Portrayal of Major Characters in Irvine Welsh's 'Trainspotting' and Chuck Palahniuk's 'Fight Club' Using Nihilism.

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iii _{Maranatha Christian University}

ABSTRACT

Dalam penulisan skripsi untuk memenuhi persyaratan memperoleh gelar Sarjana Sastra di Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra Universitas Kristen Maranatha, saya menganalisis dua buah novel, yakni karya Irvine Welsh yang berjudul Trainspotting dan Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club. Hal yang akan saya analisis dari dua novel ini adalah penokohan pada tokoh utama melalui nihilisme, sebuah pendekatan ekstrinsik filosofikal. Secara umum, nihilisme merupakan satu pemahaman filosofikal di mana nilai-nilai kehidupan tidak lagi dianggap bermakna dan sudah seharusnya dibuat tiada. Melalui pemahaman ini, selain menggambarkan bagaimana penokohan dua tokoh dari dua buah novel tersebut, saya juga akan memaparkan dimensi penokohan dua tokoh ini yang begitu luas akibat pemahaman nihilisme yang terkandung di dalamnya.

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40 Maranatha Christian University

APPENDICES

Summary of Trainspotting

Irvine Welsh‟s Trainspotting is an episodic novel interrelated to the life of its antihero Mark Renton. Rents, as his mates call him, is an 80‟s junky who

considers drugs the only “honest” objects that could help him find his sense of

well being. With his oldest friend, Sick Boy, and other junky comrades, like Spud, Raymie, and Alison, Renton usually goes scoring in Johnny „Mother Superior‟

Swan‟s place.

Renton tries to prove to the guys that he can withdraw himself from his dependency on drugs. He tries to show Sick Boy, and particularly Frank Begbie, that whatever they stand by against him is false. Begbie and Sick Boy are Renton‟s two so-called mates who occasionally bring him into their troubles.

Begbie is a psychopathic maniac, and Sick Boy is a kind of friend who dares to sell his own mates to get what he wants. Renton does everything he could to prevail over them, but, like his late attempts, he fails eventually and falls again into the distressing point where he starts from.

Despite having a girlfriend, things still hardly get better for him. Renton‟s

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41 Maranatha Christian University more complicated time to set the proper conduct. He feels things around him will never be the same again and he needs to sort this hopeless boredom out.

Renton leaves for London to get a job, hoping that his life will get better, and that he can escape from Leith where his inner adversity originates from. Unfortunately, one mate‟s demise and other news force him to go back to the

place where he used to try to run away from, Leith. Like it or not, Renton has to face the fact that it is difficult for him to get away from his origins.

Like other people around him, Renton once again has to deal with the problematic days in the deprived and depressed underside of Leith, Edinburgh. Besides his inner problems, he must spend most of his time dealing with random events and people with relevance to his life as well. Family, relatives, mates who are junkies, mates who are not junkies, mates who are on and off junkies, mates with HIV positive, pimps, psychos, drunkards - they are altogether struggling through their degrading conditions and social affairs which are so hard, that a man like Renton would dare to do anything to get away from them.

Summary of Fight Club

In Chuck Palahniuk‟s Fight Club, the anonymous narrator, a recall

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42 Maranatha Christian University After consulting to a doctor about the pain he suffers, the narrator is suggested to visit a range of health groups in order to see the “real” pain. Every

health group he regularly visits once brings him to life, but soon he begins to feel depressed again when the “vacation” on the groups is contravened by the present

of Marla Singer. Devastated and mentally desperate, the anonymous narrator happens to “meet” Tyler Durden, a night-hour projectionist and a waiter who is

really exuberant with abundant of self-destructive principles.

The mental state of the anonymous narrator is getting worse and worse - his condo exploded, along with all of his possessions and exotic furniture. He then desperately asks Tyler for a place to stay. Tyler does not mind but he wants the narrator to do him a favour first, “I want you to hit me as hard as you can.” Then

„Fight Club‟ is invented.

