/lit/ - Literature

>>6580030

A great book. A lot of the social critique seems like claptrap, but that's purely the nature of the beast. Artists often just say what everyone else is thinking. This book is great because he did it in a really fun and interesting way.

>>6580030
http://www.amazon.com/American-Psycho-Bret-Easton-Ellis/product-reviews/0679735771

>>6580030
I liked the movie, haven't gotten around to the book yet since I'm trying to simultaneously read Infinite Jest and Ulysses to complete the meme trilogy.

>>6580044
>>6580046

what do you think of theory that Bateman is secretly a closeted gay? i read a theory on it yesterday, and it's quite difficult to reject tbh when you read the guys evidence.

https://italkyoubored.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/american-psycho-maybe-not-the-book-you-think-it-is/

>>6580074
You mean he was part of that whole yale thing?

BEE is just a third rate copycat of Delillo
pretty good podcast tho

It's like Babbitt but if he was a psychopathic cokehead

>>6580074
I didn't read the entire article, and I'm not sure whether or not it covers this, but you know Brett Easton Ellis is gay right? That doesn't necessarily make the character gay, but of course the writing was charged with his negative emotions towards his sexuality and towards his father.

>>6580030
iconic book that captured in an obtuse way the culture and identity of the high class in the american empire.

his other books try to tackle the same subject from different angles (the title of one of his books is literally "imperial bedrooms"), but i don't think they panned out. american psycho was just at the right place and right time.

here are some objectively incorrect reactions to the book (i have posted this before):

>Pat Bateman is such an alpha male I want to be just like him

>What a great satire of yuppie culture. I always knew those wall street types were morally devoid and superficial.

>Whoah Ellis is so edgy and transgressive, he really showed those politically correct feminists what art is really about! Hope to see more books like this in the future.

>Wall Street serial killer. What a hook! John Grisham wish he had a premise like this

its funny that american psycho and fight club became benchmarks for masculinity when the authors are obviously ridiculing such notions. tyler durden and patrick bateman are not actually role models, they're the opposite. gl have fun if ur gonna try to be them tho

>>6580880
wait i get how people would put up tyler durden as a role model but how in the fuck would anyone look up to Patrick Bateman?

>>6581324
>Rich
>Has a job
>Nice suit

>>6580030
the violence parts disgusted me quite a bit, and the sexual parts actually turned me on.
What are other books that have gotten you erect while reading?

>>6580880
>the title of one of his books is literally "imperial bedrooms"
It's the title of an Elvis Costello song. He has another book, Less Than Zero, which is also an Elvis Costello song.

>>6580030
>tuna cappuccino
>salmon au lait

>>6580030
Garb. Read better books instead.

entry level /lit/ boy here. reading this, its good. i like it

what do you suggest after i finish this? i am literally a complete noob to books

>>6581598
This is my preferred lit starter kit.

>>6581540
Lolita.

>>6580686
>implying anyone on /lit/ has ever read Babbitt

>>6581700
Yeah, there is another /lit/ starter kit but it's trash in comparison. This one is actually very good. Lolita can be a very challenging read for beginners though. I certainly had a hard, but rewarding time with it

>>6581841
really? Lolita is high school literature

>>6581841
the other one is more high school classics tier. This one takes more into account /lit/ culture I think

>>6581852
What fucking highschool class reads a book about a man fucking a child across America?

>>6581864
>mfw you're a male english teacher assigning 13-14 year old highschool girls to read lolita

>>6581863
Which makes this one more a /lit/ starter kit, whereas the other one is just a reading starter kit.

All else aside, the book and movie adaptation both do an excellent job of displaying the thought processes of psychopaths (speaking from experience), even if they were a bit exaggerated.

>>6581835

I've read Babbitt, and he's right, though American Psycho is the more perfect novel.

>>6581540
>What are other books that have gotten you erect while reading?
Naked Lunch
actually any of Burroughs' gay rape/snuff stuff
weird part is I'm hetero in real life

>>6583695
hmm i can't deny i've had a little pulse run through my dick when i've saw a couple of seconds of gay porn. But thats probably because I'm a sex addict, only had sex with women and i dont think i will actively seek out to have sex with a man anytime soon.

>>6580030
the movies good, the books trash

>>6581700
Is there a convenient place somewhere where I can download this entire set like a lazy fuck I am?

>>6581540

>What are other books that have gotten you erect while reading?

incest stories on literotica
I've literally taken adderall and spent like 30 hours reading incest stories and masturbating. possibly the most shameful thing I've ever done in my life.

>>6583814
But did you feel really good while at it?

>>6582285
>speaking from experience

>>6580880
I don't see how American psycho isn't at least partially a satire of empty yuppie culture. care to explain?

>>6580880
Bonus points for the fact that Ellis and Palahniuk are both gay, so fedoras and Chads look up to kinda-gay books written by gay dudes as a means of having masculine role models

>>6583695
Wow, so glad I'm not alone. The cafe with holes in the chairs for slaves to rim you while you talk to your mates and the Arab dude's sex party were weirdly arousing to me. Also the anus-typewriter bugs in the movie

>>6585023
>I have to say the same thing about Patrick Bateman. He was crazy the same way. He did not come out of me sitting down and wanting to write a grand sweeping indictment of yuppie culture. It initiated because my own isolation and alienation at a point in my life. I was living like Patrick Bateman. I was slipping into a consumerist kind of void that was supposed to give me confidence and make me feel good about myself but just made me feel worse and worse and worse about myself.

http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2010/07/qa_bret_easton_ellis_talks_abo.html

Just like when I read "Fight Club", it was a nice read, but the movie is better. Both movies cut off the unnecessary bullshit. I am quite the transgressive-fiction junkie so I automatically enjoyed American Psycho. The movie itself is my 4th favourite movie ever, with even "Ex-Drummer" as the 2th. The thing is that people think of American Psycho with all the wrong interpretations. Some think that it is some kind of "how to treat women" manual by Ellis, when we are dealing with a character who has being a fucking psychopath as his most prevalent trait, and some think of it as such a cool slasher movie because Pat kills women and people and all. I like to re-watch this one eventually because it's a fun movie, and there is quite the character-study about Patrick Bateman, which is one of the best characters ever written to be into the head of in a stream-of-consciousness way. I know he can be boring and repetitive with the descriptions of clothing and food and all, and he is shallow as fuck, but in the end this just shows how it affects negatively his personality and mentality. Maybe not a necessary read, and the people I showed the movie to didn't like it 100% either, but if you are not an outsider to the genre who is able to understand transgressive-fiction and a decent ambiguous narrative and character study about psychopathy, definitively a worthy film.

>>6585105
>>6585105
So he wrote about the evils of slipping into a consumerist void, which wound up being a solid indictment of yuppie culture regardless of his intentions.

>>6585105
>muh author's intentions