I’m so excited to invite you to The Yoga of Fight Club.
Yep, you heard that right. You, me, Tyler Durden, and Marla Singer, baby. We’re gonna get our yoga on.
For over a decade now, I’ve been smitten with the complicated, smart, countercultural spirit of Chuck Palahniuk’s debut novel. His 1996 Fight Club made a splash onscreen in David Fincher’s 1999 film of the same name, and though it garnered controversy, the movie starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter has gone on to enjoy a certain cult popularity in the years since.
I love this book (and Fincher’s stylish film) for its complexity, its sexiness, its embodiment, its grit, its willingness to dive into tough questions, and its fundamental theological richness. You can come at Palahniuk’s stuff from any angle: yogic, Christian, Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu, capitalist, culture-jamming, gendered, queer, anti-consumerist, postmodern, sexualized — and find in it a screed, an inspiration, a challenge.
(Here’s an example. Hot stuff.)
So join me for for a chill evening at Flying Yoga. We’ll screen a few clips, and read a few blurbs. Tyler, Marla and I will knock out a few rounds of philosophy with you. We’ll dig into the hows and the whys of yoga philosophy, embodiment theology, and Adbusters-style culture-jamming, and consider what the hell those things might have to do with this ostensibly violent, angry, sexist film — and in so doing, argue that perhaps, in fact, that violence, that anger, that sexism, might in fact have deeper roots that might be kind of life-giving and progressive and radical (and yogic!) after all.
The Yoga of Fight Club
We break it down.
But, seriously? Just pay what you can. I’d rather you be there than worry about cost. It’s not about the money. It’s about the conversation, and the company, and the bodies, and the breath. Oh, and the sexy, and the smart, too.
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[button link=”https://www.facebook.com/events/331354890243492/” color=”#01A7BA” size=”2″ style=”3″ dark=”0″ square=”0″ target=”blank”]join us![/button]The mechanic starts talking and it’s pure Tyler Durden.
“I see the strongest and the smartest men who have ever lived, ” he says, his face outlined against the stars in the driver’s window, “and these men are pumping gas and waiting tables.”
The drop of his forehead, his brow, the slope of his nose, his eyelashes and the curve of his eyes, the plastic profile of his mouth, talking, these are all outlined in black against the stars. ….
“You have a class of young strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don’t need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don’t really need.
We don’t have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression.“