Along the way, Tyler also starts to build an army of people whom he considers “God‟s middle children” – the people who have no place in life. Without the narrator knowing anything about it, “Project Mayhem” is invented

and Tyler‟s destructive visions are getting bigger and stronger.

The narrator starts becoming anxious of his involvements with Tyler, particularly Tyler‟s relationship with Marla. He gradually feels that Tyler starts degrading his mind. The narrator feels that he needs to make Tyler gone and out of his life. His confusion and distress become even bigger since Tyler strands him alone without any certain answers.

And yet, not until he finds out that Tyler Durden is actually his other personalities, has the narrator‟s world begun to turn upside down. How now he

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43 Maranatha Christian University Biography of Irvine Welsh

Irvine Welsh was born in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, on 27 September 1958. Welsh left Ainslie Park Secondary School when he was sixteen and had various jobs. As he moves to London in the late seventies, he tried to catch up on some of education he had missed while daydreaming about more interesting things, such as enjoying the London punk scene. The jobs got better and he got on the property ladder and made some money. Welsh eventually returned to Edinburgh where he worked for the city council in the housing department. He went on to study for an MBA at Heriot Watt University.

Energized by the rave scene, he started to write and his paths crossed with the above. Digging out some old diaries, Welsh did a draft of what would become Trainspotting. When Trainspotting was published in 1993 Irvine Welsh shot to fame. His novel received as many good reviews as ones swathed in disgust and outrage - establishing a tradition that continues to this day.

Since Danny Boyle‟s film adaptation of Trainspotting was released in

February 1996 Irvine Welsh has remained a controversial figure, whose novels, stage and screen plays, novellas and short stories have proved difficult for literary critics to assimilate, a difficulty made only more noticeable by Welsh‟s continued

commercial success.

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44 Maranatha Christian University Porno and recent The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs have seen him increase his profile in America and Canada.

He has recently branched into film and is a partner in two film production companies. He joined Four Ways films, which was founded by Antonia Bird, Robert Carlyle and Mark Cousins, and has recently set up Jawbone films with his screenwriting partner Dean Cavanagh, and Phil John and Jon Lewis Owen.

In 2005 Welsh married for the second time. He promises that he will never do it again. He lives mainly in Dublin but retreats to Miami Beach for a large part of the winter. He visits his home city of Edinburgh regularly, usually to meet friends, family and Hibernian FC at Easter Road.

<http://www.irvinewelsh.net/biography.aspx>

Biography of Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk is a contemporary American author who is best known for his first published novel Fight Club from 1996, which picked up cult status after the release of the movie in 1999. He has a reputation for shocking his readers, and has become increasingly popular since his initial success, with a huge centralized fan base on the Internet. His novels often turn out to be a reference to actual and made up urban legends.

Palahniuk was born in Pasco, Washington, of Ukrainian ancestry, on February 21st, 1962. He grew up in Burbank, Washington, and went to Columbia High, Burbank Washington Class of ‟80. In 1986, Palahniuk graduated with a BA

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45 Maranatha Christian University Palahniuk‟s initial step to become a writer was when Mr. Olsen in the fifth

grade said, 'Chuck, you do this really well. And this is much better than setting fires, so keep it up'. Then he moved to Portland and began writing for a local paper, soon after which he switched jobs to work for Freightliner as a diesel mechanic. During this time he wrote manuals for fixing trucks and did a little journalism, and began writing novels.

In the early 90's, a friend suggested he took a writing workshop with Tom Spanbauer. His first novel, Invisible Monsters was rejected by publishers for being too disturbing, which prompted him to write Fight Club in an effort to disturb the publisher even more. At this stage, he was still working as a mechanic. Palahniuk became a cult figure after the publication of Invisible Monsters and Survivor in conjunction with the movie release of Fight Club in 1999.

