Final Exam Book Review: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk has become a bible for some people. This book reveals human nature in the most destructive light. This story about an unsatisfied, depressed, and sleep deprived narrator illuminates the mind of readers as they throw themselves in the narrators shoes. With Palahniuk's gritty language, raw parables, and metaphors focused on our anatomy you are caught in the rabbit hole that Fight Club is. While reading this book you are forced to emerge in the beliefs and lifestyle of the narrator while still being safe at home, living your ordinary life and sitting on your ordinary couch. Which is ironic because that is exactly what our narrator hates about his life.
"You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you."
Meet our narrator.
He is the cynical yet very lovable character that only Palahniuk could deliver. He is an anxious insomniac who suffers severe depression. He hates himself, his house, and his job. He hates his entire life. Don't worry though, he meets a saving grace.
Tyler Durden.
Tyler Durden is everything that our narrator wants to be. He is smart and handsome. He is bold and philosophical. He lives in a rundown house and makes soap for a living. Best of all, Tyler was also not content with his life. He teaches the narrator to just let go. This all starts by starting up fight club.
After an explosion from an unknown source blows up his apartment, our narrator calls Tyler and asks if he can stay at his place for the night. While our narrator thought this would sound crazy since he only met Tyler hours prior on a plane, Tyler quickly obliged.
Tyler took our narrator out to a drink. There he began to understand our narrator a little better. Our narrator told Tyler all about his shitty little life. About his furniture obsession. About his insomnia and how he only finds relief from it if he goes to self-help seminars for terminal illnesses. He even tells Tyler about his failing sex life and how he is too pathetic to even be concerned about it anymore. As they leave the bar, Tyler turns to our narrator and says,
"You can stay with me, but you have to do something for me"
"Okay, and what is that?"
"I want you to hit me. I want you to hit me as hard as you can."
And thus begins Fight Club. Thus begins the out of control spiral of our book. More and more people catch on and want in. More people want to gather in a basement of a bar and beat the quivering and unbearingly normal snot out of each other. This is the birth of the cult of Tyler Durden. A song and dance that is perfectly choreographed by Palahnuik with an ending that not even I, the most affluent and scholarly reader, could have expected.
Do you want to understand human nature? Do you want to have glimpse of the adulthood you may end up having if you settle into becoming one of the worker bees in the beehive our America has become? Do you want to understand how detrimental swedish furniture can be to your health? Read Fight Club. Settle into this whirlwind of a plot that take you on a rollercoaster ride through the mind of our narrator. Be engrossed in the writing style of Palahniuk. Most importantly, be amazed at the truth that is presented about you and me, within this novel.

Readicide Response

"What should a 21^st century English class reading list look like?"
A 21st century English class reading list should be packed with books that will make you ask important questions. They need to be thought-provoking, reflective, and most importantly, enjoyable. If the student isn't enjoying the book, it is a pointless read. You won't get that constant drip of excitment and knowledge as you read. For example, when reading the book, "The Catcher in the Rye" you catch yourself asking questions that you often ask yourself when you are going through certain experiences in your life. You are asking, "Why is this occuring?" and seeking out reasons for a why specific scenerio is happening. You are asking, "Why is a character behaving this way?" then you search the knowledge of the character that you have already obtained from the book. If that doesn't work, you sort through your own mind of why a person would behave or act in a certain way. You constantly ask yourself questions that you would ask yourself in real life. When you read the classic, thought-provoking books you practice answering those questions. You learn perspectives and approaches to solve problems and answer incredibly tough questions. Without these books, I feel that some people may enter the world severely unprepared.

“For these reasons, the National Book Award in fiction, more than any other American literary prize, illustrates the ever-broadening cultural gap between the literary community and the reading public. The former believes that everyone reads as much as they do and that they still have the authority to shape readers’ tastes, while the latter increasingly suspects that it’s being served the literary equivalent of spinach. Like the Newbery Medal for children’s literature, awarded by librarians, the NBA has come to indicate a book that somebody else thinks you ought to read, whether you like it or not.” - Laura Miller 

This lady is wrong. It is a cynical approach to ride the waves of new literature. I love newer literature and fiction, I read it all the time. I just think it is important to read the books where good stories all started and those are the classics. Imagine if we decided to destroy old historical buildings just because new ones were being built. We need to embrace the old and the new. But most importantly, we need to preserve the old. It's our history!

Book Trailer

Adapting "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"

When it comes to adapting the book Extremely Loud and Incredibily Close the challenges would be immense. I believe casting Oskar would be very difficult. He is a very complex character and for this movie to gain the approval of critics and fans, Oskar would need to be casted perfectly. Also, The book has different points of view in it such as letters from Oskar's grandmother and grandfather that would need to be incorporated into the movie to in order to better explain things.

