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Bret Easton Ellis, creator of Right now, we're about 175 pages in on his latest novel, The Shards, which we guess is good, but it reads too much like Bret using his profession as an established author to write out his sexual fantasies about old classmates (which could make for an awkward realization for them if they were to ever read the book and realized Bret was talking about gay sex with them). Like, very detailed sexual fantasies (like talking about his friend's "pink butthole" and how his hot girlfriend "deepthroated" his penis) where we felt it took us out of the story. Coupling this with another part of the plot involving a serial killer, the novel feels, at times, like two different narratives being told at once that slowly weaves into one. This is an interesting take, but we're not that far along enough to see if it comes to that, but all signs point that it probably will. Yet it falls in line with his other work, showcasing the rich and almost no-consequence lifestyle that his characters exist in. Perhaps this is best displayed in the pages of his debut work, Less Than Zero, where there's a casual child rape scene that really doesn't seem to bother any of the characters, who are more apt to flip out over not finding cocaine or meth before realizing that one of their friends is a human trafficking pedophile. Kinda makes you wonder why Bret chose to write about that in the first place. Cocaine, too, might as well be the reoccurring central character in Ellis' work, since it's one in his own life too, as evidenced when he accidentally Tweeted his dealer to bring some over to his place back in 2012. Then there's American Psycho, but we'll leave it to an autistic incel to write a manifesto about breaking that one down. Regardless, the man has written some entertaining literature, but it's probably not for everyone, especially if you care about the well-being of your fellow mxn and don't live in L.A. or NYC. Or if you're homophobic, as Bret loves talking about gay gently caress sex and white briefs. To the point where, in his 1987 novel The Rules of Attraction, one of the characters found it strange that the other preferred boxers over briefs. For some reason, out of that entire novel, that particular dialogue exchange is what we remember from it. Why was it a rule in the 80s that men had to wear briefs? Not in our household. We're only here to un-do the damage you've done to our family name.
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Feb 18, 2023 18:29
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My major Ellis story is that when I was in high school my English teacher let us pick any book we wanted to write a report on, and me and a buddy of mine thought we were real clever and subversive for picking American Psycho having only seen the movie. Little did we know we’d encounter interminable passages methodically describing torture and vivisection and entire chapters of amateur music analysis of Huey Lewis and the News. Finishing the book became a huge chore. Still enjoy it on a meta level, as a view into this extremely deranged and banal human being, but the adaptation probably surpasses the book by saving the reader all that work.
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Feb 20, 2023 22:00
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American Psycho sort of started the trend where dummies went "actually the protagonist is a really cool guy", so around 2014 you saw lots of Patrick Bateman avatars explaining people how it is actually about ethics in game journalism. Glamorama is actually funnier than American Psycho, but no one seems to talk about it because the protagonist is explicitly a himbo doofus.
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Feb 21, 2023 18:19
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Mike N Eich posted:…entire chapters of amateur music analysis of Huey Lewis and the News. Finishing the book became a huge chore. Which honestly makes us wonder if Bateman and/or Ellis is super autistic. Bateman in particular showcases the more popular trait of the autistic spectrum, being a “little professor”, wherein he goes on a spiral about one topic that he’s hyper-focused on. But, again, is that the character playing by the rules and understanding of its author creator, or is Ellis a sperg? We're only here to un-do the damage you've done to our family name.
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Feb 21, 2023 19:06
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Probably the biggest disparity between how I feel about the art and how I feel about the artist. Less than Zero, Rules of Attraction and American Psycho are an insane run of books. Somehow, those are the only ones I have read. Which should I do next? Glamorama?
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Feb 24, 2023 18:45
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I listened to American Psycho as an audiobook earlier this year (thank you Covid for leaving me unable to concentrate of written prose!) and oh boy… the narrator is excellent at capturing a disaffected, moneyed attitude that made those torture scenes way too visceral trickling into my ears. On the other hand Bateman’s repeated reverential namedropping of Trump was hilarious in a post-2016 world.
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May 26, 2023 13:10
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81sidewinder posted:Probably the biggest disparity between how I feel about the art and how I feel about the artist. Less than Zero, Rules of Attraction and American Psycho are an insane run of books. Somehow, those are the only ones I have read. Which should I do next? Glamorama? Lunar Park. Elements of pseudo-horror and a mild meditation re: "the consequences of being the author that wrote American Psycho." I listened to Porcupine Tree's "Fear of a Blank Planet" many many times before I read the book, not knowing the works had a relationship, so the general emotional beats were already telegraphed for me. Still enjoyed it a lot more than I expected.
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Jun 7, 2023 17:35
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81sidewinder posted:Probably the biggest disparity between how I feel about the art and how I feel about the artist. Less than Zero, Rules of Attraction and American Psycho are an insane run of books. Somehow, those are the only ones I have read. Which should I do next? Glamorama? Candace Bushnell's Sex & The City. I am 100% serious.
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Jun 9, 2023 16:02
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81sidewinder posted:Probably the biggest disparity between how I feel about the art and how I feel about the artist. Less than Zero, Rules of Attraction and American Psycho are an insane run of books. Somehow, those are the only ones I have read. Which should I do next? Glamorama? Lunar Park Glamorama sucks Help a goon out! Lots of books - horror, nonfiction, classics and more for sale.
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Jun 9, 2023 23:46
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