You Do Not Talk About Fight Club: I Am Jack's Completely Unauthorized Essay Collection

Pervasive and multidisciplinary, this insightful exploration discusses how and why this seminal work developed, and continues to grow, such a cult following. When Fight Club punched its way onto the scene a decade ago, it provided an unprecedented glimpse into the American male's psyche and rapidly turned into a euphemism for a variety of things that should be "just understood" and not otherwise acknowledged. Key to its success is the variety of lenses through which the story can be interpreted; is it a story of male anxiety in a metrosexual world, of ritual religion in a secular age, of escape from totalitarian capitalism, or the spiritual malaise induced by technologically-oriented society? Writers, conspiracy theorists, and philosophers are among those ready to talk about Fight Club's ability to be all these and more.

Read Mercer Schuchardt is an assistant professor of communication arts at Marymount Manhattan College. He is the cofounder of Cleave: The Counter Agency, the cofounder and publisher of Metaphilm, and a contributing editor for The New Pantagruel. He is the author of The Disappearance of Women: Technology, Pornography, and the Obsolescence of Gender and Metaphilm: Seers of the Silver Screen. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Chicago Tribune, Utne Reader, and The Washington Times. He lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Chuck Palahniuk is The New York Times-bestselling author of Choke and Fight Club. He lives in Vancouver, Washington.