/lit/ - Literature

>>4969740
meh

omg so edgy

>>4969740
The movie brought too many plebs.

Not OP but I'm considering reading this. I don't give a fuck about being edgy, memes, and all of that. Can people just give honest opinions and elaborate a little bit more than "meh" or "so edgy" please?

It's actually pretty good despite being popular and liked on reddit.

>>4969763
I'd say the movie is better and probably Christian Bale's best performance, but that's just me. The books is more violent if that's your thing though.

>>4969798
The movie was saved by his performance. It's pretty impressive how the writers managed to wrangle a faithful and coherent screenplay out of the source material. The thing that really holds the movie back however is the direction and cinematography are so goddamn lackluster and the small budget didn't really do it any favors.

>>4969755
ya know, i think it actually did edgy right.
it's hard now-a-days to make something edgy, without people scoffing at it. but american psycho was damn well entertaining, and even written pretty well.
can't you appreciate good edge anymore, anon?

It's a bit of a twist on the classic great-gatsby type alienation-from-the-self-because-of-society thing. The twist involving horrible violence, a dab of meta, and a sense of freedom with the medium.

One of the most interesting things about it is it's introduced early on that Bateman hallucinates, and the contradictions that have racked up by the end show that hallucination was involved in a lot of the narrative. This is almost like fiction on two different levels. On top of it having no impact on our reality, we have no way of knowing how much impact it has in the reality of the fiction itself. However, the only reality of the novel as we know it is Bateman's narrative, so in a sense it points out the weirdness of thinking there are things that Bateman is getting "wrong" or "right" when we'll never know what "really" happened, because none of this "really" happened, because it's a fictional story.

>>4969832
Also has some really funny stuff, like seemingly pointless sex+murder scenes followed by equally pointless seeming six-page discussions of an 80s pop artist's career and influence. There are scenes like this, which are remarkable because they're so forgettably useless that they become memorable. It's the superficiality that fiction's been talking about for a while that Ellis amps up to 11, and rather than telling or showing, he /does/, and he does it dark and weird and hilarious. It's like if David Lynch painted his interpretation of one of Renoir's really upbeat, colorful crowds of people, and gave them uncanny-valley-ass surreal faces, half of them are in an ambiguous state of either having fun or being murdered, that kind of thing.

>>4969832
I like your rabbit

>>4969904
thx

>>4969892
It's social commentary on more cocaine than is necessary, dealing out little hints and details on a lot of different levels, and the contrast of subtle themes and hilariously over the top scenes (re: Satan talking to Bateman through Bono at a U2 concert) makes for a stark and textured read. Would definitely recommend.

It also has one of the most interesting endings of any piece of fiction I've ever read, and that the movie couldn't possibly have replicated, that I'll leave for you to find.

>>4969755
shut up you contrarian

It is really quite a funny book.

>>4969832
>>4969892
>>4969927
Thank you, put into words what I could not.
Also yeah it sports one of my favorite ending lines of all time.

i agree emotions are finite. people grow weary. first love is almost the most amazing sensation ever.

>>4969740
I'm currently on page 43 and I like it so far. The book was kinda hard to get into but that might be cause I'm not a native speaker.

>thisthreadagain.mkv

>>4969758
the movie was good,really good. the book is decent because it is so horrible. he's a hack.

>>4969798
>>4969808
this, though i think the director did a good job, as did the cinematographer

>>4969824
>written well
>no

Let's see if we can find meaning in AP by breaking down the name of the protagonist, Patrick Bateman. I believe Ellis intends this name to be read as a homophone, making the main character a bait man. The absurdly comic amount of time and effort B spends arranging to dine with others starts to make sense in this context. Yet, Bait denotes not only food used as a lure but also a deadly substance used to kill vermin. The most memorable murder scene in the novel, which I won't make any more explicit for the sake of those who have not yet read AP, contains several elements that support the idea that the author intends the reader to think of PB's actions as being gruesome yet beneficial.

In this context, the popular music that Bateman delights in listening to is another form of bait that draws his attention away from his work and serves to help him lure victims.

Will explicate / elaborate further for money.
Getting sleepy now.

>>4969763
It is entry level. My friend enjoyed it. He also like Slaughter-house Five. He liked it a lot. So if you liked that book go for it.

One of the first books I've read, I liked it very much.
Don't give a shit about irrelevant terms like "edgy", give it a try.

I enjoyed it, the movie too.
Check 'em.

>>4971955
I can't believe it took us this long to become a dubs thread

>>4970101
care to elaborate?