Scenes to incorporate:
1. Oskar talking to his Grandmother on the walkie talkies at night.
2. Oskar's memories with his father.
3. Oskar's conversation with his mom on the way to his dad's funeral.

Scenes to cut:
1. Oskar going to the store and looking at all the pen pads.
2. Some of the things Oskar looked into about the key. Calling people, going to a locksmith, ect.

Book One Project

Hunger Games Trading Post

Located in Afghanistan

 District Themed Good for Sale!

District 1: Luxury items and jewelry

District 2: Masonry (Models of buildings and structures from novel)

District 3: Technology

District 4: Fishing (Seafood and fishing gear)

District 5: Power (Batteries and basic electronics)

District 6: Transportation (Models of forms of transportation from the novel)

District 7: Lumber (Wooden models of weapons and structures)

District 8: Textiles (Clothing from the novel)

District 9: Grain (Food from the novel)

District 10: Livestock (Buy farm animals from the novel)

District 11: Agriculture (Produce and natural remedies from novel)

District 12: Main characters' gift shop! And coal...

The idea is to create a small shopping plaza modeling a "Hob-like" trading post. The Hob in The Hunger Games was District 12's black market. "On the way home, we swing by the Hob, the black market that operates in an abandoned warehouse that once held coal." (Collins/Location 119)  The attraction would be in Afghanistan so we can pull in individuals from the middle-east in order to publisize the series and provide them with goods and increase vacationers in that area. Within this trading post we will have characters such as Greasy Sae and The Peacekeepers walking around and selling goods. Every once in awhile we will have a Katniss and Peeta walking around saying some of your favorite lines such as, "'I want to die as myself'" (Collins/Location 1750) and don't forget the best line in the entire book, "Rue is dead." (Collins/ Location 2350) There will be 12 sections and each section will sell the item that its corresponding district specializes in. District 12, alongside selling coal will also be the overall giftshop for the Hunger Games! YES YES YES! I said it! THE OVERALL GIFTSHOP FOR THE HUNGER GAMES NOVELS! The fun doesn't stop there, oh no. You also have a CAPITAL themed section. You can buy Capital clothing, wigs, accessories, and even buy a bouquet of President Snow's signature roses. We have it all here at The Hunger Games Trading Post. Don't be that obese middle aged father who never takes his family on vacation! Pack up the van and hit the road to Afghanistan and spend a week at The Hunger Games Trading Post. OH! Did you hear me correctly? Oh hell yes you did! I said stay a week! We have a motel out back of The Post for your family to shack up in! No running water or heat! Live like an impoverished district citizen! 

What is a Book?

A book is a mirror. When we read we are drawn to characters with struggles, obstacles, and a powerful voice. All of these things are what makes the idea of the book one that the reader can easily relate to. We often find a book more enjoyable if we can relate to it anyways. When I read I often associate the imagry with places I have been or saw. I picture the characters with faces I am familiar with so that the image of that character never changes while I read. The book becomes more and more personal the more I make it a reflection of what is familiar to me.

When looking through the other writers opinions, I liked what Victor LaValle said about a book. As long as I have some kind of medium to read the words I don't care what the format is. Falling in love with the solid object of a book is an intimacy that I have not ventured out to experience. I much rather fall in love with the words printed on the pages, that's what we buy books for anyways, right?

So all in all, I would say if at the end of the book I am left reflecting, it was a good read. I believe reading is an intellectual experiance and you should therefore think while you do it. I want to see struggles meeting solution or an idea being brought to life in the stories of the characters I am reading about. Whether I draw inspiration, knowledge, or some other kind of enlightenment I am happy as hell in the end!

Yeehaw.

SKY-LURE ADD-LEETUH

Why I Read!

Hey blog fans, I am sure you have all been wondering, "Why does SkyDaddy read?" Well, pull up a chair next to the campfire and let me tell you a story...

It all started when I was four years old and my father sat me down at the kitchen table and told me what the necessities in life are. He looked me dead in the eyes and said, "Boy, if you want to be man, ya gotta have plan, ya gotta own land, and you gotta play in the sand. You also gotta read!"

After my father bewildered me with this wisdom, I retreated to my room to look at a couple books that my family owned, all of which were auto trader magazines. I learned how to read car names like Ford and Volkswagon which prepared me to dive into literature. The first book I decided to tackle at the age of four was Homer's "The Illiad".

After a couple of days I reached the end of the book and realized Achilles was a cool guy, but way too lost in his own hubris and self glorified image that it led to his downfall. Not really, he died because it was his fate to die in the great war. I only said that previous statement to sound smart.

So in the end that answers the blog's original question of why do I read. I read because I take wisdom and intelligence from most of the things that I read. It is an enlightening experience for me.

- SkyDaddy