There is no gene for faith

The during the discussion about Fight Club some elements rose up that reminded me of another of my favourite films, or a film that like previous one, has made a strong impresion to me. I started to wonder the characters and the story in this particular film, and how I could compare it to Fight Club or to Demian possibly.
This is an underrated film called Gattaca, from 1997. Story takes place in near future, where children are conceived by genetic manipulation, to create a perfect human. Natural born humans are now a new underclass. Its a story about Vincent who fights against the future predicted for him, from his genes. Gattaca is a basic tale of one mans fight over unbelievable obstacles. So nothing new.

The Lead character Vincent has "invalid genes" and to reach his goals he has to become Jerome Morrow, a good gened guy with bad luck. He buys his personality. He becomes a so called "de-gene-rate", which is illegal of course.
In the world of Gattaca, where genes mean everything, the most unclean, and intimate things, which humans usually don´t exchange with each other, things that might be regarded as dirty, or the Abject maybe, are now the most precious and expensive things and things that matter the most. A big part of becomin Jerome is that Vincent must leave behind traces of the good genes. Humas loose all the time hair, spit, skin, things that all hold the persons individual gene in them. Vincent practically buys Jeromes blood and piss. (because the frequent blood and piss test).
In Gattaca humans personality is diminished to genes. If your blood is good enough, no one cares about anything else. when Vincent and Jerome meet and they don´t look anything alike, but the middleman says that "it is close enough! when was the last time you´ve seen anyone looking at a picture" or something.So now, an outcast man want´s to dive deep in the wrong-gone society and be one of the elite, but being an outcast he has to become some one else. Where in fight club, getting out, becoming an outsider, meant becoming someone else. So the direction is opposite from Fight Club.

The question of individual and personality in proportion to society and its expections and limitations is obvious.

Vincent: I can't go anywhere without seeing my own face. They'll recognize me.
Jerome: They won't recognize you.
Vincent: They'll recognize me.
Jerome: I don't recognize you.

It could be argued that Gattaca shows us what most of us are doing in real life. We have weird imaginations and expectations of our selves and what we should do with our lives, like Vincent has, he wants to go to space, and thats it, no explanations.

In order to attain these goals, like a good job or a career, the society around us gives us no choice but to leave our natural selves behind and become something else. We all must be better, cleaner, more intelligent and more good looking. We must be productive and happy. We willingly do unnatural acts to become these roles we have imagined for our selves. Because we think, or are made to think that we aren´t enough we have to be like society wants us to be, to reach happines or whatever.

Still, Gattaca shows us a hopeful view that anything can be done, but also shows the cost of it. Everything Vincent does, is for his career in space. Is that a good thing?There are 2 men in a really close relationship, which is not approved by surrounding society. And there is the one woman in the middle of them. The relationship between Vincent, Jerome and Irene is somewhat similar to the relationship of the Narrator, Tyler and Marla in Fight Club. Irene is in love with Vincet, but for her he is Jerome, much like narrator is Tyler for Marla. So Irene is in love with the "imagined" person of Jerome Morrow, which is not real, like Tyler isn´t. Of course Vincent can never discuss Jerome with Irene, like in FC "never talk about me" says Tyler.

This arrangement is not the main focus of the movie, but its still clearly there. When the process is reaching its end, the real Jerome kills himself, leaving only the secretion bags for Vincent to last the rest of his life. And when the real Jerome disappears from the world, Vincents identity is also finally destroyed and replaced by Jeromes, by a push of a button. The rebuilding of ones personality is complete, and there is no coming back.

Vincent: [voiceover] For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess I'm suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once part of a star. Maybe I'm not leaving... maybe I'm going home.

In the movie Vincent has just reached his goal, but having second thoughts, cause he has now conveniently stepped to the life of a "valid", but fortunately he still remembers that his main goal was not getting in to a society of elite-people, but to use it to fly away from it.

So compared to Demian, where a bird must break the shell around it to break free, in Gattaca Vincent had to first built one, then be shipped in it to freedom. :)

A person from the dark world works his way up to the clean and desired world. Element similar to Fight Club are: society that gives the boundaries to fight against, 2 guys in a close uncommon relationship one being the unwanted starting point and the other the goal or the desire, the personality game, the process in which one becomes something new, a synthesis of 2 different factors, and maybe the Soap thing, if it is interpreted that way of the fat that it is made of is now being used to the goals of the characters, like here the real leftovers from human are precious for our main character.Im going to totally set aside the fact that this movie deals with gene manipulation and makes a strong statement about it.

There is the question of brothers in Gattaca. Vincent is a "child of love" a product of passion where is younger, better brother is carefully planned and properly produced child.
Brother becomes a cop who tracks down a killer, who he suspects is Vincent. So this is a kind of Kain and Abel tale, which brings us to Demian and to the Bible of course.
"The mark of Kain" is the mark of Vincent being an "invalid". But it is also the mark from Demians interpretation, mark of desire, power and determination.