The year 1999 may have been the time when Palahniuk became a cult figure but it was also a difficult year for Chuck because his father and his father‟s

girlfriend were found murdered. The girlfriend‟s ex-husband was subsequently

charged and convicted for the murders, and Palahniuk apparently began the novel Lullaby during all this time later stating that he used the writing process to help him cope with his decision to help get the murderer a death sentence. Palahniuk currently lives in Vancouver, Washington.

<http://chuckpalahniuk.net/author/faq;

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

In his Writing about Literature, Edgar V. Roberts writes that a character in fiction, particularly a character who takes a major proportion in the story, is a portrayal of how a man would conduct himself into an affecting plot in his own life. It is without doubt that a work of fiction acquires the ability to introduce its readers to a character who could enhance their understanding of being a human. His features, personalities, actions, interactions with life, and his thoughts are expected to become a clear reflection for readers to relate not only to the character and the narratives, but also to themselves and life surrounding them (Roberts 66).

The goal of literary characterization is to present not just externally perceived person, but also – and primarily – the inner person, the secret self: those expressed and unexpressed inner thoughts, aims, motives, aspirations, joys, fears, obsessions, and frustrations that collectively make up human personalities (Roberts 66).

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2 Maranatha Christian University outward appearances does the character have? How does he behave? How does his mind work? But mainly, the reason that becomes the most necessary element to study is what sort of knowledge and idea the author tries to distribute to his readers through the portrayal of his character. M. J. Murphy in his Understanding Unseens clarifies that a thorough characterization technique is an important effort to uncover the concluding message of a narrative from a complete portrait of one character. (Murphy 161)

Two major characters I have taken from two ground-breaking cult novels by two controversial writers, Mark Renton in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and Tyler Durden in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, can be methodically analysed to

fabricate such venerable acknowledgments through their gripping and bitter characteristics towards life. I believe with a detailed characterization technique, there will be more information about evocative viewpoints of one’s values and life

concepts based on the characteristics of Renton’s and Durden’s. I also have come

to a thorough understanding that they are presenting radical yet enthralling characteristics as a new transcending reference in how to revalue one’s life,

because in my reading, I truly consider the influences of both major characters are as powerful in the novels as they are for the readers.

David Foster Wallace, the author of Infinite Jest, declares Trainspotting as a “marvelous mixture of nihilism and heartbreak, pinpoint realism (especially in

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3 Maranatha Christian University such profound acknowledgements, I have compelled myself to dissect a broader dimension of the two major characters portrayed in these two famous cult novels.

The major character of the first novel, Trainspotting, is Mark Renton, a 22-year-old junky living in the depraved underside of Leith, Edinburgh. The portrayal of Mark Renton as a junky is well enhanced by his devaluation of one’s

concepts of life and all the “the spurious convoluted logic” (Welsh) invented by society against him. For Renton, besides the “honest” drugs, other things are only

there to delude and divert him from the fact that life is just short and disappointing.

The absurdity and insignificance of the concept of life against one’s strong subjectivity are also put forth in Chuck Palahniuk’s outstanding cult novel Fight

Club. Palahniuk tries to devaluate against the dehumanizing ideas of life structured by society, via one of the major characters, an anarchic and strong-principled visionary, Tyler Durden.

From these tendencies portrayed by both characters, I learn that they acquire strongly typical and obvious attributes of what have been associated with the philosophical doctrine which has the nature to negate life’s meaning and values: nihilism. These two distinguishing nihilistic depictions of both major characters have thus challenged me to get involved in a further comprehensive study of the concept of nihilism as well.

In order to obtain a thorough understanding of this subject, I am going to make use of several reliable resources from the Internet and books dealing with philosophical nihilism, particularly from Friedrich Nietzsche’s point of view. The

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4 Maranatha Christian University prominent figure of nihilism, and extensively lays his greatest concern about the effects of nihilism on society and culture (Cline).

Statement of the Problem

The problems I will discuss in my analysis are as follow: 1. How are the two major characters portrayed in both novels?

