I cannot think of an example of the passage of time and how it changes us more than this news. If you had told me back in the late 90s that Chuck Palahniuk had begun work on a sequel to Fight Club, I’d be ecstatic. But after 17 years of people misinterpreting the book (and 14 years of considerably more people doing so with the movie based on it) and wanting to go out and start fight clubs of their own, the story has been significantly soured for me.
Also, I’ve grown up a bit and the whole thing seems pretty fucking childish.
But my personal indifference doesn’t matter, because Palahniuk was convinced by his friend, and fellow writer, Chelsea Cain to do a Fight Club sequel… as a comic book.
It’s true. Chelsea Cain has been introducing me to artists and creators from Marvel, DC and Dark Horse, and they’re walking me through the process. It will likely be a series of books that update the story ten years after the seeming end of Tyler Durden.
What will this new story be about, you ask, breathlessly, as you clutch your Fight Club video game to your Fight Club shirt-clad chest while simultaneously decrying the rampant consumerism in the world?
Nowadays, Tyler is telling the story, lurking inside Jack, and ready to launch a come-back. Jack is oblivious. Marla is bored. Their marriage has run aground on the rocky coastline of middle-aged suburban boredom. It’s only when their little boy disappears, kidnapped by Tyler, that Jack is dragged back into the world of Mayhem.
So, before, Jack was stuck in a rut in his dead-end cube-hell job so he developed a split personality. And now he’s stuck in a rut in his dead-end marriage and his spilt personality comes back. Makes sense. Oh, and it looks like Palahniuk has adopted the movie’s convention of referring to the narrator as “Jack”, so there’s that.
The author does say not to expect to see Fight Club: The Cradle of Life any time soon.
Due to contract obligations it can’t come to light for a while. Next year is Beautiful You, followed by the story collection. But since the Fight Club sequel will appear serialized in graphic form, my book publisher might allow me to launch it earlier than 2015.
Though he can’t honestly know when, because…
We haven’t started to court a specific publisher, not until I hammer out the complete story.
But he does know this much already…
It will, of course, be dark and messy.
I know it seems like I’m down on Palahniuk, but I’m really not. I really do like a lot of his books. But, man, the Fight Club fans are the worst. They’re like all the worst things about Bronies, but instead of the good parts (the talking about friendship, whimsy, etc) they talk about straight white male privilege and how awesome it is to break shit.
