/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.555375]

I think it's about time we had a serious discussion about this great book. How does /lit/ feel about it?

I used to think A Clockwork Orange was gruesome. Then I read this. Makes A Clockwork Orange look like a childrens book.

[Anonymous No.555382]

Never read and I never will. You guys like it and that's a world class red flag that it's shit.

[Anonymous No.555399]

op should read some de Sade. He isn't any good but he takes cruelty to it's logical extreme and should keep you faggots from amazement about authors such as Ellis.

[Anonymous No.555403]

Ok, Taylor.

[Anonymous No.555401]

See /lit/ loves this cover yet there's nowhere to buy it, the only one available for sale is the one with realbateman face on it

[Anonymous No.555428]

>>555399

OP here, where should I start?

[Anonymous No.555575]

>>555428
120 Days of Sodom is his most widely read work

[Anonymous No.557436]

>Live in Australia
>Go to bookstore
>Look around for American Psycho
>After awhile of fruitless searching i decide to ask for help
>She just laughs into my face


>American Psycho is banned in my state

[Anonymous No.557441]

>>557436
You live in Australia, what do you expect?

[Anonymous No.557449]

>>557441

Yeah i'm also into vidya...but at least i can just download the video games they ban. Although i could download the book online...it's not the same as reading it in my hands.

[Anonymous No.557451]

>>557449
true facts

[Anonymous No.557452]

>>555575
120 Days of Sodom is boner material. Especially as someone who browses 4chan.

[Anonymous No.557453]

Felt queasy while reading what Bateman did to that homeless dude...

[Anonymous No.557469]

Sorry to hijack, but:

http://www.popcrunch.com/the-10-most-disturbing-books-of-all-time/

What are your thoughts /lit/? Good list?

[Anonymous No.557471]

>>557469

no one cares GTFO ---------------->

[Anonymous No.557472]

>>557469
if it's not from cracked, it's not a list.

[Anonymous No.557485]

>>557436
>American Psycho is banned in a first-world country.

I'd say it's shocking that any book is b& there, but there are probably a few here too. Is the movie banned?

[Anonymous No.557487]

>>557485
approximately 50% of everything is banned in Australia.

[Anonymous No.557491]

>>557485
What 1st world country are you from, besides Australia, that actually bans books?

[Anonymous No.557494]

>>557485
If by "here" you mean America, no. There hasn't been a book banned here for decades.

[Anonymous No.557493]

>>557485

No you can watch the film, it isn't as graphic in detail as the novel. But it's not too shocking. Australia bans a lot of content. Their government is even considering censoring their internet...something only countries like China and Iraq have done.

[Anonymous No.557513]

>>557491
Canada. I've heard that there are a handful of (auto)biographies by our own and foreign spies that are contraband. Apparently they discuss information that isn't intended to be public yet. Also there are some books that can't be brought through customs, fictional mostly, that are "objectionable" because they incite discrimination, mostly. We have a human rights tribunal that can basically overrule the law courts for some reason. I know, what the fuck. But usually they find other problems to keep their panties in knots.

[Anonymous No.557525]

You guys are always talking about this book. Just be dobe with it.

[Anonymous No.557527]

>>557525
*done

[Anonymous No.557533]

In this day and age wouldn't trying to ban a book just make it more attractive to people? I seriously doubt you could do anything to keep it out of people's hands unless you happen to be in South Korea or some shit.

[Anonymous No.557536]

>>557533
Please tell me you meant North Korea.

[Anonymous No.557549]

>>557536
Yes, I did. I suck cocks. I meant that from the perspective that probably about 5 international packages a year get sent to private individuals in NK so uh, yeah, that'd be controllable. Most of the 1st and 2nd world, probably not so much.

[Anonymous No.557568]

>>557436

what if you just buy it on amazon.com or something and have it shipped there? would it get picked up in customs?

[Anonymous No.557572]

>>557568

More likely than not it wouldn't. If it did get picked up it would simply mean you don't get your book. You're not going to jail or anything.

[Anonymous No.557672]

>>557572

I'm giving it a year. Then ordering American Psycho in Australia will give you 6 months of jailtime.

[Anonymous No.557803]

>>557572
>If it did get picked up it would simply mean you don't get your book.

