What a ride…
Chuck Palahniuk always makes me think.
In observing the parallels between Survivor and Palahniuk's more famous/infamous Fight Club, I find patterns that make me search for yet more metaphors outside of this author's work.
Both stories are "definitive Palahniuk"; the tales tell of reluctant "hero's" quest's where a disenfranchised, lost son experiences a coming-of-age/un-coming-of-age roller-catastrophe-coaster…
Crap it's hard to describe, just read the fucking books.
The protagonist in each respective tale dances drunken relationship waltzes with two primary characters while the rest of the cast is just divisive supporting roles. These two main supporting roles are a male and a female. The male is a funhouse-mirror reflection of that which the protagonist has recently felt dead within himself. The female is the worst possible match in the world and therefore the perfect femme-fucked-up-fatale to pair with our hero during his adventures.
When I consider these ideas, I think of a type of meta-fiction: the "un-writing" of a coming-of-age story.
When I think of Tender Branson, Adam Branson, and Fertility Hollis...
I think of "Jack," Tyler Durton, and Marla Singer.
I think of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere (or the characters from the lore that inspired the many tales of Camelot's fall).
Bruce Wayne, Batman, and Selina Kyle (Catwoman's secret identity).
William Turner, Jack Sparrow, and Elizabeth Swan
Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton, and the Creature (little messed-up, I know)
Jack Skellington, Oogie Boogie, and Sally
Another tangential thought is that of the game in the pages of all the palahniuk I've read so far.
I think chuck loves games...next to Lovecraft, he would be the most evil D.M. ever.
As Tender plays at the game of his questioning soul, he is played by every other person he encounters. Even as he rebels and indulges, he remains a misbehaving tool at best. Even the bulk of Tender's misbehavior turns out to be someone else's idea. Tender is the game being played here.
Palahniuk weave's a painfully abstract and "truer than life" banner that he stubbornly waves while pounding at the gates of Fundamentalism--and invites the rest of us to join him in raising the choking fortress to the ground.
Dangerous stuff.
I think I'll read me s'more Palahniuk.