/lit/ - Literature

>>19695023
Currently reading this, about 2/3 of the way through. I'm loving it so far but I wouldn't describe it as "comfy" lol

hogg

>>19695023
Does the movie do it justice?

>oh my god patrick it's you, you're the American Psycho!
dropped it right fucking there

>>19695142
Well yeah, I don't mean the bits where bateman is killing people, but some of it is so fucking funny.
Like when he hallucinates that Bono is speaking to him and saying "I am the devil and you are just like me", and it gives Bateman an erection or when he meets Tom Cruise and spills his spaghetti
I also love all the inane dinner conversations, the updates on what bateman watched on the patty winter's show. Every character is so absurd and lame, it's hilarious.

>>19695155
Yeah, it's a very good adaption. There are some really great bits in the book that the film is missing though, but it's a very close adaption. It's hard to read the book without hearing Christian Bale's voice.
There are some things that I think it misses though.
for instance, at the end of the movie Patrick really loses control and the ATM tells him to feed it a stray cat. Well he hallucinates like that fairly frequently in the book, and he has periods where he totally goes into an uncontrollable frenzy. Like there's a chapter where he starts running around the street in the middle of the day foaming at the mouth and eats five vials of crack before collecting himself enough to buy a teapot, then goes ape shit again. Then it cuts to him in a restaurant like normal. In the movie he goes into that kind of frenzy, but he isn't normal after that

>>19695155
I think so. Some things are lost, but that's the nature of the medium.
Something that threw me for a loop was Patrick's music talk. In the book it's a stretch of several pages of boring shallow uninsightful prattle unconnected to any events. For the movie's famous dubs guy scene they picked out just a few lines that actually sound nice, and the effect is different, even though the essence is preserved. The novel gets to be less subtle. It shows what other people see of him without filtering it through his own perception.

>>19695287
She used it for a different purpose in the movie.
In the movie it's connecting consoomerism and violence, the book does that in other places, but that speech is used to show was a tasteless empty dork he is.
it's kind of annoying because so many people discovered Huey Lewis because of the movie, and it's probably the most listened to piece of music criticism in history, and it's not great to take that unironically when it's a ode to bland shallow corporate "rock" music.
As much as people know bateman is a monster from the movie, I think a lot of people take him being cool at face value, and it's a lot harder to do that with the book. Because as you say, it's a LOT less subtle. Bateman is a fucking dork and the furthest thing in the world from cool, his taste and opinions are lifted whole-cloth from magazines.
I don't know if the movie would have worked so well if they had leaned into how lame bateman really is, because the movie sort of working as the thing it's criticising adds a new dimension not present in the book, without changing any of the themes. it's not meta, but it helps you understand how seductive the yuppie lifestyle is, while in the book you understand the social pressure in that scene, but you're on the outside laughing at it.

It's a good read but describing this book as "comfy" is peak 17 y/o r9k behavior. This book is disgusting and gratuitous in places, which is intentional.

>>19695467
I'm not trying to be edgy, and yeah I had to put it down last night because it was too late to read something horrifying, but so much of the book is straight up funny and light. Even a lot of the dark sections are filled with humour.

I love Patrick Bateman's clothing autism

>>19695142
I thought a lot of the settings and dress style descriptions were very comfy, so I can somewhat see where OP is coming from about it being comfy.

>comfy

Wtf does this word even mean now?

Ah yes murdering children and shoving rats into peoples pussies comfy!

>>19695660
you'd understand if you were a woman

>>19695023
I have this book in the back of my closet because I don't want it within my sight or in my regular book collection. It's the same with Let the Right One In, and In Watermelon Sugar.

Just started reading this too, I'm about a fifth of my way through the book. Ellis does a good job of making Bateman seem like a generally well adjusted psychopath, the kinda guy you really wouldn't expect to be a serial murdering sadist. I still haven't hit any murder chapters yet, but I feel like I'm getting close.

>>19695862
Why?

>>19695023
Not really. Considered it very try hard and edgy. Dont get the hype.

>>19696841
I like the dialogue and humor

>>19695862
What do those three even have in common?

>>19696841
It made me laugh out loud at least 15 times. That makes it for me, chief.

