 |
|
Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume 4
Fall 2005
By Frankie Dintino
The question may still arise of the utility of such an analysis of the film. Well, given the film's unrealistic and sometimes bizarre nature, it would seem surprising that it has enjoyed such high popularity. It is well known that Fight Club , at the time this is written, is indeed one of the most popular films among college-age males. What does this say about popular culture, especially given the relevance that Deleuze's theory has for the film? This is purely speculative, but perhaps the film's popularity results from the fact that while it may be unrealistic at parts, the forces and societal problems dramatized in it are quite real: the end of history, control society, the institution of debt, and the reactionary appeal of a return to pre-capitalist concepts such as masculinity. That is to say, the film is popular not in spite of its theoretical resonances but rather because of them: a properly Deleuzian film for a properly Deleuzian century.
Works Cited
Busk, Malene. "Micropolitics: A Political Philosophy from Marx and Beyond." Micropolitics of Media Culture: Reading the Rhizomes of Deleuze and Guattari. Ed. Patricia Pisters. Amsterdam : Amsterdam UP, 2001. 103-123.
Delanda, Manuel. Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy. New York : Continuum, 2002.
_______. A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History . New York : Zone Books, 1994.
Deleuze, Gilles. Difference and Repetition. Trans. Paul Patton. New York : Columbia UP, 1994. Trans. of Différence et Repetition. Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 1968.
_______. Negotiations, 1972-1990. Trans. Martin Joughin. New York : Columbia UP, 1995. Trans. of Pourparlers, 1972-1990. Paris : Les Editions de Minuit, 1990.
Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem, and Helen R. Lane. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1983. Trans. of L'Anti-Oedipe. Paris : Les Editions de Minuit, 1972.
_______. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1987. Trans. of Mille Plateaux: Capitalisme et Schizophrenie. Paris : Les Editions de Minuit, 1980.
Derrida, Jacques. Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International. Trans. Peggy Kamuf. New York : Routledge, 1994. Trans. of Spectres de Marx. Paris : Editions Galileé, 1993.
Fincher, David. Dir. Fight Club. Perf. Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf Aday, and Jared Leto. DVD. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1999.
Foucault, Michel. "Theatrum Philosophicum." Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. Ed. Donald F. Bouchard. Trans. Donald F. Bouchard and Sherry Simon. Ithaca : Cornell UP, 1977. 165-96.
Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri. Empire . Cambridge : Harvard UP, 2000.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morals . Trans. Walter Kauffman and R.J. Hollingdale. New York : Vintage Books, 1967.