...that one day we'd all be millionaires & movie gods & rockstars. But we won't. Fight Club Kinetic Typography by Cory, a film student at the Art Institute of Dallas. Love this stuff. (Link via The Daily What)
Previously on Popped Culture...
A Way With Words
Words Can Kill
Medieval Fight Club
That was fine typographic animation.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Fight Club spoke to me in a very powerful and meaningful way, I didn't agree with Tyler's perspective in this scene. Who needs a Great Depression or World War to overcome? There is no glory to be found in suffering.
No, our greatest dreams will not come true and we will not find perfect happiness. But that we cannot find absolute happiness does not mean that we can be incrementally happy. We can carve out a little slice of joy, and maybe even a bit bigger one. The consumer goods and services that Tyler rails against will not fulfill us, but they can make life a little better, bit by bit.
The absolutism of Tyler -- that if the world cannot be perfect than it must be destroyed -- is worse than the compromise of consumerist cubicle habitation. I like my indoor plumbing, my air conditioning, and my high-speed Internet access. The alternative is not the utopia that he dreams of; the alternative is living in an unheated hut.
When I got out of college, for three years I unloaded trucks at a warehouse. It got so hot in the summer that people fainted. In the winter, it got so cold that gloved fingers became numb. I love my cubicle. I love my consumer junk. And I'm willing to trade a wholly imaginary transcendent emotional fulfillment for them.
Oh, agreed. I worked a factory job and a couple of outdoor gigs as well and it convinced me there was a better, more comfortable way.
ReplyDeleteIn Fight Club, Tyler Durden is Jack's id, separated from his sedate, going-through-the-motions ego. Neither should be exclusive and I imagine Jack is a more balanced person at the end of the film - albeit one who has just destroyed a city. It is an argument against complacency, writ large.