>>19696832
>the kinda guy you really wouldn't expect to be a serial murdering sadist.
if you weren't a midwit you'd already know he isn't one

>>19695023
This is the one time I'll say the movie did the whole thing better. I felt like my time was wasted after I finished it, and a little pissed that I gulled myself into completing it for the sake of bragging rights to... no one, really.

>>19695023 >>19695142

Currently reading this too what the fuck and just finished the Whitney Houston chapter, so roughly 2/3s of the way as well.

Book is entertaining but its written so well that the parts that become explicitly hard to read are just that. It's fascinating combing through one of the monotonous dinner/lunch tangent chapters and waiting for the inevitable mask slip.

Movie is surprisingly one:one with obvious exceptions and Bale really is the perfect Pat Bateman.

>>19695862
>In Watermelon Sugar.
What? What does this have to do with American Psycho and why are you too much of a pussy to just put books on your shelf regardless of fear that you'll be subconsciously critiqued by others about what you read. It's literally perfect conversation material if someone asks but I might just be autistic.

>>19697554
Fuck, is it really that mediocre of a finish? I've enjoyed the ride though so even if the ending is weak, whatever.

>>19696882
It definitely pulls some chuckles, I hate that I laughed on a train while reading it though, people who saw what I was reading made weird eye contact with me.

Thank you students for your junior college essays on Mr Ellis's satirical fiction American Psycho

>>19696836
>>19696858
>>19697733
They creep me out. I got rid of In Watermelon Sugar actually, now that I think about it. American Psycho is just too brutal and violent, and Let the Right One In is too bloody for my current taste and disposition.
Other books I would not re-read for similar reasons:
>The Road
>Blood Meridian
>Pet Sematary
>The Shining
>Less Than Zero

>>19697760
Let's see your essay, autist.

>>19697765
I don't remember Pet Sematary being that fucked, is it worse than I remember?

>>19697775
It's not an *especially* fucked in the head book, however when I was reading it at age 17 the last part where Louis is exhuming Gage's grave scared the shit out of me. Plus it's overall a depressing book, which is quite boring until the last third actually.

>>19697031
FALSE
the midwit take is "it was all in his head".
There are plenty of clues in the book (and movie) that point to the murders actually happening, what gives the impression that it never happened was that no one actually knows who anyone else is, and everyone is interested in looking the other way or are too self absorbed to notice.

>>19697741
some people get filtered and annoyed that 75% of the book is just descriptions of different identical wool suits.

>>19698775
Midwit pseudbabble invented by people that despise humanity and cannot muster an ounce of empathy towards someone who has been alienated his whole life and wears a mask in public to cope.
The book's real meat and meaning is found in the chapters focused on Bateman's relationships with his family, and his messy connections to Jean and Luis.

>>19698854
lel

>>19695023
aw, Bret 'i hated something so i wrote a book about it' Ellis, neat.

>>19697765
Not trying to be rude, but did you have a breakdown or something? Sounds like early onset schizophrenia

>>19698854
This reads like a reddit post

Hallucinations and actual murdering are both confirmed by the Author retards.

>>19695023
The rat up the cooter was plagiarized from 120 Days of Sodom.

>>19695023
I thought it was kind of tedious at points
Worth the read though

>>19697765
you're kind of a pussy aren't you? no offense
American psycho I can understand but most of the others aren't that bad

dubs checkem

>>19700082
Nice get bro. Check this out

>>19695208
I fucking love that Bono scene

Dubs

>>19699602
being scared by things that are deliberately scary isn't schizophrenia

>>19699602
Not him but I am getting more sensitive to violence in media. Is this a sign of schizophrenia?

>>19700233
No, it's pretty normal. When you're younger you don't think too deeply about that sort of thing, and how it relates to your own mortality.
I used to watch all kinds of IRL gore when I was in my early teens (curiosity and edginess) but I can't look at that shit anymore, not even close.

>>19699654
Says the redditspacer, and anyways I don't care what the author says outside of the book.

>>19700067
>>19700226
I think it's a sign of maturity, honestly.

>>19700082
>>19700158
Pathetic, THIS is how you do it.

>>19695155
The movie is better than the book