Tyler Durden’s Reach After Fight Club

John Cheever remarked that “the idea of authors running around helplessly behind their cretinous inventions is contemptible.” Well, Cheever would be aghast about how the internet changed the way we read and interact with any type of fiction. Characters stretch beyond their confines. Tyler Durden’s reach after Fight Club is a prime example.

Tyler Durden, Folk Hero?

At the end of my copy of Fight Club, author Chuck Palahniuk discuss how the book took on a life without him, especially after the movie. Fight clubs popped up. People confessed to doing Durdenesque things even before he wrote the book. And of course, he realized Tyler Durden’s reach after Fight Club was longer than what he anticipated.

The word snowflake has become part of the lexicon. However, Durden probably would have loved that and hated it at the same time. Durden was not a capitalist. He wants to get rid of debt and equal the playing field. One in which real men, not their pocketbook, are the most powerful.

Durden was created because men didn’t have role models. Well, we do, but they let us down. He was created because of the lack of a male figure, not to become it.

Both the movie and book talk about God and dads. Our dads left us, or we left them in our teenage rage. Bosses took their place. Yet, to quote Paul Westerberg, “the ones who love us least are the ones we’ll die to please.” So that doesn’t qualify as a replacement.

God might exist, but we have to think about how he might not like us very much. As Durden says in the movie, “Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God?… You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen.”

Tyler Durden took a life outside of Palahniuk, the book and the movie. He became a folk hero, even though he is the bad guy. The point of the story is that the Narrator needs to learn how to cope on his own without Tyler. He needs Marla, but not Tyler. (Marla is a saint in both the book and movie.)

Fight Club 2

But everyone else Tyler, and this is what Palahniuk explores this to brilliant effect in Fight Club 2.

Fight Club 2 is a graphic novel that picks up ten years after the events of the original book. Palahniuk is the author, and Cameron Stewart supplies fantastic art. The Narrator, now known as Sebastian, has a handle on things. He is heavily medicated, but he is normal. As someone who has dealt with his own demons, I find this version of The Narrator comforting.

And normal is boring. The world is bored. People want Tyler Durden. All kinds of Fight Clubs start appearing for other hobbies. People want Tyler in their lives.

Worse of all, Marla wants Tyler. On first viewing/reading, Marla Singer is a sociopath. Once you know the twist, however, you realize she is a saint. She really cares for Tyler (because that’s who she thinks she’s with) even though he is a lot of work. She loves him in spite of his faults because she realizes he is a kindred spirit.

However, she also has needs. Needs that a medicated Sebastian can’t give fully, but an unleashed Tyler Durden can.

So, Tyler Durden lives.

That right there would be enough fodder for a great sequel. But Palahniuk wants to see the length of Tyler Durden’s reach.

This means a new character has to enter the fray. Cheever be damned, the author needs to meet up with his creation. To do this, Palahniuk inserts himself into the story. He interacts with Marla and Tyler.

What does he find out?

Tyler Durden lives.

At first, Fight Club didn’t really work for me. The graphic novel often flickers images and words that don’t match on the screen, similar to what David Fincher did in the film.

But this idea has stayed with me. Reading Cheever’s biography and coming to the quote mentioned above, it really hammered the point home.

We are in a new world, and sometimes fictional creations, like Tyler Durden, can have a more extended reach than what their author set out for them.