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Popular Culture Review
major threads exist within this vision. The first is Tyler’s role as surrogate father
to Fight Club members. In mainstream society, cWldren generally look up to,
perh^s even idolize, their fathers, and the same is true here. Bob, once a
member of a testicular cancer self-help group and now a member of Fight Club,
stands out as one example of someone who both idolizes and respect s Tyler
without any direct knowledge of him as a person. In a conversation with Jack,
Bob describes Tyler, explaining, “Supposedly, he was bom in a mental
institution. And he sleeps only one hour at night. He’s a great man” (Fincher).
Tyler also impresses Fight Club members with his power during a fight
with the owner of the original Fight Club location. Taking punch after punch
without retaliating to show his endurance, Tyler eventually lashes out in a gory
display of domination and strength, enhancing his image as someone who
should not be questioned.
The second major theme is the mythology of Tyler’s image as a
Christlike figure vsithin the group. When Tyler first talks with Jack about Marla,
he makes Jack promise three times never to mention Tyler to her, akin to the
promise Judas made to Jesus before betraying him to the Romans. Additionally,
once Project Mayhem and Fight Club are fully underway. Jack uses the phrase
“In Tyler we trust” (Fincher) to imply that, as with belief in God, believers do
not have to know the ultimate plan, just that they play a part in it. This was
particularly true in the early stages of Project Mayhem’s development, when the
purpose of the activity was clear to neither the audience nor Jack. Even the
phrases that Tyler preaches throughout Project Mayhem’s work are similar to
those of the early American Puritans who used Christian preaching in what they
said and did to create a shared fantasy for their own members (Force of Fantasy
27).
The mythology surrounding Tyler acts as a link between the rhetorical
vision of Tyler as a father figure and the worldview that he promotes through
Project Mayhem and Fight Club. Jack’s visit to two Fight Club members in a
different city illustrates stories that have come to pervade the organization about
Tyler, such as the notion that “no one knows what he looks like” and that “he
has facial reconstructive every three years” (Fincher). Tyler does nothing to
discourage this rhetorical vision and, in some cases, he even perpetuates the
mythology surrounding him by contrasting his successes against the failure of
their fathers. When Tyler bums Jack with lye, he explains, “Our fathers were our
models for God. And if our fathers failed, what does that tell you about God? . . .
You have to consider the possibility that God doesn’t like you. He never wanted
you. In all probability, he hates you . . . ” (Fincher).
This statement contains two clear messages that reentrench the
rhetorical visions developing around Tyler. The first is that if their fathers failed,
it implicates God as well because one was a model for the other, thus forcing the
members of Fight Club and Project Mayhem to search for a replacement for
both. The second message is that since Tyler shows success in his efforts, an