FILM STUDIES I: THE FIRST RULE…

Is violence ever the answer, class?

Let me talk to you about a man who had a sickness. It wasn’t your typical sickness, but it was a sickness all the same. He found himself unable to sleep because of how his life had turned out, and so he found solace in visiting groups where other people were sick with physical ailments.

He attended these groups to achieve a sort of catharsis, until another person attending the groups transpired to be doing exactly the same thing. They coexisted for a while but eventually the man became incensed with this new person on his turf, so he insisted his mimic left.

Eventually, he realised that these support groups were no longer hitting the spot. The catharsis that graced him before was harder to come by, and our man withered, almost like drug addict needing each fix to be bigger and longer than the last.

When he realised this, the man instead took to fist fights in the street to ease his crippling insomnia in the place of the support groups he once frequented. Overcome by a bloodlust he became a completely different man and actually enjoyed hitting people in the face until their teeth fell out and their blood ran a raging river across the floor.

After his fights, he initially was satiated. He had found his catharsis again. But not for long. For you see our man was an addict. But rather than some chemical poisoning his brain, he was addicted to the bloodlust. He was obsessed with the crimson flow. But he soon found that just the fist fights weren’t enough. He wanted more.

So he raised the stakes. People were seriously hurt. Hospitalised even.

Can you tell me who I’m talking about class?

The answer is not as simple as it first seems. You see, the story is that of The Narrator from ‘Fight Club’, who happens to also be Tyler Durden as a dissociated personality. But the story also suits David Manson.

David Manson, who found a man who gained catharsis by his own methods in Brandon Hate. David Manson, who ditched and destroyed Hate once he had no use of him. David Manson, who fights because the blood gets him high as a junkie.

But David is not The Narrator. David is Tyler Durden. Manson is this snowballing lump of violence and bloodlust that he uses as a coping mechanism. What for? I don’t know. Who is David Manson behind his Tyler mask? I don’t know that either.

But he is there to be unmasked by someone who understands, and this week I show him I understand.

Fight Club ends with The Narrator firing a gun into his own mouth to put an end to Tyler. At the start of the lesson I asked if violence was ever the answer, class. Don’t you think Manson should die to let his inner Narrator live?

Let me load your ammo, David. Unleash your Narrator.