No, you would face prosecution for possession of an illegal book. The fact you bought it online and had it shipped in from overseas would just reinforce the fact you knew it was illegal.

[Anonymous No.557842]

Isn't American Psycho only banned in Queensland? In SA it's restricted to people aged 18 and older.

[Anonymous No.557859]

>>555399

de Sade is fucking HORRIBLE.
"Justine, or Good Conduct Well Chastised" must have been, by far, the most pointless piece of literature i have ever read in my entire life (and having my BA in English literature and linguistics kind of helps you get a better idea of my opinion).
Eastos Ellis, on the other hand, fucking rips!

[Anonymous No.557866]

>>557803

I don't pretend to know the laws of every country, so somewhere in the world, what you write might be true.

However, in more civilized countries, your shit simply gets sent back and you might receive an angry letter saying it was illegal to import. This is even true for thing like pharmaceuticals that are scheduled in the US but not in other places. Package returned to sender, angry letter sent to recipient, the end.

[Anonymous No.558243]

I'm Australian, and I ordered American Psycho from the Book Depository US a few weeks ago. This is the first I've heard of it being banned anywhere here, but it really wouldn't fucking surprise me.

Also, the whole internet censorship thing is so morally reprehensible that I shit myself.

[Anonymous No.558260]

>>555399

Oh, yeah, Sade definitely employs violence to highlight the shallowness and consummerism of the 1980s.

Totally valid comparison there, bro.

[Anonymous No.558265]

Ellis made so much money with this.

[Anonymous No.558288]

>>555375

In answer to your question OP. I loved it. Not at first, but thinking back on it, it is a much better book than I first percieved. Whether it was watching the film aswell or just the book itself, but I thought it was great.

Being a big Ellis fan, I love everything he does, and I don't care if people find his work shoddy, I enjoy it greatly.

IMO Glamorama and Lunar Park are his best work.

[Anonymous No.558299]

The problem with American Psycho is that it's marketed as literary fiction, but it's utterly devoid of any kind of "literary" merit. It lives and dies on shock value. There's nothing wrong with reading and enjoying it, but what gets on my nerves is when people hold it up as an example of an "important" book, which I do see fairly often.

[Anonymous No.558311]

>>558299

The only way it is really important is it was a fairly "mainstream" novel released, and over hyped with its brutality. Also female activists felt it offensive. Giving it even more press. Certain scenes in Glamorama were alot more brutal, but this wasn't picked up on due to the nature of the book being different (LOL MODEL ASSASSINS!)

[svenska tiger No.558375]

>>557859
justine is a fairly lame attempt at being voltaire, 120 days however will make you yawn where you're expected to be shocked in american psycho.

[Anonymous No.558398]

I find the popularity of this book/movie to be disturbing. Masculinity in western culture is in such turmoil that young men are drawn to sociopathic tendencies.

[Anonymous No.558399]

>>558398
I agree with your concerns about masculinity.

[Anonymous No.558400]

>>558398

Young men have always been drawn to transgression. It gets you laid.

[Anonymous No.558409]

>>558400
No it doesn't. If you are comparing the sorrows of young wether or notes from the underground to american psycho (young men were always drawn to transgression) that's just dumb. Maybe you're on to something if you mean De Sade, but to my knowledge his work was never such a cultural phenom as this book. At any rate, masuclinity in the west, because it is lacking adequate rites of passage, because it is material and not spiritual, because the models for it given are based around crassness and material wealth--imbibes young men with insecurity just as much as young women are repressed by sexism--and what's more the problem of sexism against women is a topic of popular discussion--but young men are not understood to be suffering from patriarchy just as much--so you see the popularity of this book and people who think family guy is funny when that fat fuck hits his wife...ad nauseum

[Anonymous No.558412]

>>555375
I like that book.

[Anonymous No.558429]

>>558409
tl;dr GTFO

[Anonymous No.558431]

>>558429

[Anonymous No.558441]

>>558431
>>558429
samefag it's not funny if you have to laugh at your own jokes

[Anonymous No.558445]

>>558441
Not samefag. Nice try.

[Anonymous No.558446]

>>558441

[Anonymous No.558450]

Read "In the miso soup" instead

[Anonymous No.559648]

Can someone give me a damn description (something like what would be on the back of the book, maybe a bit more in depth) of a Clockwork Orange?

