The Audience Is Everything

A detailed Summary of The Audience Is Everything

The times in which we live are geared toward the entertainment industry. If one is going to input something into society; make a speech, write a book, release a movie, a lot of thought must be put into whether or not it will gain approval from its audience. It is the job of many people to investigate what people want to see and hear, what they will like and what will bomb. The difference in the split ending of the movie Fight Club versus the book Fight Club exists because they were both intended for different audiences. A majority of the movie going population is there to relax and enjoy the show. The movie was created in such a way as to play to these people. Reading a novel is a much different experience, the reader can interpret and analyze at his own pace. Palahnick's ambiguous ending was geared towards this generalization about readers. The differences that arise in the endings of the film and book are clearly seen when comparing and contrasting them. Artist reasons behind them can also be explained by the fact that they were geared towards different audiences.

In the movie Fight Club, David Fincher uses unique, zooming and framing techniques in order to capture the attention of the au

The reader's experience during the opening chapter is a little different. The scene has the same set up: Tyler and the narrator are together in the Parker-Morris building, which is going to be blown up very shortly. However, the main difference is that the scene is much longer. The length allows Chuck Palahniuk to give the reader a better understanding of the characters but at the same time, the reader is left more confused about what is happening. An eerie theme, not prevalent in the movie, of death is started:

Three minutes. The reader/viewer is reminded that the flashback has ended and that the end is here again. The book and the movie take two very distinct paths. Your typical 'happy American ending' takes over the otherwise untypical movie. The struggle between Tyler and the narrator is clearly spelled out. There isn't a doubt that the narrator is the good guy trying to win the fight and that Tyler is the bad guy. Gray lines are eliminated.

Narrator: No, I don't, I really don't anymore.

One gets the feeling that this is going to be a dark novel. However, there is a lot of confusion about what is occurring. Who is this person that is narrating? Who is Tyler? What happened between the two of them? But before any of these questions are answered the narrator introduces the reader to one more character, Marla. Not much information is given however, and a flashback quickly begins. The differences between the pseudo ending that takes place at the beginning of the book and movie are already a good indication that the two will end in fairly different manners.

The ending that the book presented could have worked cinematographically. It was very possible to film, however audience approval would have probably dropped. In the novel the struggle between Tyler and the narrator is never fully resolved. The narrator goes in and out of hallucinations, in and out of admitting that Tyler is an illusion. He says, "To God this looks like one man alone, holding a gun in his own mouth, but it's Tyler holding the gun, and it's my life" (203-204). This line shows that the narrator is not fully aware of what is happening. He is experiencing severe delusions and cannot think straight. He still pulls the trigger, stating that he's not killing himself but that he is killing Tyler. The outcome of the shooting is unclear, "Of course, when I pulled the trigger I died. Liar. And Tyler died" (206). A full trustworthy account of exactl

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Approximate Word count = 1659
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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