Water and swimming play a big part in Gattaca, to be honest, I really don´t know what that is about. The 2 brothers compete by swimming, yes, but they could do it running I guess.. Except being in water is like being in space, there is no way out, you can´t just stop swimming and walk away, you have to swim, or you die. We all swim in the current situation we are in. We can´t stop it if we want to survive.. Maybe that´s the point? Anyways, it is the part that made an affect on me when I saw it the first time. Swimming scenes with the beautiful music score. Check it out.

Turning Demian into a movie

I´ve had this imaginary plan to interpret Demian by Hermann Hesse for the big screen. This is a project I´ve just rolled around in my head from time to time for 6 months or so, just for the interest of it. Project is in its beginning, nothing is written yet or anything, just some notes done. And of course I realize that this is never going to happen.

First I though that it should take place in the modern society, not in the period before World War 1, like the original story. But soon noticed that the time and the surroundings have too much to do with the story and the meaning of it that I just started to do gather the main events and characters and developments of the story, keeping it in its original surroundings. Like it should be.

But today I started to think that If the story is put to present day, all the symbols and meanings had to be changed, all but the basic story of Sinclairs (main character) development as a person from displaced and scared, and somehow missled person to understanding his significance and true self, in the context of the state of the world around him, and finding the same patterns from the whole world that he finds in himself.

-- Now follows a long and possibly pointless comparison of a book Demian, and a movie, Fight Club. This is insane, I know. I should probably read the book Fight Club, but the point is, that if Demian should be translated into a film about this time, could it resemble Fight Club and is Fight Club somehow the Demian of the 90´s? I am not saying that Fight Club is as good as Demian, but examining their similarities just as a curiosity. The point might be that the basic story is somehow architypical (?) and thats the main and only reason for any similarities. One difficulty is that movies and books use different kinds of methods of expressing things, but thats partly what this is about. And just to point out: I am not over excited about Fight Club. This just came to my mind today. --

So in Demian the main things are Sinclairs religious up bringing and the struggle of the "light" and "dark" worlds. Meaning the traditional (way of the parents and teachers) and way of the "outsider"seen as dark and forbidden, alternate way of interpreting things and living ones life. And there fore the whole state of European culture at the time had the same arrangement in it self. Old traditions started to tear themselves apart until it all culminated to WW1. So there is all the time this situation with opposites, with out any synthesis.

In order to move this story to present time, we would have to find analogous phenomenon from the present culture, which could be presented as being on the verge of breaking down.

In Fight Club, there is the empty, clinical and shallow world of white-collar worker whit negligent father who has told him what to do, but not why and never really got to know his sons. It shows a whole generation, which is described in the film ; "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. "

So there is the abstract culture of jobs for money, money for furniture and fun, but no deeper meaning. No knowledge of the spiritual side of life. Which could be seen as reverse arrangement, but also somehow similar to Demian, cause the old, firm religious tradition keeps young man from getting to know himself taking on a own perspective to life. Shallow traditional and restraining religion has changed into shallow restraining consumerism.

Next comes some obvious, or interpreted similarities, on factual events in the stories.

First, there is the Bully, Kromer, that keeps pulling Sinclair to the "Dark" side of life. In Fight Club, Jack is bullied by his insomnia which starts to notify that everything is not right.

The character arrangement is similar. While Sinclair is in school, he first starts to see Demian, not to talk to him, he just notices this boy with special substance. In Fight Club The Narrator, or Jack, doesn´t really see Tyler, but the audience sees him. On the one frame flashes and going past him on the escalator.

The first time Sinclair meets with Demian, He tells him that the story of Abel and Cain can be interpreted differently than the teachers want them to interpret it. ( Cain having the mark cause he is different and strong, not because he is evil). First time Jack and Tyler meet, Tyler tells him that the safety instructions are there just to give false hope and that one can make explosives from items found at home. Both tell a story which is about looking things in a different light, not the way we are thought to look. On both situations an important element of the story is introduced. In addition to the other character of course.

After this starts the journey for both, Sinclair and Jack, out of the past world to search for something new. Where Sinclair is tossed about in the life of a student, trying to fight his bad feelings and rip everything from the old person away from him, Jack starts literally to fight against the other people with same kind of problem, he fights with Tyler, and as we later on get to know, he fights with himself.

At this point the stories differ, cause Fight Club has taken more obvious view that Jack and Tyler are the same person, where in Demian, Sinclair is not so obviously "same" with Demian, but Demian shows the path and stays behind the curtains, but obsessing the mind of Sinclair. These 2 journeys are different, due to the different natures of the stories, but some similarities can be found.

When Tyler and Jack organize the Fight Club, they (or he) becomes some kind of icon or a celebrity. In Demian, because of Sinclairs "uncertainty" about his own personality and the world around him, he becomes, for a while, a daring "bar hero" drinking the most and talking the meanest things. And he is known to his entire school.