2. How are the portrayals of the major characters in both novels related to nihilism?

Purpose of the Study

There are two purposes of this study:

1. To show how the two major characters are portrayed in both novels. 2. To show how the portrayals of the major characters in both novels are

related to nihilism.

Method of Research

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5 Maranatha Christian University Organization of the Thesis

I divide this major thesis into five chapters, which are preceded by the Acknowledgments, the Table of Contents and the Abstract. In the first chapter, I present the Introduction, which contains the Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research and the Organization of the Major Thesis. The second chapter discusses the general theory of nihilism. The third and fourth chapters present the portrayal of the protagonist using nihilism in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and Chuck Palahniuk’s

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CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION

After reading both novels and analysing both major characters in Irvine

Welsh‟s Trainspotting and Chuck Palahniuk‟s Fight Club, I conclude that the

portrayals of Mark Renton and Tyler Durden have indeed been enhanced by an extensive aspect of nihilism, which reveals similarities and distinctiveness from

the end results of their nihilistic portrayals. First of all, in nihilism, man‟s question

about values and concept of life has been long considered to be a crucial argument, and therefore it argues whether life is really valuable or it is just ultimately trivial and meaningless. Related to the individual‟s extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism (Pratt), a nihilist would “destroy” because he is deprived of the most inaccessible of hope for a meaningful life, and consequently attaches himself to a life of nothing more than sickness, decay and disintegration (Cline).

Friedrich Nietzsche has been renowned as one of the prominent figures of nihilism. The reason he writes a great deal about nihilism, however, shall be a steady reminder of the fact that his concern about nihilism only revolves around its effects of improvement situated on society and culture. He argues that just

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there will be no appropriate values at all for one‟s subjectivity (Cline) and thus

lets himself be victimized. Instead of advocating nihilism, Nietzsche develops it as a significant standpoint to every individual in unveiling their valuable

potentials to become something else as “fulfilling and purposeful from the

subjective perspectives of themselves” (Cline). By nihilism, one is supposed to be

able to implement his own creativity in “establishing a new „order of rank‟”

(Crowel).

From Nietzsche‟s radical standpoint of nihilism, I am thus able to extend more my analysis on the portrayals of characters that are related to such standpoint. The first character I have analyzed is Mark Renton, an antiheroic junky and a cynical, self-withdrawing, pessimistic, rebellious, and self-destructive character living in the deprived underside of Leith, Edinburgh. From his interview

in Aaron Kelly‟s Irvine Welsh, Irvine Welsh states that Trainspotting confronts

not only the related spread of HIV infection in his time, but also the dissolving prospects in the working-class areas of Edinburgh where people at the time are sort of dropping-dead because “they‟ve just been crushed by so many other things like poverty and unemployment that HIV on top of that is just another thing to

deal with” (Kelly 37).

In other words, the futile circumstances stated in his interview contribute a major deal to the trivial and meaningless situations Renton is put in as the major

character. Unfortunately, in Mark Renton‟s case, this kind of futility is converted

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the face of nihilism” when he finds his true potential as dissatisfying and the

realization that life has no objective values (Crowell). So, from the discussion, I can deduce that the portrayal of Mark Renton is a proper demonstration of a nihilist who eventually falls into despair and emptiness due to his own deprived disposition that overcomes his mind.

As deprived by life‟s values as Renton is, the second character, Tyler

Durden, has similar nihilist characteristics deriving from a monotonous life of dull consumerism behaviour and distressing working hours. Caused by inner

devastation towards many suppressing life‟s values, Tyler, however, becomes a

destructive, idealistic, and skeptical character in order to set new and fulfilling ideals of life. In one of his interviews, Chuck Palahniuk states that he does create

“very dysfunctional, dark characters” in most of his works, which is then followed

by the reputation of "torchbearer for the nihilistic generation” given by some media critics. One of the characters is Tyler Durden, a well-rounded character who is constituted with a radical nihilistic purpose of “reasserting their culturally repressed generation” (Straus).

