Slugging Nothing: Fighting the Future in Fight Club [Perfect Paperback]

Barry Vacker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 2009

So, you think Tyler Durden is merely a bad-boy hipster rebelling against IKEA lifestyles as he heroically resists the corporate imperatives of the consumer society? Think again.

Fight Club is waging a war against civilization, yearning for a rebirth of premodern culture amidst the ruins of the modern and postmodern worlds. Drawing from Jean-Paul Sartre and Marshall McLuhan, Barry Vacker shows how Fight Club reflects the philosophical angst toward the postmillennial and technological futures, where zero and nothingness reflect the existential conditions of a culture that has crashed into its vanishing points, the vanishing points of mediation, hyperreality, and fundamentalism. Slugging Nothing boots Tyler Durden back to his jungle of space monkeys, the noble savages of the non-information age, the next humans of the non-future.

Slugging Nothing is the first volume of the Cool Voids book series.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barry Vacker teaches media, cultural, and utopian theory at Temple University, Philadelphia. The author of many articles and book chapters, his recent publications include the text for Peter Granser's photography book Signs (Hatje Cantz 2008). Vacker's recent work with experimental media includes the first three volumes of the Theory Zero book series (Zero Conditions, Crashing into the Vanishing Points, and Starry Skies Moving Away, 2009), as well as the documentary Space Times Square (2007), which he wrote and directed.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 76 pages
• Publisher: Theory Vortex Experiments; 1st edition (April 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979840457
• ISBN-13: 978-0979840456
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 4.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,701,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Postmodern Apocalypse, October 2, 2010

By 

Stefan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slugging Nothing: Fighting the Future in Fight Club (Cool Voids) (Kindle Edition)

If you're into Baudrillard, Zizek, Sartre and also enjoyed Fight Club (perhaps the most expressive film of this generation), you should read this. It is the kind of text Neo from the Matrix would have probably enjoyed. A book about the project of a nihilistic revolution and its potential failure.

5.0 out of 5 stars Superbly Fascinating, January 3, 2012

By 

Wesley R. Eldredge "q-tion" (provo, utah) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slugging Nothing: Fighting the Future in Fight Club (Perfect Paperback)

If "nothingness" is the hip reflection of a postmillennial/hyperreal existential condition/culture that is crashing into its vanishing points, or as Tyler Durdan states:

You are not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your #$%* khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world." --Tyler Durden

So how do we make any sense of it all? "Three minutes. This is it - ground zero. Would you like to say a few words to mark the occasion?" The answer is unequivocally yes. Dr. Vacker would like a few words. By harnessing the works of Jean Baudrillard, Jean-Paul Sartre and Marshall McLuhan, Dr.Vacker breaks down utopian ideals of a premodern rebirth or an exodus from the map back to the territory and whether it's even possible. As Tyler states:

In the world I see - you're stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway.

Slugging Nothing: Fighting the Future in Fight Club is a brilliantly written book and a must read!