In Demian, dreams have an important role. and they tell us about the state of Sinclairs persona like in Fight Club scenes of fight or arguments with Tyler etc. Also the painting that Sinclair does in the story, which starts as a girl he likes, becomes Demian, then Demians mom Eva, then Sinclair himself, describes the lack of consistency of Sinclairs identity, or the path of finding the connection to his subconsciousness. And almost all the scenes in Fight Club can be seen from this angle.

Sinclair also often contemplates the fact that things that Demian says sound like answers to the questions an thoughts in his own mind. Much like the situation with Jack and Tyler. "Sometimes Tyler spoke for me.."

Cause Sinclair is a young student it is natural for him to paint and think and dream, as in Jack´s situation that would seem odd. So in FightClub the chain of events is presented by scenes of action and mischief.

Tyler saves a character named Marla from suicide in Fight Club. Marla has same kind of problems as Jack, and they form a problematic relationship together. Later on in Demian, Sinclair saves a young boy, Knauer, from suicide. The boy resembles himself when he was younger. In both stories the saving occurs unintentionally, or unconciously. Jack doesn´t remember that he went to Marlas place, cause it was Tyler, but he remembers the sex scene, but thinks he has dreamed of it. In Demian, Sinclair wakes up from a dream, goes out in the middle of the night and just walks "like a sleepwalker" to the place where Knauer is about to kill himself. Knauer develops an obsession to Sinclair for a while after this. Of course Marla plays a much larger part in Fight Club than Knauer in Demian...

Quote from Demian (translated from Finnish to English by me): "The most true calling for one is only this: To become your self. Should it be a poet or a madman, prophet or a criminal - it is not for us to decide, and at the end, it makes no difference."

From Fight Club: Tyler Durden: You're 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 fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

Fight Club is more individual based, in terms of content I guess. Demian gives a lot more spiritual and possibly hopeful view, where as FightClub is a lot more violent in its opinions and has more harsh tone. And because of the different time periods they deal with different worlds and ideas. Demian dwells in the depth of subconsciousness and the unified soul of the world, finding answers from staring to the fire and listening to music, where as in Fight Club there are the same themes, but answers are found in more concrete level, on the dark streets or basements, doing a thing that most certainly feels and is real, fighting.

Demian describes an end of an era, Fight Club is done in the end of a millenium. And both describe an end of an era on a person.

The scene where Tyler leaves Jack, resembles the scene where Demian is last seen in the book. Jack and Sinclair both lie almost unconscious, Jack after near fatal car crash, Sinclair after a near fatal explosion. Jack tries to speak to Tyler, but can´t, same with Sinclair and Demian. and in the mornign Demian and Tyler are gone. We get the impression that Demian is dead. Or is he?

Because of the War Sinclair is sent to the army. Scene before of the scene where we meet Demian for the last time, Hesse describes very beautifully and with many image-like descriptions that can be interpreted in many ways, the event of Sinclair almost getting killed by a bomb.

In Fight Club there is this cool slow motion shot about Jack shooting himself to the mouth. We can see the explosion in his mouth and everything.

So, in a way, both, Demian and Tyler are dead in the end.

In the book Demian, we are left with the strong message, that with a person or with the world, in order to become what we are supposed to be, like a bird must break the shell around it in order to get born, we must break the shell, the shell being the restricting and "old" ways of seeing our selves or the world around us, if we want things to change.

And in the end of Fight Club we see a total destruction of the person Jack/Tyler used to be, and the destruction of the basis of the current career and money driven culture; The exploding buildings of banks and credit records.

One important thing missing from fight club is the symbol of synthesis. In Demian it is the god Abraxas.
But in Fight Club there is numerous remarks that refer to god and making a synthesis; it is not wanted anymore. " Fuck damnation, man! Fuck redemption! We are God's unwanted children? So be it!" So at this time, we do not search for god anymore, we don´t care about those kind of thoughts, as long as there is something to believe in, something that is real.

Demian tells a story about a boy from 8 years old to 20-something. And Fight Club? About 25 to 30? maybe. So being done in a different time, it is only appropriate to tell about the next phase. Or is the culture today infantile? Tyler himself refers them selves, grown up guys to children. In both of the quotes I´ve written here.

The thing might be that this is no news for some, but for me it was some kind of revelation today. The stories and character arrangements are similar in many stories through out the history of literature and it is not a big deal. The things I´ve written here might come across quite shallow in terms of similarity. But what interest me the most is that Fight Club might well be a dated version of Demian. They are in many ways parallel to each other, just because of their differences. Differences caused by the time they were conceived and the way they´ve been made (book/film). These things have an effect on the way a story develops and where the emphasis lies. Is the similarity there just because of the 2 main characters and the story of finding your self in this messed up world?

I am also quite sure that there is a scene in Demian when Sinclair feels like destroying something beautiful and does some kind of act because of this, al tough I can´t remember/find it now.. In Fight Club Jack beats the face of this blond guy like a maniac and after this says "I felt like destroying something beautiful".


24/10/2008: I've noticed that many people come to read this post, It would be nice to hear your thoughts about it!