The influences behind Fight Club

1996

Fight Club

Chuck Palahniuk

Late 20th-century American. United States. Written in English.

Chuck Palahniuk's debut novel follows an unnamed insomniac office worker who, with the anarchic Tyler Durden, founds a bare-knuckle fight club that grows into a terrorist cult, before Tyler turns out to be the narrator's other self. It is written in a clipped, repetitive minimalist style learned in Tom Spanbauer's workshop.

Where it came from

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1985

Reasons to Live

Amy Hempel

American minimalism. United States. Written in English.

Hempel's first story collection, including 'In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried', built from compressed, oblique sentences.

What it handed down

To Fight Club (1996)

Stylistic influence, well documented.

Palahniuk praised Hempel's minimalism in his essay 'Not Chasing Amy' and named her as a model. Fight Club's short declarative sentences, recurring choruses and withheld emotion follow her method of compression.

Where it came from

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, Raymond Carver 1976

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1976

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?

Raymond Carver

American minimalism. United States. Written in English.

Carver's first major story collection of working-class lives, edited by Gordon Lish.

What it handed down

To Reasons to Live (1985)

Stylistic influence, probable.

Hempel studied with Gordon Lish, Carver's editor, and her stories share the compressed, understated minimalism of Carver's first collection. Critics grouped them in the 1980s 'minimalist' school.

Where it came from

In Our Time, Ernest Hemingway 1925

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1925

In Our Time

Ernest Hemingway

Lost Generation. United States / Paris. Written in English.

Hemingway's story collection, alternating Nick Adams stories with brief vignettes of war and violence.

What it handed down

To Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976)

Stylistic influence, well documented.

Carver named Hemingway as an early model in his essay 'Fires'. His flat declarative prose and stories that stop before the crisis is explained follow the 'iceberg' method of Hemingway's early stories.

Where it came from

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1909

Three Lives

Gertrude Stein

Early modernism. United States / Paris. Written in English.

Three novellas about working women in Baltimore, written in repetitive, rhythmic prose.

What it handed down

To In Our Time (1925)

Stylistic influence, well documented.

In Paris Stein read Hemingway's drafts and urged him to strip and concentrate his prose. Her repetitions and simple diction in Three Lives shaped the rhythm of his early sentences, a debt he acknowledged.

Where it came from

Three Tales (Trois Contes), Gustave Flaubert 1877

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1877

Three Tales (Trois Contes)

Gustave Flaubert

French realism. France. Written in French.

Three stories: 'A Simple Heart', about a servant, and the legends of Saint Julian and of Herodias.

What it handed down

To Three Lives (1909)

Direct source, well documented.

Stein began Three Lives after translating Flaubert's Trois Contes as an exercise. 'The Good Anna', the story of a devoted servant, is modeled on Felicite in 'A Simple Heart'.

Where it came from

Gospel of Mark, Anonymous c. 70 CE

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c. 70 CE

Gospel of Mark

Anonymous

Early Christianity. Roman Empire (eastern Mediterranean). Written in Koine Greek.

The earliest gospel account of Jesus' ministry, death and empty tomb, including the beheading of John the Baptist.

What it handed down

To Three Tales (Trois Contes) (1877)

Direct source, well documented.

'Herodias' retells the beheading of John the Baptist from Mark 6, including Herod's banquet and Salome's dance. Flaubert expands the gospel's few verses with historical detail.

Where it came from

Book of Psalms, Anonymous c. 500 BCE (compiled)

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c. 500 BCE (compiled)

Book of Psalms

Anonymous

Second Temple period. Judah. Written in Hebrew.

The Hebrew Bible's collection of 150 songs of praise, lament and supplication.

What it handed down

To Confessions

Direct source, well documented.

The Confessions are woven with quotations from the Psalms, which Augustine prays and paraphrases throughout. Book 9 describes his reading of Psalm 4 after his conversion.

To Gospel of Mark (c. 70 CE)

Direct source, well documented.

Mark's crucifixion scene is built from Psalm 22: Jesus' cry 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' quotes its first line, and the casting of lots for his clothes echoes it. Mark draws on the Hebrew scriptures throughout.

Where it came from

This is one of the oldest surviving works in its tradition; the line ends here.

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Where it came from

What it handed down

To Fight Club (1996)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Reasons to Live (1985)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To In Our Time (1925)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Three Lives (1909)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Three Tales (Trois Contes) (1877)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Confessions

To Gospel of Mark (c. 70 CE)

Where it came from

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