According to the DVD-commentary of Fight Club by director David Fincher, the “Chemical Burn” – scene is the turning point in the narrative. The narrator’s imaginary alter ego Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) exposes the anonymous narrator (Edward Norton) to unbearable pain by kissing his hand and pouring lye on the saliva. The latter and lye cause a chemical reaction that results in a scarring burn. It is at this moment of utter pain that Tyler reveals the foundational mechanism of culture to the suffering narrator: “Without pain, without sacrifice we would have nothing.” A less painful way for them to reach this insight would have been to read their Girard. My point here is that this scene could have come straight from Violence and the Sacred.