The Tao of Fight Club

We at LifeEdited are staunchly nonviolent, but a recent viewing of, and subsequent reminder from our friends over at Unstash, revealed the many pearls of wisdom dispensed between bloody brawls in the movie Fight Club. The 1999 flick starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, based on the Chuck Palahniuk (pronounced Paul-uh-nick, if you were ever wondering) novel of the same name, is a commentary on society’s obsession with a consumer lifestyle we can never quite attain–and the subsequent liberation through, well, fighting (it’s way more nuanced than it sounds).

Please note: The following quotes–most deliberately taken out of context–are not our endorsement of any or all ideas expressed in Fight Club.

Tyler Durden: You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your [expletive] khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

Narrator: 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.

Tyler Durden: Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions.

Narrator: Tyler, I’m grateful to you; for everything that you’ve done for me. But this is too much. I don’t want this.

Tyler: What do you want? Wanna go back to the [expletive] job, [expletive] condo world, watching sitcoms? [Expletive] you, I won’t do it.

Marla Singer: I got this dress at a thrift store for one dollar.

Narrator: It was worth every penny.

Marla Singer: It’s a bridesmaid’s dress. Someone loved it intensely for one day, and then tossed it. Like a Christmas tree. So special. Then, bam, it’s on the side of the road.