obscurum per obscuri | General | 11 August 2004, 11:49pm
A house full of condiments and no food
At the beginning of the movie, the Narrator defined himself through his possessions. He obtained things one item at a time, buying objects that he thought would reflect who he was as a person. In reality, he was shaping his personality to be the kind of person who would own the things he had. Among the things he owned was a round table whose top was painted with a giant yin-yang.
This table symbolized what was lacking in the Narrator's life: balance, something that a coffee table couldn't replace. This is shown rather clearly after the table is blasted out of his condo by Tyler's explosives.
After the explosion, the Narrator sees his refrigerator lying on the street outside, full of ketchup and mustard. He comments, "How embarrassing. A house full of condiments and no food." This illustrates what his possessions really were: condiments.
There was nothing substantial in the persona he tried to build through them. Even after he has gone to live with Tyler, the Narrator continues to present what he owned to the outside world as himself. He tells the dectective who called, "That was not a bunch of stuff that got destroyed, it was me." Of course, the Narrator immediately adds to himself, 'I'd like to thank the Academy,' but the very fact that he would even jokingly define himself by what he owned shows that he hasn't really changed.
In the scene where "Tyler" beats himself up in his boss' office, there is a flash of the business cards on the desk. It is very quick, about 5-10 frames. It is toward the end of the scene, where "Tyler" is crawling, all bloodied, toward his boss.
If you use the pause button, you'll notice "FMC" in large letters across the front of the card. I'm sure this is a play on the Ford Motor Company, but in smaller letters on the card it says "Federated Motor Corporation."
It's pretty neat, it has an address, telephone number and even e-mail address."
I find the business card itself pretty clever... "Compliance & Liability Division"? If you look closely, you'll notice that no state is given . . . and that the zip code has six digits. The phone numbers have the classic 555 area codes. The domain of the email address, "telnex.com," is registered but I couldn't pull up a website for them.
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