Fight Club

One morning, the Narrator wakes up in Tyler’s house on Paper Street. When he goes to the bathroom, he sees a used condom floating in the toilet like a dead jellyfish (56). He also notices that Tyler’s door is closed, which he regards as unusual. When he first moved in, Tyler told the Narrator he had only been living there for about six weeks, and that the condition of the property only gets worse as time passes. Among other damages and odd features, there are stacks of old Reader’s Digest magazines throughout the house. The night before, the Narrator called Marla to confirm she would not be attending the melanoma support group he wished to go to that evening. When she answered, she slurred her words and said she had taken too many Xanax. Marla assures the Narrator, “This wasn’t a for-real suicide…probably just one of those cry-for-help things” (59). The Narrator is apathetic to Marla’s possible impending death. He attends the melanoma group and goes to bed early.

As he goes about his morning, the Narrator remembers that last night he dreamed about having sex with Marla. Tyler comes down to breakfast and his neck is covered in hickeys. He tells the Narrator that he met Marla last night and they had sex. Apparently, Marla called the Paper Street house after the Narrator went to sleep, and Tyler answered the phone. Tyler found Marla in her residence at the Regent Hotel and brought her back to Paper Street. Marla insisted Tyler help her stay awake since she believes she will die if she falls asleep. Tyler obliges by having sex with her nearly all night, and in the morning, she left before he woke up. The Narrator finds himself upset, and he is unable to admit it.

The Narrator is sent home early from work because there is dried blood visible on his clothing. Lately, the Narrator has been faxing haiku poems to his officemates to convey how he had “become this totally centered Zen Master” (63). The Narrator becomes increasingly frustrated by Tyler and Marla’s relationship and their near-constant sexual activity. He notes that he never sees Tyler and Marla in the same room, and jokingly wonders if they are the same person. When Tyler is present, Marla acts as if he is not even there, which reminds the Narrator of how his parents were together. He soon finds himself running messages between the two of them since they do not communicate directly.

To clean his work clothes, Tyler teaches the Narrator to make soap. They send Marla out to get flake lye, and the Narrator cleans the self-inflicted cigarette burns on her arms before she leaves. She tries to make conversation, but he ignores her, determined to not let her be his friend.

Tyler tells the Narrator he has arranged for them to work together as hotel banquet waiters, and they set about making soap. Tyler keeps bags of fat in chilled plastic baggies, and they boil the fat in water to render it. As they work, Tyler offers ways for the Narrator to get back at his corporate boss—they could falsify a change-of-address form, put colored dye in his plumbing, or rig his water pressure so the showerhead blows off the wall like a mortar shell. The Narrator asserts that he likes his boss, and that revenge does not matter to him now that he is enlightened by Zen.

Tyler mocks him, insinuating that the Narrator’s enlightenment is fake. Tyler says the Narrator has not come close to hitting rock bottom, because he is not “running toward disaster” like Marla is (70). Tyler makes the Narrator promise three times that he will not talk about Tyler behind his back, and especially not to Marla. When Marla returns with the lye, Tyler disappears; he returns as soon as she is gone. Tyler explains that as the rendered tallow cools, it will separate; one could skim the glycerin off the top to make nitroglycerin. Tyler takes the Narrator’s hand and kisses the back, leaving a wet lip-print on the skin. He then pours the lye over the Narrator’s hand, causing a chemical burn.

The saliva holds the lye flakes in place on the back of the Narrator’s hand, so the burn scars in the shape of Tyler’s kiss. Tyler explains that lye only burns when it reacts with water—or spit. He says that ancient civilizations sacrificed people on top of a mountain, and the rendered fat from their bodies made its way into the rivers along with lye from wood ashes, creating soap that ran downstream so people could clean themselves and their clothes. The Narrator tries to block out the pain by thinking of a trip he made to Ireland when he was young, and how he peed on the Blarney stone in “a little act of rebellion” (75, 77) with other men at the site. The Narrator pees himself, which Tyler interprets as a good sign of his approach to rock bottom. Tyler neutralizes the lye burn with vinegar. He tells the Narrator that without pain or sacrifice, “we would have nothing” (78).

Tyler and the Narrator go to work as banquet waiters. In the service elevator, Tyler urinates in a soup tureen intended for the event’s wealthier guests. The Narrator and Tyler compare notes about urinating in soups, farting on hors d’oeuvres, and ejaculating in mousses. Tyler shares a story from his first serving job several years ago, where he left a note in the hostess’s bathroom which anonymously declared that he urinated into one or more of her perfume bottles. Even though Tyler did not actually do so, he enjoyed watching the wealthy woman become increasingly paranoid as the night went on. The hostess eventually smashed all the glass perfume bottles, scattering broken glass across her bathroom floor, staining her dress, and cutting her hands. She accused her husband of urinating in her perfumes and having an affair with another guest. Since then, Tyler has tampered with so many items at so many different jobs that he has started to become bored.