In his recently published book on writing, Consider This, Chuck Palahniuk discusses some of the techniques he uses in Fight Club. One is what he calls "creating suspense with denial"—or what we might call contradiction. For instance, he notes that an inherent tension is created when a book about a fight club begins with the rule that nobody can talk about the fight club. This draws the reader into a secret world but also creates obstacles for the characters, which adds to the sense of drama.
In fact, Palahniuk states that creating tension and keeping it going for as long as possible without satisfying the reader's need for a resolution is one of the main structural elements of the novel. He talks about early critics throwing the book against the wall in frustration—and then being interested enough to go back and finish it.
A third technique Palahniuk uses in Fight Club is surprise. He points, for example, to chapter 20, when readers find out that instead of bullying Raymond K. Hessel, Tyler is practicing tough love. Another surprise comes when Tyler goes out into the wider world to find Tyler Durden, only to discover that he himself is Durden.
Palahniuk says that he learned through readings early in his career in tough places like pool halls that shock, surprise, and tension capture an audience's interest, and he uses them generously in this novel.
Fight Club was written in 1996 by American novelist Chuck Palahniuk. The narrative relates the account of the unnamed protagonist as he deals with insomnia. The writing style, structural elements, sentence structure and variety, and punctuation all work to underscore the major themes of chaos and control.
The narrator’s insomnia takes away his power and control, and the writing helps project that feeling onto the reader. First, the novel uses flashbacks, specifically at times when the narrator’s life is at risk. While the flashbacks occur, the reader does not know the final fate of the narrator; this promotes a disorientating and powerless experience.
The sentences feel short and choppy and contain incorrect punctuation. This helps the reader move quickly through the prose, giving the feeling of a lack of control. The incorrect punctuation also promotes this feeling.
In order to gain power, the narrator tries to harness chaos, specifically through fighting. Fighting is inherently chaotic, but the power and confidence the narrator feels when exposed and participating in it serves as a self-medication of sorts for his insomnia. Another way the narrator attempts to harness chaos is the way he assigns rules to the fighting.
You don't talk about fight club.
You don't talk about fight club.
When someone says stop, or goes limp, the fight is over.
Only two guys to a fight.
One fight at a time.
They fight without shirts or shoes.
The fights go on as long as they have to.
If this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight.
Chuck Palahniuk uses a number of structures to show the chaotic inner world of the narrator of Flight Club. The story is structured as a flashback; it begins as the narrator is with Tyler Durden on the top of the Parker-Morris Building as Tyler is putting a gun in his mouth. The narrator counts down from ten, interspersing the countdown, such as "five minutes," between paragraphs. The narrative then cuts to an earlier scene in which the narrator is at a testicular cancer support group. In short, the reader is at first placed with Tyler and the narrator on the top of a building about to explode. When the narration begins the flashback to the support group, the reader has no idea what will happen to the narrator, who is stuck on the top of a building about to explode. These types of jumps in the narration leave the reader with the sense of shock and dislocation that the narrator himself feels.
Palahniuk uses short, abrupt sentences such as those in the following paragraph that begins the novel:
"Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die. For a long time though,Tyler and I were best friends. People are always asking, did I know about Tyler Durden."
The sentences are short and choppy, and they are not punctuated correctly. These types of sentences capture the randomness and disorientation of the narrator. Here is another example from the second chapter:
"Bob cries because six months ago, his testicles were removed. Then hormone support therapy. Bob has tits because his testosterone ration is too high. Raise the testosterone level too much, your body ups the estrogen to seek a balance."
Again, the sentences are short and end abruptly, and the narration is jumpy, conveying a nervous tone. There is a great deal of repetition in the novel, such as, "This is as close as I've been to sleeping in almost a week. This is how I met Marla Singer." The words "This is" or "This isn't" begin many sentences, conveying the narrator's attempts to define his world and his place in it--attempts that are largely futile.
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