Fight Club

Disclaimer: Shin Kidousenki New Mobile War Chronicle Gundam Wing is copyright Setsu Agency and Bandai Inc

Disclaimer: Shin Kidousenki New Mobile War Chronicle Gundam Wing is copyright Setsu Agency and Bandai Inc., and is not property of this writer. Likewise, Fight Club is property of Twentieth Century Fox, though no direct use of its characters or plot is made. I’ll also state here something that the content of this story arc warrants; although it may be stated elsewhere to the contrary, any references made to places, events, or person(s)—living or dead—are entirely coincidental. If you are intentionally scouring my writing for incriminating references, get a life.
Title: Fight Club
Chapter: 0—Jack Rant
Author: Duh. Me.
Warning(s): Profound philosophies on writin’ and life in general ahead.
Notes: This is just an explanation of a few things to you guys. If you’d like to leave reviews as responses, I’d love to read them.
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A Man said to the Universe,
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the Universe,
"The fact has not created within me
A sense of obligation,"
-Stephen Crane
The only constant in life is change, and the only reliable fact that a person can live by is that things will almost never turn out in the most advantageous fashion. Furthermore, life truly is an ‘endless waltz’ of peace, revolution, and war, contentment, incitement, and sorrow, and there is nothing that society can do individually or as a whole to halt these cycleshosehose are the themes that I had in mind when I wrote "International Relations" and its sequel, "Fight Club." While I admit that my writin’ style and basic views on life were somewhat altered in the four month hiatus that I took between writin’ the two stories and the final chapter to FC, I think that it only added to the morals expressed through both.
These stories’ premises were written from a very hard experience that I learned not too long ago, and while their plots played out much differently from the events that they were based upon, I was lookin’ for that cheap shot at the ending, the kind of conclusion that leaves you not only feeling disappointed, but bitter, as well.
The point of any oration, film, or novel is to inspire some kind of reaction in the audience, be it a genuine likin’ for the work or pure disgust. If you loved IR and FC, then I succeeded as a writer; if you hated IR and FC, then I again succeeded. My only failure would be in any reader who truly didn’t feel a strong, instinctual reaction to the piece.
I read fanfiction on a daily basis—on some levels, it has become almost a career for me. There are a lot of clichés, a lot of stereotypin’ done of the pilots, and "Gundam Wing" as a whole. With all of my stories, but especially this arc, I wanted to defy those preconceived notions of Quatre as the uke, Trowa as the emotionless bastard, Dyuo as the motor-mouthed klutz.
Quatre is a dominant personality, and Trowa—in my opinion—feels too much and simply has problems expressin’ himself. It is, perhaps, why Quatre is so easily enraged and Trowa so soft-spoken. It is also why they complement each other so well.
I would have said ‘perfectly,’ but in real life no relationship is the epitome of happiness, and I write about the real world. In fandom paradise, couples never fight, there exists love at first glance, and people’s motives are either black or white. In Jack’s world—the modern present—people hardly ever know anything for certain, motives are very often shady-gray, and sometimes fightin’ is the only thing that preserves relationships.
Because I have taken to a realist/ naturalist perspective on literature—which greatly affects any canon-based fiction that I write—happy endings are few and far between, real concrete conclusions are seldom reached, and characters’ opinions and ideals will sway quite often, because Murphy’s Law dictates that things will always go awry not when we least expect it but when we least need further complication, and life experience does not answer our questions; it only leads to further venues of query.
My writin’ style and themes are often dark—self-mutilation, angst, suicide, drug use, abuse, religious themes, etc., but that’s what you’ve come to expect from Switchblade works. My writin’ is my way of ventin’, and Jack only writes what Jack knows—from first-hand experience. It’s my one and only Golden Rule of writin’. Beta-ing is also optional at times, because sometimes the content of certain stories/ chapters requires an unpolished, ‘rough-around-the-edges’ tone to it, to illustrate and emphasize how a certain character is feelin’, how a certain mood can change the entire tone of a fic.
I try for original, I strive for unique. My fiction takes place in every possible venue of the world, but it almost always focuses on the average man.
In IR it was the teacher, the student.
In "Three" it was the paramedics, the random orphan.
In "Logical Progression" it was the common workin’ man.
In every canon-based fic that I’ve written, it was the soldier, his family, and every miscellaneous person whom his actions during war or peacetime affected.
I don’t write about celebrities, musicians, or politicians. My stories center around someone that you could encounter on a subway at seven in the morning. That is the essential element of realism—the common man.
While greatly affected by the works of Stephen Crane and e. e. cummings, I’ve taken the basic ideals of realism—the common man—and the theories of naturalism—nature is uncaring of man’s plight—and combined them with a splash of satire to create my own warped version of an age-old writin’ genre known as psychological realism. It centers around man’s thought processes in times of crisis. My version is something that I call ‘theopsychological realism." It studies the way a person’s religious convictions affect his thoughts and behavior in times of conflict.
While not present per-sé in IR or FC, it is a concept employed openly in my works. For the purposes of IR and FC I will state that a person’s religious beliefs will determine their morals, ethics, and behavior—especially in relationships with other people. Here, I think it to be more than a little obvious that, because Quatre’s father did a pretty slack-ass job of parentin’, the Arabian received few religious codes, and therefore only considered himself a Moslem by birth. It also led to his inherent lack of inhibition concernin’ sex, drugs, alcohol, and respect for authority.
Trowa, on the other hand, was raised in a sheltered, lovin’ family (I tried to reverse their stereotypical backgrounds in this one), with very rigid religious beliefs. Due to this, he is more reserved, more thoughtful about his words and actions. Theopsychological realism hard at work…
I feel as if I’m lackin’ in both the background and details expressed in this arc, and for that I apologize. However, with thirty-four reviews thus far on seven chapters, I couldn’t have done too badly. I hope that this rant explains some of the incoherent to all of you, and I appreciate you takin’ the time to hear me out.
-Jack S.
 
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