? Well, maybe not. But if there's one thing that Sept. 11th did show us is that pre-Sept. 11th, America had its collective head up its ass. Welcome to the real world jerk-off. And if there is some good that can come out of that tragedy it is that the people of America need to learn to stop living in a fantasy and accept even the ugly aspects of the world they are living in. You don't have a right to dismiss ideas just because they don't fit into your world view. You don't have a right to dismiss ideas simply because you don't find them attractive. And you certainly don't have a right to dismiss world views simply because they don't apply to you and the one little fragment of the human experience you currently happen to be enjoying.

Fight Club was cutting edge, and it represents the greatest thing any work of literature can achieve. It had its finger on the pulse of the most important events of its time. To not even engage the ideas it espoused was worse than being disrespectful. Someone once said, when books are burned it will not be long until people are burned. Well, they burned Fight Club, and the two towers came down burning shortly afterwards.

The End