I AM MAN!!!

So, masculinity is constantly an issue in this novel. Masculinity is brought up as if it is some sort of secret club. Some men know the secret to being masculine while others never got the memo. The significance of this, as the ”mechanic” so beautifully points out, is that masculinity is handed down from father to son. As we all know, not all sons have fathers and so the quest for masculinity begins. The mechanic lets us know that the father is also the model for God, the removal of the model brings up questions about the signified, or GOD himself. This generation of men searching for fathers, god, and masculinity, at some point, after turning up empty handed their whole lives, will embrace the rejection and formulate their own masculinity. In this way, Bob and his former-body-builder-bitch-tits symbolize the breakdown of a false steroid induced masculinity which is rebuilt with the fight clubs. About the competing masculine metanarratives in this novel, Jameson would argue that there nolonger exists a historical idea of masculinity, ther only exists ideas about masculinity as represented back to us by art. 

Space monkeys

Whats the significance of the “Space monkey” thing… I guess it is something pretty obvious since no one brought it up in class. For a hot second I thought it was just something Chuck made up, but at one point the baggage handler calls the flight attendants “space waitresses” so,  Im assuming there is more significance than just a made up nickname…. I feel like I’m missing the totally obvious point behind this, so can anyone help me out?

Jameson

Jameson’s Postmodern idea that we have no history, was like pulling teeth for me. The class discussion was helpful, but I still didn’t feel like I was “getting it”. . .  until I started reading Zizek. Thats right, Zizek helped me. ha. seriously though, the reading for Eng 330 has been my most frustrating class until now. Zizek is giving me some parallels through which, although most likely completely unaccurate, have seemed to help me make sense of Jameson’s thoughts on the PM.  Here goes: Ideology is the same as a metanarrative. competing ideologies function as competing metanarratives. Zizek says that we cannot understand the past because we look at it through our own ideology (metanarrative) which cannot be the same ideology the past was looked at through when it was in fact the present. We can never see history accurately, not because there are too many movies about Titanic, but because the ideologies that existed during that time no longer exist in the exact form….. Therefore: Lacan’s idea of the REAL is what all those postmodern people are pointing at and can never outright say because to say it would be impossible.