CHAPTER 10

³+ITTING BOTTOM´ DEVIANCE IN ¶S

Any time wealth inequities diverge as abruptly and hideously as they have over the past twenty-five years, particularly as expectations for our lives have grown, a society can be expected to explode. Rebellion is even more likely if there is an ideological or intellectual context to give form to the discontent.1

Throughout the 1990s, literature in general lagged behind other cultural representations of Generation X. Film, television and music had become \RXWK¶VIDYRXUHGPHDQVRIVHOI-expression. This may help explain author &KXFN3DODKQLXN¶VUHPDUNDEOHDVFHQVLRQWRIDPHDQGDFKLHYHPHQWRID mass status in 1999, three years after the publication of his debut Fight Club. It was only subsequent to the film adaptation by the famous cult director that Palahniuk was recognized as a noteworthy author. The enthusiasm set off by the cinematic version of Fight Club prompted the formation of a network of fans of the novel, particularly male readers who had felt underrepresented in literature.2 In spite of the dwindling appeal of literature and the pronouncement of

1 Mark Ames, Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion in America ± IURP5HDJDQ¶V :RUNSODFHVWR&OLQWRQ¶V&ROXPELQHDQG%H\RQG, New York: Soft Skull Press, 2007. 2 In a new introduction to Fight Club in 2000, Chuck Palahniuk clearly expressed his intention to write a novel that would appeal to male readerVDQGSUHVHQWD³PRGHO´WKDW ZRXOGKHOSPHQILQGDZD\RI³VKDULQJWKHLUOLYHV´)RUWKHDXWKRUWKHLGHDRIPHQ organizing illicit fights was the equivalent of the female communities described in the bestsellers The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood or How to Make an American Quilt3DODKQLXNDOVRREVHUYHGWKDWKHKDGUHFHLYHG³WKRXVDQGVRIOHWWHUV´IURPZRPHQ thanking him for having written a novel that had made their sons, husbands and students read again. Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, New York: Henry Holt, 2000, xi-xx (all subsequent page references to this edition are given in parenthesis in the text). 216 Opting Out the death of cult fiction in 1998,3 Palahniuk revived the power of literary fiction to attract consumers beyond the academic milieu. Accordingly, the DXWKRU¶VRIILFLDOZHEVLWHDGPLQLVWHUHGE\IDQVLVNQRZQVLPSO\DV³WKH FXOW´ In Fight Club an office employee in his thirties and his mysterious dropout friend and role model Tyler Durden create an underground club where men voluntarily engage in violent fistfights. This provides a EDFNGURS IRU WKH QRYHO¶V WUHDWPHQW RI DQ DUUD\ RI SUREOHPV SODJXLQJ young Americans at the close of the twentieth century: the fear of obsolescence set off by corporate downsizing, the loss of community, the dominance of a consumer culture that equates fulfilment with the purchase of a proper lifestyle, and the feelings of frustration and rage that afflict men when they are repeatedly encouraged to identify their problems with personal failure instead of articulating their experiences in FROOHFWLYH WHUPV :KLOH 3DODKQLXN¶V GHEXW QRYHO SURMHFWHG ILFWLRQDO solutions, a number of influential books have dealt with the negative impact of these issues on American society. They provide a useful IUDPHZRUNIRUWKHDQDO\VLVRI3DODKQLXN¶VJORULILFDWLRQRIYLROHQFHDVWKH ultimate manifesto of Generation X.

Fin-de-siècle: the new economy and the cult of violence The period between the mid- and late 1990s ushered in what became NQRZQ DV WKH ³QHZ HFRQRP\´ :KHUHDV JURZWK KDG SUHYLRXVO\ EHHQ measured in terms of productivity, now it was determined by the financial VHFWRU7KHSUHVVXUHWRZDUGVSURILWDELOLW\GXEEHG³VKDUHKROGHUYDOXH´ prompted companies to minimize costs and keep profits high, lest they become vulnerable to takeover by global competitors.4 Managerial decisions were focused on the interests of investors, and control measures concerning employment security or the environment were shunned as ³KLQGUDQFHVWRIUHHHQWHUSULVH´5 The new economy widened the gap between rich and poor and furthered the decline of the middle class. In No Logo (2000), one of the leading critical analyses of global capitalism, Naomi Klein noted that the HFRQRPLFERRPRIWKLVSHULRGKDGEHHQVXVWDLQHGE\³MREGHEDsement and

3 Calcutt and Shephard, Cult Fiction, xvi. See also Chapter 3. 4 Andrew Glyn, Capitalism Unleashed: Finance, Globalization, and Welfare, London: Oxford University Press, 2006, 55. 5 Laura Penny, Your Call Is Important To Us: The Truth About Bullshit, New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005, 79.