Obscurum per Obscurius
This is your life and its ending one minute at a time.
Tylers Clothes
obscurum per obscuri | General | 25 August 2004, 11:33am
"It was a bridesmaid's dress. Someone loved it intensely for one day, then tossed it."
-Marla
A large part of Tyler's symbolism comes from his clothing. While the Narrator dresses conservatively, even after he abandons his old life, Tyler's clothes are always outrageous.
His "business attire" consists of a white suit in which he looks more like a pimp than a businessman; his jacket is red leather, his choice of shirts is unusual to say the least, and his pants always seem a couple sizes too big for him and are worn low on his hips.
A few articles of clothing carry more symbolism than others.
The Pink Glasses
What Tyler sees through his glasses is a faulty world where the common man is downtrodden and his masculinity repressed. His utopia is a world of violence where pain is freedom and every man has control over his own destiny-- as long as he is still under control of Tyler.
The Red Jacket
I was thinking about Tylers clothes the other day after I watched the movie for the umpteenth time and actually was thinking about his Leather Jacket. The Red one that he wears for most of the movie. Traditionaly Red leather is very feminine and worn predominantly by women.
The Pink Robe
Tyler's bathrobe is an anamoly: even though he preaches masculinity, he wears a pink terrycloth robe emblazoned with coffee cups. Tyler's robe seems to prove that even the most violent of men can't escape his feminine side. It also shows that Tyler is a rebel in everything, even when it comes to his own way of life.
The Hustler Shirt
One of the shirt's in Tyler's seemingly vast collection says "Hustler" on it; this is probably the most descriptive piece of clothing he owns. After all, first and foremost, Tyler is a hustler.
Whether he's selling soap or organizing terrorist activites, Tyler relies on his abilities to pressure people into doing what he wants. As the Narrator says, "Sooner or later, we all became what Tyler wanted us to be."
Also, Hustler is the name of a porno magazine, and one of the sleazier ones, at that.
This parallels Tyler's porn splicing misadventures in the projectionist's booth, as well as his rather twisted and violent sex with Marla. (Notice when Jack goes up to the door to spy on them and the door suddenly opens, Tyler is wearing a rubber glove... I don't even want to know where that thing has been.)
Tyler is "perfect" in the Narrator's eyes... he looks like the Narrator wishes he could look like, he fights as well as the Narrator wishes he could fight, and he has sexual prowess that the Narrator wishes he could have. Tyler is the epitome of both violence and sexuality, and these two sides of his nature often come together to produce this overly aggressive and masculine being.
The Sock It To Me Shirt
Again, this is another highly descriptive shirt, particularly because Tyler is wearing it when he goads Lou into beating him up.
Besides simply representing Fight Club, it also embodies Tyler's masochistic nature; he invites pain. At the beginning of their relationship, he asks the Narrator to hit him; he pours lye on his own hand; he vicariously hurts himself by hurting the Narrator.
Remember the scene where Tyler and Jack are smashing cars with baseball bats? The last car they hit is a Volkswagen. There is a discussion on the DVD audio track with Norton, Pitt, and Fincher about how the Volkswagen Bug is a sort of pop culture symbol of the 60's and 70's generation.
Only now, a generation later, many of these same people are now businessmen, trying to repackage this symbol of their generation and pass it off as "retro" in an attempt to sell more cars and make more money off today's youth.
It's hip. It's trendy. It's clever. Just like Jack's dining set. By destroying the Volkswagen, Jack and Tyler are basically giving an upturned middle finger and a big, hearty "f-you" to both consumerism and the previous generation that they feel has abandoned them.
The Dark Glasses
He is no longer happy with his life, for his vision has failed; he sees that even his intricate plans won't change the world, and most of all, they won't set him free.
Near the end of the movie, when Tyler appears to the Narrator in his hotel room, Tyler is wearing a fur coat, dark round sunglasses that look like goggles, and has a shaved head. 'Like a shaved space monkey, ready to be shot into space.
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1**chants** We are DEFINETLY not worthy!!
dude, did you get my msg? I didnt get a reply from the no. u mailed me.
Obscurum no more recent posts ? We're waiting.....
1
Ah, I thought as much that would be the reason for making contact. :-)
Im not a regular - had been about 2 years, before the time u read about.
Then, there is access to quality, though Im not sure how different it will be from what you've already seen. This can also be termed 'local', but it's good and effective.
Mail me a name and number, and we can take it from there.