Fight Club is symbolized the counterculture among middle-upper class who felt the consumption habits of their generation were a facade.
Durden spoke of this:
Code:
Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
After viewing this film quite a few times, I have realized, that a balance between the anticonsumption/culture jamming of our world and the corporate/consumptious class-driven status is necessary. To me, it also become to mean that counterculture has, in effect, become another marketing tool used by popular culture.
Waking Life has quite a few themes (based in small talks with various people he meets) besides the main character's theme of consciousness.
One that I found very interesting was with linguistics. For example, the word 'love' does not have a
You can only describe in its effect, Like the fuzzy feeling in your heart, or someone kissing you, etc.
Contrasting with a word like 'water,' which is directly named for it. That might sound a bit unclear and I can't articulate exactly what I'm describing with that description above.
regards,
keyshawn