Insomnia: Fight Club

What does Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 breakout novel have to do with sleep and dream? Start reading, and you'll learn that the narrator suffers from insomnia. Keep reading, and you'll discover some familiar sleep and dream themes: the double life, the alternate self, madness, and a narrative "I" trying to make sense of it all.

Podcast Lecture: The Somniloquy

Reading:

Palahniuk, Fight Club: Ch. 1-14

Questions:

1. How does the narrator describe his insomnia? How do the frequent plane trips play into his sleep problems?

2. What is the narrator's life like before he meets Tyler Durden?

3. Why does the narrator go to the various support groups? Why does Marla? What do they seek?

4. Describe the narrator's relationship to Tyler and to Marla, as individuals and as a couple.

5. What is Fight Club? What does it provide for the narrator?

6. Why do they make soap?

7. Why does Tyler talk about hitting bottom? What does he mean by this? What are some of the strategies he advocates for hitting rock bottom?

Activities:

The Trouble with Insomnia: Have you ever suffered through a sleepless night? How would you describe it? For the narrator of Fight Club, insomnia makes him feel like "a copy of a copy of a copy." Read the following poems about insomnia-- which ones resonate with you and why? What IS so horrible about not being able to sleep?

Cornelius Eady: "Insomnia"

Joyce Carol Oates: "Insomnia"

Gregory Orr: "Insomnia Song"