Bret Easton Ellis and why his malevolent musings work today...

I have just started reading Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis, whose inimitable style of story telling speaks volumes to myself and many neurotic freaks like myself. The preface to the story is a first person narration by Ellis apropos to his first few published works, intermittent debauchery, being berated by feminists for American Psycho and his indifference toward his father after a bitterly volatile childhood. At one point during this seemingly acrimonious tirade, he somewhat reflected on something which I feel a lot of people can relate to; the feeling that your parent's mannerisms, views and general outlook rubs off on you to an uncomfortable level, therefore leaving you at a 4 year institution of high education surrounded by puerile dweebs with half-baked ideas/views and yourself...a young adult with the shadowing views of a 50 plus parent who has semi-retired and become fixated on neurosis. It is moments such as this, in the ramblings of an author like Ellis, that mark him as what I label an 'epiphany writer'. An epiphany writer is what I call someone that isn't so engrossed in a choc a bloc plot, but rather writing their story around their views. It is the ultimate form of narcissistic writing, wholly cathartic and undoubtedly the best. It is the sort of writing Fitzgerald would employ for his short stories (see The Smilers), beatniks authors would employ for their interminable prose (Kerouac never had a solid plot) and even George Orwell (Down and Out in Paris and London, Keep the Aspidistra Flying). Some authors can conflate both concepts and write a seemingly flawless piece of work such as with Palahniuk's Fight Club- those soaring monologues about consumerism and the marketing of a lifestyle and ultimately the marketing of a person create some pensive undertones toward the Hare Krishna's (no sense of self) and existentialism. Bret Easton Ellis has an extremely candid way of writing about his intangible subjects in his stories, with no room for leverage as far as their habits go. The more descriptive, crass, uncouth and filthy the scene can be, the better. I'm just waiting for a deep-fried tampon, freshly emerging from the hellish oil, to be shoved into a homeless woman's croaking vagina whilst amputating her gammy leg with a blunt Bic razor. Guess that scene would have been perfectly suited for Patrick Bateman's daydreams. American Psycho is the book I wish I had written. If you gave me the option of any piece of literary work, I'd claim that. Forget Salman Rushdie and his Satanic Verses and forget The Great Gatsby (which, by the way, I am fucking tired of people saying is their favourite book-see note below for mini rant on that). American Psycho for me exemplifies the angst people feel when they're at either an extremely precarious time in their life, or an exceptionally comfortable place. Either form of lifestyle has the potential to beget that feeling of aloofness from everyone and that precipice of emotional breakdown that rusts away the days into a listless time frame of "when does tomorrow start?" People will inevitably fall into a pattern of romanticizing about new friends, a different path and a re-inventive look. It is these traits that coping mechanisms such as escapism are borne out of, which Ellis encapsulates so well in American Psycho. Ellis had to employ effective undertones of misogynistic behaviour to convey Bateman's frustrations with his sycophantic girlfriend. He also had to employ the flows of volcanic violence to convey the disconcerting feelings the character is harboring in his day to day life. Anyone who is observant and introspective can relate to these feelings to a degree, unless of course, you have a 'smart' phone, a tablet, a laptop, a Netbook, a GPS, a Gigapet and a vibrator to shove up your ass at the end of this technological day of distraction (note: please try taking a uninterrupted shit next time your bowels start moaning and try to thread a worthwhile thought, rather than trying to avoid what humans are so apt at). It is in this story that Ellis continues to be such an excellent 'epiphany writer' and why early 20th century literature isn't satiating my tendencies for honest wordings of madmen. Therefore, Ellis's malevolent musings work today because they are a lot more relatable in the far-out, wide-eyed, cosmic mind fucking society that is being distracted by technology more than anything else. If you're on the outside of this numb movement to any degree, your mind will blunder into a warped reality of the sane and insane whilst the kettle boils the blood. I'm sure by the end of Lunar Park, I will have a greater respect for this revered author, whilst shedding more perspective onto my burgeoning angst in everyday life as I'm surrounded by 'the beautiful and the damned'.






See here: If you speak to the masses (yes, I know, that term is patronizing-which is why I use it), I won't say the consensus, but many people will herald and blow smoke out of their ass about how great The Great Gatsby was/is. Don't get me wrong, as far as Fitzgerald's novels go, this is an excellent one (although I prefer Tender is the Night), but the whole topic of the attainment of the American Dream, the segregation of classes with the whole East egg West egg hoopla, sounds like a the ramblings of a man who was reading the front page of a poncy newspaper whilst dipping his soldiers in literal eggs. Fuck literary analysis and all of the overtly bullish crap that is dictated regarding how this story should be perceived, because for me the best aspect of this story was a) the final monologue and b) the fact that Hunter S. Thompson emulated the entire story to grasp an understanding of Fitzgerald's formula, which I admire. As far as these teeny boppers, who claim that they understand this story and are all thrills about the ensuing re-release with Leo Dicaprio and soppy bollocks Toby Maguire, they need to go back to watching their Pretty Little Liars and continually obsess about the potential integration of vampires into society (having enough problems with immigration, don't start giving vampires any ideas). Also, what is with the reemergence of vampire culture? We had Buffy and we had a few universal flicks back in the cold war age, so why continue to torment us with Twilight, True Blood and all of these other mainstream, OMG can't wait for the sequel tripe? I personally repudiate the idea that there is any talent in that genre because it is a dead, farcical genre of been there, done that. The idea of exploiting the impressionability of younger people with good looking vampires seems to work, but teeters on the whole argument of would you fuck the vampire, or wouldn't you? Same with the ridiculous mermaid question: would you rather copulate with the top half of a woman (head, arms, torso) and bottom half fish, or would you rather copulate with the top half of a fish and the bottom half of a woman? What kind of a pointless, dead-end relationship are you in with this person who is asking such an idiotic question? What bothers me the most is that the person that poses this question is always cocksure of what the actual answer is. Obviously, in the apocalyptic situation where someone is fiercely waiving a gun at my temple and demanding I fuck this half woman/ half fish or vice versa, I'd slam the woman/fish because at least then I could do some foreplay and she has hands (I could also choke her to death, then severe her body and eat the fish part, whereas if it were the other way around, I'd be left with the fish head and what good would that be to me?). Therefore, I have no conclusion to what began as a rant about The Great Gatsby except that people who claim to love it also read 50 shades of Grey and Twilight, which implicitly implies that they have nothing exceptional to say to me.