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| I am Jack's sexual confusion. |
So there’s this hunter dude in Greek mythology named Narcissus. He was apparently the most handsome person in
the world, and everybody loved him. Too
bad he was a dick to every person who showed any shred of admiration for
him. This comes back to bite him in the
behind when one of the people he ended up rejecting called upon the goddess, Nemesis,
to exact revenge. Nemesis attracts Narcissus
to a pool, in which Narcissus notices a reflection of his handsome self and
swoons over it. He basically dies by the
pool out of love for his reflection. In
a way, Narcissus’ relationship with himself can be interpreted as a form of
sexual confusion.
What does this have to do with Fight Club?
EV-ER-Y-THING. In fact, this actually reinforces
Brookey and Westerfelhaus’ suggestions on the homoreroticism presented in the
film if you interpret it hard enough. More
importantly, it also complements Laura Mulvey really well. Narcissus’ story is very much like the
Narrator’s in Fight Club. Fed up with
life, the Narrator starts a really demented relationship with his own
reflection, or as Laura Mulvey puts it, his “mirror phase.” His reflection is very much an idealized, “more
complete” version of himself. This
version of the Narrator’s self is Tyler Durden, and takes the form of that one
guy that was in that Chanel No. 5 commercial.
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| Behold. The Narrator's numerous reflections of himself. |
Throughout the movie, the Narrator slowly begins to
fall in love with his idealized self, and soon, starts to create more and more
mirrors of his ideal self through the following he creates. You might be asking “How in the world does
this fit in with Narcissus? Didn’t you say that Narcissus rejected everybody
who followed or admired him?” Well, the
Fight Club is not so much an army of admirers, but they serve more as an army
of extra reflections for the Narrator to look into, as he sees Tyler and his ideals in each and every person
in Fight Club. Wherever he goes, Fight Club is there. Fight Club is the Narrator's luck, fame, and fortune. Because of this, the
Narrator doesn’t reject those in his following…except the ones who don’t
conform to his rules and standards. These rejected ones are seen as threats and are forced to stand outside Tyler’s apartment to take
licks until they conform and become the very reflection the Narrator wants to
see. The Narrator’s continually
perpetuating relationship with Tyler and the rest of Fight Club can be
interpreted as sexual confusion, as suggested by Brookey and Westerfelhaus. This is what the Narrator is responding
to.
Speaking of responses, we see a lot of Narcissus through The Narrator/Tyler’s
relationship with Marla. Much like
Narcissus, the Narrator, and Tyler by extent, ends up rejecting Marla over and
over, responding to her as a threat. Lacking
of a phallus, this is the reflection the Narrator does not want to see. Since the Narrator, like Narcissus, is
sexually confused and has already found the pool that holds the idealized reflection
he wants to see, he rejects Marla.
This is where the twist of the movie comes into play.
Unlike Narcissus, The Narrator discovers that he’s in love with his
reflection, and in turn, opts to destroy it in order to regain
normativity. By destroying Tyler, and in turn
destroying his sexual confusion, the Narrator, is now capable of being in a
heterosexual relationship. Marla, who
was once a fear of castration, is now fetishized, and ends up becoming the
object of the Narrator’s desire, and they could now live happily ever after. Under Brookey and Westerfelhaus logic, the
Narrator “escapes” the sexual confusion that Narcissus wasn't able to break out
of. It doesn't help that Brookey and Westerfelhaus themselves have also cited narcissism as a close relative to homoeroticism.
I don't know how to end this, so I'm just going to put this here instead.
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