Chuck Palahniuk: Beyond the Body
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Chuck Palahniuk: Beyond the Body A Representation of Gender in Fight Club, Invisible Monsters and Diary By Kjersti Jacobsen A Thesis Presented to The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Master of Arts Degree University of Oslo Thesis supervisor: Rebecca Scherr Spring Term 2013 II Chuck Palahniuk: Beyond the Body A Representation of Gender in Fight Club, Invisible Monsters and Diary Kjersti Jacobsen III © Kjersti Jacobsen 2013 Chuck Palahniuk: Beyond the Body Kjersti Jacobsen http://www.duo.uio.no/ Print: Reprosentralen, University of Oslo IV Abstract The main focus of this essay will be to discuss how Chuck Palahniuk presents gender in three of his books: Fight Club, Invisible Monsters and Diary, and how his presentation of gender often involves the deconstruction of such terms. My aim is to show how Palahniuk deals with different aspects of gender in American society, be it the dichotomous relationship between femininity/masculinity and gay/straight, and also to show how his writing unearths an underlying critique of American society as a whole. The chapters will focus on the main characters of the three novels; depicting the characters’ journey to achieving both physical and spiritual freedom, and thus authenticity, by deconstructing normative notions of gender. The binary categories of gender have come to serve as a means of structuring society in a convenient and simple way, yet complicating the situation for those who fall on the outside of such categories. My aim, then, is to show how the shunning of the binary gender categories ultimately leads to reconnection between humans and a restoration of individuality for the characters. By going beyond the limitations of the body, Palahniuk’s texts opens up an exploration of a world that goes beyond categorization, labels, class and race, thus displaying the ultimate beauty in difference. The three chapters are structured around several aspects of each novel that I claim are the main arguments used by Palahniuk to represent his view on gender in American society. V VI Acknowledgements First I would like to thank my brilliant supervisor, Associate Professor Rebecca Scherr, for her insight, guidance and support throughout this process. Her knowledge, commentary, classes and coursework have been invaluable and highly inspirational to me. I wish to thank my family and friends for their support during these 9 months. I would also especially like to thank my big brother Jørgen and my best friend Veronica for their love, help and solid support through all of this. I could not have done this without you. Lastly, I wish to thank Helge Engseth Kleivane, Ida Brunsvik Eriksen and Patricia Natvig for helpful commentary and proofreading. Oslo, May 2013. Kjersti Jacobsen VII Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................... V Acknowledgements .................................................................................. VII Contents ...................................................................................................... VIII Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 “Before all that, there was just a short story:” The Man, His Books and Reception................ 5 Diagnosing Chuck: Theory, Themes and the Ailments of Gender........................................... 8 Chapter 1: Fight Club................................................................................ 14 I Am Joe Schmoe: Faludi, Kimmel and the ”Crisis of Masculinity”……………………….. 15 I Am Joe’s Boiling Rage of Failed Expectations: Tyler Durden, Fight Clubs and the Self- Made Man………………………………………………………………………………….... 21 I Am Joe’s Imaginary Friend: The Id, Ego and the Androgynous Brain………………….... 26 I Am Joe’s Beating Heart: Marla, Femininity and Love……………………………………. 30 I Am Joe’s Virtual Vision: The Movie, David Fincher and Life Beyond Gender…………. .39 Chapter 2: Invisible Monsters………………………………………………… 42 Bubba-Joan GotHerFaceShotOff: Shannon, Beauty and Hyperreality................................... 44 Planet Brandy Alexander: Shane/Brandy, Performativity and Pain........................................ 50 Monsterly Love: The Gothic, Invisible Monsters and Normativity........................................ 58 Chapter 3: Diary.......................................................................................................... 66 If your name is Misty, take a drink: The Waytansea Island and its women........................... 68 ”Can you feel this?”Going to the Body: Peter, Marriage and Pain......................................... 75 The Diary of Chuck: Gothic, Horror and Form....................................................................... 81 Conclusion.......................................................................................................92 Bibliography...................................................................................................99 VIII For those who couldn’t be here, And for those that still are. IX Introduction In so many ways, these places – support groups, twelve-step recovery groups, demolition derbies – they’ve come to serve the role that organized religion used to. We used to go to church to reveal the worst aspects of ourselves, our sins. To tell our stories. To be recognized. To be forgiven. This ritual was our way to stay connected to people, and to resolve our anxiety before it could take us so far from humanity that we would be lost…even the lonely act of writing becomes an excuse to be around people. In turn, the people fuel the storytelling. Alone. Together. Fact. Fiction. It’s a cycle. It works, but only if you don’t get stuck too long in any one place.1 As a human living in this modern world, you tend to end up alone. Before one had to walk to the neighbor’s house in order to enter a dialogue, now you can remain immobile and simply press a button to communicate. It has made things easier; the Facebook-revolution and technology boost of smart phones have certainly improved how human beings interact with each other and have opened up the possibility to communicate globally – to connect beyond geographical, physical and emotional boundaries. But has it brought us closer? In this thesis I will examine three novels in which the main character is trying to escape a lonely existence by challenging the binary gender categories in order to reconnect with the community. With the proliferation of Internet access in the last twenty years, the themes of identity, identity formation and gender have been questioned. One would think a lager access to information and knowledge about other people would stimulate the notion of greater diversity as something positive, yet, it seems as if greater access has contributed to a narrower perception of identity, or worse, as Kimmel articulates, an uncertainty about who we are: “On what grand and luminous mythological figure does contemporary humanity attempt to model itself? The question is embarrassing. Nobody knows.”2 The last decade’s feminist movement and the pioneering from feminist scholars have put gender in focus, and the importance of it in regards to the shaping of society and the individual. Scholars such as Simone de Beauvoir and Judith Butler have contributed to bringing gender into public view and scrutinizing what powers control the governing of gender, establishing that the boundaries of the gender dichotomy are constantly moving and shifting. With his post- modern satirical look on contemporary American society, Chuck Palahniuk makes his contribution to the ongoing gender debate by deconstructing normative notions of gender 1 Chuck Palahniuk, Foreword to Stranger Than Fiction (Anchor Books: New York, 2004), xix-xxii. 2 Michael S. Kimmel, Introduction to Manhood in America: A Cultural History (Oxford University Press: New York, 2006), 1. 1 through his portrayal of characters that are not bound by the social laws that follow sexual identity. This thesis focuses on Palahniuk’s depiction of gender, although he himself considers his novels to be about anything but that: “If you consider all my novels, you’ll find gender…become[s] unimportant.”3 It is because of this aspect that I will argue that his work becomes an interesting contribution to gender discourse; Palahniuk’s books definitely deal with gender, but the portrayal of his characters takes the reader beyond the boundaries of genders, demonstrating how individual freedom, community and love grow out of a society that does not uphold the social laws of separation. In many ways, gender and the body are very much in focus in today’s American society. With the discussions of the legalization of same sex marriage, the topic of anatomy, biology and categories becomes relevant: What is a man? What constitutes a woman? Are you a man solely because of your anatomy? Is it really that simple? In her TED4 talk “Is Anatomy Destiny?”, Alice Dreger, a noted historian on human anatomy and advocate for intersexed individuals, says that sex is much more complex than simply making the determination based on whether you have testes or a uterus.5 She comments that our society has a romanticized idea of what a woman and man is, and whenever someone challenges these views we are left startled and uncomfortable. These individuals, who are not standard male or female, are called intersexed, which means they challenge societal norms regarding