Wikipedia doesn't want to tell me without having me essentially read spark notes, and I can't find a description elsewhere.

[Anonymous No.559650]

Can someone give me a damn description (something like what would be on the back of the book, maybe a bit more in depth) of a Clockwork Orange?

Wikipedia doesn't want to tell me without having me essentially read spark notes, and I can't find a description elsewhere.

..

[Anonymous No.559654]

>>559650

Sorry for the double post, I refreshed and didn't see it the first time.

[Anonymous No.559659]

>>559650

a bunch of little boys are playing and they meet a nice lady who goes to sleep forever and then one of the boys goes to live with a nice man who helps him be a better person.

[Anonymous No.559666]

>>559654
if you haven't read it, you've at least seen the movie?? right? who the hell hasn't!

[Anonymous No.559679]

>>559666

No, that's why I want a fucking idea of what it's about.

[Anonymous No.559687]

>>559650

It's the movie description (from Wikipedia), but still applies:

> The film concerns Alex (Malcolm McDowell), a charismatic, psychopathic delinquent whose pleasures are classical music (especially Beethoven), rape, and ultra-violence. He leads a small gang of thugs (Pete, Georgie, and Dim), whom he calls his droogs (from the Russian друг, “friend”, “buddy”). The film tells the horrific crime spree of his gang, his capture, and attempted rehabilitation via a controversial psychological conditioning technique.

[Anonymous No.559692]

>>559650

Some dudes take drugs and rape and murder people and then they betray each other and the one who was betrayed gets made to be a nice person but he bawwws about it and then some dude tries to kill him and they make him not be a nice person any more but then he's a nice person anyway.

[Anonymous No.559694]

>>559687

Thank you, sir.

[Anonymous No.559721]

>>559692

Wow you just saved me two days thanks.

[Anonymous No.560376]

>>558299

Agree'd- but these fags on lit will cry over it forever because they want to pretend their emotionally strong or some shit.

[Anonymous No.560689]

>>560376
>their
It's "they're", you dumbass. What are you even doing on /lit/?

[Anonymous No.560857]

>>560376
>agree'd
Tell me exactly which letters that little mark before the D is replacing...

[Anonymous No.560860]

>>560857
It's a possessive D, stupid.

[Anonymous No.560868]

>>560860
>agree had
>agree would
>agree should
>agree could
>wat

[Anonymous No.560888]

>>560860
Right, I'm stupid...

>agree'd

[Anonymous No.560902]

>>560376

[Anonymous No.560915]

>>560902

[Anonymous No.560956]

>>560860
That is, without a doubt, simultaneously the funniest and stupidest thing I've heard all month. Thank you.

[Anonymous No.560957]

>>558299
So something with thematic concerns of sexuality, violence, commercialism, patriarchal influence, and sanity can't be considered literary?

How about an exercise in voice and recursive narration?

What about a touchstone in the field transgressive art, whose content was deliberately constructed to be provocative to moralistic watchdogs, leading governments and institutions to ban it?

Nah, you're right. It doesn't have girls staring out windows into the rain watching girls staring into windows out of the rain. It can't be literature.

[Anonymous No.561039]

>>560957
>content was deliberately constructed to be provocative to moralistic watchdogs, leading governments and institutions to ban it?
Making something offensive doesn't make it art. Come on, man.

>How about an exercise in voice and recursive narration?
In the service of what? A book's status as an "exercise" in some rhetorical technique doesn't qualify it as serious literature.

>So something with thematic concerns of sexuality, violence, commercialism, patriarchal influence, and sanity can't be considered literary?
This is the only one of your objections that is really worth considering. Your qualifications seem sort of shallow to me, though. Or lacking sufficient explanation at the very least.

And that's the problem with the book too. Ellis doesn't have anything interesting to say about those thematic issues you just named. The book served as an indictment of a culture that pretty much everybody already despised. Great literature doesn't just confirm your negative impressions of some part of society. To the extent that American Psycho takes any kind of stand on its thematic content, it's something along the lines of "I know, right?!?!"

As I said, I'm not telling anybody they shouldn't read it, but it's just not a serious book. At the lower-brow end of the spectrum, it's a thriller that trades in shock value. But, heading toward the opposite end of the spectrum, it doesn't amount to anything more than disgruntled masturbation.