#Canon is stupid anywau

[jeffgoldblumsmulletinthe90s]

so idk anything about the fight club book but ever since that reblog you did for it all I can think about is credence kind of as marla (i know it doesn't fit him well) but just seeing him saying "you're the worst thing that ever happened to me" and then being brought back and holding graves hand keep playing on repeat in my head. it's a very half assed idea strictly for the purpose of that one line lmao

Anon, on a scale from 1-10 I think you were aiming for a 3 but you hit a 9 from me 

(a 10 or 11 is when I run off and write an entire goddamn novel of fanfiction, but a 9 is just… a big stupid essay, I’m sorry)

So, like, honestly Chuck P is probably one of my biggest writing influences and idols and I have learned much from him and one time he threw an inflatable penguin (FIGHT CLUB REFERENCE) at me and I still have it and it’s signed XOXO CHUCK and anyway…

Cut because it’s gratuitously long and also because I talk pretty candidly about abuse and Fight Club with all its… Fight Club-ness.

Anyway, I think Credence is probably a lot more like Jack/the narrator, because he is ultimately an incredibly angry, but disempowered/emasculated young white male who feels entitled to and eventually finds the path to incredible destructive power which kind of pretty much totally destroys him because he can’t really control it/it’s TOO destructive. (The Obscurus is Tyler?)

Also Credence is probably an incredibly repressed homosexual who craves attention/physical contact with/validation from men. (Jack is DEFINITELY that.)

So like, Graves esp GG Graves could represent his idealized masculine self

I have thought about this muchly. But I think you’re on to something, honestly, with Marla!!!!!

You could totally structure a story around Graves as someone who, despite having a relative position of social power, feels disenfranchised and emasculated and maybe even unable to pursue his desires for affection/intimacy because of Society. Apparently like every white male in power STILL feels like a Victim and Oppressed and Unable To Be His True Self because idk SOCIETY again and the general awfulness of white masculinity. 

I guess in this, GG would be the Tyler? The path to destruction, the free-er and idealized masculine self (played by literally anyone but D*pp because honestly D*pp could never be more masc than Colin are you kidding me.)

And in that, yeah, Credence could TOTALLY be a good Marla. 

Marla and the Narrator/Jack are, in fact, super similar. She has way more reason to, like, have a psychotic break turned terroristic power fantasy, tbh, but is representative of the fact that a) women don’t usually and b) when they do, it’s often in pursuit of/support of men anyway because, again, Society and c) they NEVER get to in white male power fantasies that’s the nature of the hideous beast.

And Credence IS a person who gets trampled by, basically, entitled white masculinity having a fucking field day.

Tyler and GG both act like what they want is this Utopia that is weirdly preferential to THEM and that somehow it’s a good deal for everyone and violence is absolutely necessary to enact it

Tyler makes Capitalism the enemy to argue for violence that empowers him while pretending it’s for the benefit of All Men. GG makes no-majs the enemy to argue for violence that empowers him while pretending it’s for the benefit of All Wizards (ie. ”For the greater good”)

To this end, for both of them, other people are just sacks of meat to use and abuse toward the goal of this Utopia (which is always fascism even though it may be talked about as Freedom).

To Tyler/Jack, Marla is just a body with uses and her feelings, her experience of those uses just doesn’t matter to him. We don’t have a canon Graves, but you could EASILY write the story where Credence is just a body with uses to GG/Graves. That is the canon, essentially, for GG already. The canonical uses do not include “human-size dick warmer” the way Tyler/Jack use Marla as such. BUT.

Anywau, part of why Credence is #relatable to me is also why Marla is #relatable to me — often abusers get you into this mindset of “it’s not really me, it’s this other side of me” giving you this idea that the part you feel soft tender things for and would just lie down in traffic for is somehow DIFFERENT from the part that insults you and slaps you around even tho they are one and the same person. 

In Fight Club, obviously, the final realization is bleak: the person who loves Marla (Tyler) and the person who hates her/is jealous of her (Jack/The Narrator) are the same person. Life is bleak! If you’re a lucky Marla, nothing gets blown up and you can get away from Jack/Tyler and try to better your life instead of continuing to let people like that fuck you (but obviously it’s incredibly hard, actually, to change those patterns of behavior and Marla’s storyline is that Jack/Tyler are but one in a long string of people who treated Marla like this.)

What I choose to take from Fantabi (and I am WELL aware it’s literally me in a dumpster going ‘okay but ACTUALLY’) is that the person who cares for Credence could be a different and separate person from the one who only wants to control/use/abuse him. (Das my fantasy! And hey, the end of the movie says THE HOT GUY WHO ABUSED THE CHARACTER I LOVE AND RELATED TO WAS ACTUALLY A DIFFERENT PERSON ALL ALONG. SO THE HOT GUY IS STILL OUT THERE AND MAYBE HE REALLY IS DIFFERENT. Canon really came for me and my Bad fantasies, tbh.) 

I would not personally write the reverse — but if you time travelled back to basically any time pre-2012, you would find a version of me that would literally jump at the opportunity and savor it. 

But you’re right, I think Graves probably IS the worst thing that’s ever happened to Credence. :)

Thank you for this thought

ANYWAY, INVISIBLE MONSTERS IS THE WAY SUPERIOR BOOK. It focuses on the social pressures of (white) femininity in the way Fight Club is an exploration of the social pressures of (white) masculinity and it’s also just way cooler and has a badass trans woman