Book III:Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Listen, now, you're going to die, Ray-Mond K. K. K. Hessel, tonight.You might die in one second or in one hour, you decide.So lie to me.Tell me the first thing off the top of your head.Make something up.I don't give a shit.I have the gun.
Finally, you were listening and coming out of the little tragedy in your head.
Fill in the blank.What does Raymond Hessel want to be when he grows up?Go home, you said you just wanted to go home, please.No shit, I said.But after that, how did you want to spend your life?If you could do anything in the world.Make something up.You didn't know.Then you're dead right now, I said.I said, now turn your head.Death to commence in ten, in nine, in eight.A vet, you said.You want to be a vet, a veterinarian.That means animals.You have to go to school for that.It means too much school, you said. You could be in school working your ass off, Raymond Hessel, or you could be dead.You choose.I stuffed your wallet into the back pocket of your jeans.So you really wanted to be an animal doctor. I took the saltwater muzzle of the gun off one cheek and pressed it against the other.Is that what you always wanted to be, Dr. Raymond K. K. K. K. Hessel, a veterinarian?Yeah.No shit?No.No, you meant, yeah, no shit.Yeah.Okay, I said, and I pressed the wet end of the muzzle to the tip of your chin, and then the tip of your nose, and everywhere I pressed the muzzle, it left a shining wet ring of your tears.So, I said, go back to school.If you wake up tomorrow morning, you find a way to get back into school.
I pressed the wet end of the gun on each cheek, and then on your chin, and then against your forehead and left the muzzle pressed there.You might as well be dead right now, I said.I have your license.I know who you are.I know where you live.I'm keeping your license, and I'm going to check on you, mister Raymond K. Hessel.In three months, and then in six months, and then in a year, and if you aren't back in school on your way to being a veterinarian, you will be dead.You didn't say anything.Get out of here, and do your little life, but remember I'm watching you, Raymond Hessel, and I'd rather kill you than see you working a shit job for just enough money to buy cheese and watch television.Now, I'm going to walk away so don't turn around.This is what Tyler wants me to do.These are Tyler's words coming out of my mouth.I am Tyler's mouth.I am Tyler's hands.Everybody in Project Mayhem is part of Tyler Durden, and vice versa.Raymond K. K. Hessel, your dinner is going to taste better than any meal you've ever eaten, and tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of your entire life.
Pages 153-155---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I've been meaning to read this book for just as long as I've been meaning to watch the movie (I know, so behind!)I liked the other books of Chuck Palahniuk that I've read (Invisible Monsters, Haunted) but I think almost everyone has read this book or watched the movie other than me!
It's interesting because I can't say I enjoyed reading it but it was a good story.I started it when I couldn't go to sleep after staying up all night/morning and was lying in bed at 7 AM agonizing over the combination of a tired body but a wide awake mind.Rolling over onto my stomach I decided to start another book and at the very bottom of my stack was this one.It's not too long, only 128 pages total and the story itself is an engaging read but Tyler Durden!How agonizing to read about Tyler Durden and his antics!How intimidating to read about all the necessary punches people make and how I can't imagine myself ever wanting to fight someone with my fists!I guess I'm not naturally a combative person but I like to think that if I had to, I could hold my ground (like to think is the key phrase.)I finished this book quickly, the first half the first sleepless morning and the second half after I had slept a little and could not sleep anymore.I think I have been sleeping too much because my body is not letting me sleep-in anymore!How frustrating!
On the other hand you get to read books quick, quick, quick when you are awake.One thing I like about library books, especially if they are well worn, is that you can often follow the rhythm and patterns of other people who have checked the book out before you.You can tell it by the earmarks they make with the page corners (tsk tsk) and where the pages are more worn than others.I also often find what part or parts people highlight or underline or mark and I try to look at the phrases and imagine its significance to the person that marked it.
Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you. (Page 44)
The drop of his forehead, his brow, the slope of his nose, his eyelashes and the curve of his eyes, the plastic profile of his mouth, talking, these are all outlined in the black against the stars.* (Page 149)
You have your underliners and then you have your star-markers.I do neither.One of my pet peeves is marking books that aren't yours and even worse of an offense, marking books that are yours and then selling it to belong to someone else knowing you already marked them up!The most severe form of my tsk-tsk-ing is saved for you if you do that!I would be one mean librarian!
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