This kind of reassertion from Tyler is definitely what Nietzsche considers

to be effectively killing the “Christian notion of God” and any other shared

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36 Maranatha Christian University From what I have analysed, both portrayals of the nihilistic characteristics of Mark Renton and Tyler Durden have indeed proved broader varieties of nihilism demonstrated in both novels. Therefore, I conclude that when one conducts the nihilism conceived in the portrayal of Mark Renton, the outcome is surely more devastating and depressing instead of getting better. In addition, Austin Cline also writes that the end result Renton gains is a typical outcome that will occur mostly in every nihilistic individual, and it undoubtedly tends to be suicidal (Cline). On the contrary, Tyler Durden cultivates a broader kind of nihilism expanded by Friedrich Nietzsche, which is the nihilism that could be converted into a source of encouragement or a trigger to radically construct a better value of life. For that reason, Tyler successfully embodies a portrayal of nihilist who perceives life without meaning and values, yet he also seeks the

potential to become something else as “fulfilling and purposeful from the

subjective perspectives of themselves”, or as Tyler puts it, “to hit bottom”.

Both Mark Renton and Tyler Durden are in a state of denial and they acquire doubtful attitudes towards all concepts of life due to their insignificances these two characters cannot put up with. Therefore, to relieve these strains of life, Renton relies his sense of honesty on drugs while Tyler conducts his own ideals. For them, there is no access anymore to any forms of hope and as a result they attach themselves to a determining act of dispute against the lives around them.

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37 Maranatha Christian University unfortunately, he merely tries to escape from life with the self-delusion of his own nihilistic state of mind. I have learned that the nihilistic tendencies in Mark Renton are liable to end up in a bleak self- despair. It is clear that when one is as nihilistic as Renton, he would pose a destructive result out of delusive characteristics that are developed within him.

Tyler Durden, on the other hand, refuses to fall into the abyss. He fights

back and “destroys every scraps of history” (Palahniuk) in order to produce a

better concept of life. Tyler‟s radical dogma is indeed an overpowering nihilistic

desire to annihilate all imposed values and meaning through a strong sense of destruction. By destroying and redefining all the former values, Tyler is willing to

create a new place where he says, “even Mona Lisa is falling apart”; the place

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary texts:

Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. London: Vintage, 2006 Welsh, Irvine. Trainspotting. London: Vintage, 2004

References:

Eastman, Richard M. A Guide to the Novel. San Fransisco: Chandler Publishing Co, 1965

Kelly, Aaron. Irvine Welsh. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005 Murphy, M.J. Understanding Unseens. London: Georger Allen & Unwin Ltd,

1972

Roberts, Edgar V. Writing about Literature. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc, 2003

Internet Websites:

Cline, Austin. “Existential Nihilism.” About.com. 2009. 27 August 2009.

<http://atheism.about.com/od/nihilismnihilists/a/existentialism.htm

>

Cline, Austin. “Nietzsche and Nihilism.” About.com. 2009. 27 August 2009.

<http://atheism.about.com/od/nihilismnihilists/a/nietzsche.htm>

Cline, Austin. “God is Dead: Killing God.” About.com. 2009. 26 August 2009.

<http://atheism.about.com/library/weekly/aa042600a.htm>

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“Fight Club”. Powell’s Books. 2009. 6 September 2009.

<http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0805062971>

“Nihilism”. Wikipedia. 12 September 2009.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism>

“Nihilism – Abandoning Values and Knowledge”. All About Philosophy. 2009. 27 August 2009.

<http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/nihilism.htm>

Pratt, Allan. “Nihilism” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006. 27 August 2009. <http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm>

“Trainspotting”. Powell’s Books. 2009. 6 September 2009.

<http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0393314804>

Straus, Tamara. “The Unexpected Romantic: An Interview with Chuck Palahniuk.” AlterNet. 2009. 18 November 2009.

< http://www.alternet.org/story/11049/>

Woodward, Ashley. “Nihilism and the Postmodern in Vattimo’s Nietzsche.”