>>4970101

>>4969740
American Psycho is a horrible, obscene novel for white trash who think they're smart and educated (i.e. "edgy plebs").
Patrick Bateman is an excellent character that deserves a better writer.

>>4970362
>thinking stuff until page 43 is relevant
>so pure and innocent

>>4969758
The movie was 100x better than the book, and having an actor that understood Bateman (sans the homosex) made the character more believable, and injecting a more accessible dark humor vibe. The movie made the social cynicism and social observations much clearer than the book ever did.
I'd never read the book again, but I'll watch the movie 10 more times before I die.

>>4972499
Reading/looking at obscenity (4chan) is what makes them think they're so enlightened. "Fuk middle class morality" ect. This is so easy.

I skipped all three music chapters

>>4972526
I don't know, I'm older than most people here and 4chan didn't even exist when I read this book.
But since this book had a lot of success in the 90's, you can tell many people were like that before 4chan; people who were perfectly normal and "nice" in every other matter, which was somewhat frightening. They told you to read that book, without any warning, like it's your regular Umberto Eco novel.

>>4971374
so much this. it's like the people that praise bukowski.
>a semi-decent story is useless with shit writing.

>>4972499
i disagree. i think it's for dumb, educated people who don't want responsibility
Patrick Bateman is an excellent character that deserves a better writer.
do not, cannot, disagree

>>4972536
those are the only coherent chapters. moreover, i could be biased; i love whitney, huey & the news, and collins

>>4972560
>4chan didn't even exist when I read this book
so? you're just nostalgia'ing because you're older
just because someone pioneered something doesn't really matter in the here and now
someone was gonna do it eventually and now it's been done
mone on

>>4972583
>dumb, educated
i like you

>>4972587
*move

>>4972587
You missed my point; do you feel nostalgia thinking about the moment where you missed my point?

>>4972526
angsty teens have always been against the middle class teachings. now it's the techno-intellectual, then it were the punks in the eighties, hippies in the sixties, et cetera. only difference now is the praise and worship of mediocrity, though that's been on a slow incremental rise for decades, technologies have helped mediocrity into scripture while suppressing genius.

>>4972560
people have always loved gore, being scared, whatever. is that, too, frightening? why would it need a warning to read a novel?
>did you just compare a good writer to B.E.E

>>4972595
>me, or my comment?
did you understand what i meant? i went to school with fucking idiots, not all of them mind you but many. i don't know how this many people are allowed at uni, money speaks.

>american psycho thread
>hardly any repeating integers in sight

Let me fix that.

>>4972678
So sorry.

>nobody ITT getting dubs
If dubs AP is the greatest novel of the 20th century and everyone who disagrees will die of shit taste

>>4972721
here are some trips

>>4972778
so close

This book is popular tonight

this thread
>dead/dying

other thread
>shit

>>4972817
maybe some dubs can revitalize this thread

Bret Easton Ellis is a boring little shit on his podcast ill say tahat

>>4973055
:)

>>4973055
>>4973066
>>4973077
checked

>>4973077
uwot8

>>4973111
>A way a lone a last a loved a long the

>>4973100
>riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

>>4973111
>>4973100
>>4973077
>>4973066
>>4973055
>>4972799

what is this wizardry

>>4973116
It's 5:55 is it magix?

>>4970535
I've always thought it's a reference to Norman Bates, the killer from Hitchcock's Psycho. I can't really substantiate that interpretation with evidence / parallels because I haven't seen the film, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't the intention, given the title of the novel.

>>4973251

I thought that too until I read his earlier work (Patrick's brother Sean is one of the main characters of The Rules of Attraction - Patrick even has a brief cameo near the end with no readily apparent indicator of his nature).

>>4973100
>>4973111
what the fuck is this shit
I think we just got Joyce'd

>>4972648
But people talk about this vulgar novel like it's the ultimate masterpiece of modern literature... No one says that "Saw" is the most ambitious or most influential film of our time.

>>4973100
>>4973111

You know the aura of the movie you just watched that lingers on for some time after you've watched it, American psycho just doesn't leave that, it leaves an imprint on your mind. The brutality of the emotional and visual extremes just leaves such a huge impact on your senses, it's an amazing experience. Despite the extremism, the beauty of it lies in the subtleties. The intricate details are explained, for example the brands of face wash he uses, how he describes every little step in the beginning about he likes to take care of his body. And most of all, how elegantly they subdue every single extremity at the end and the brutality ends, with his lawyer. The subtle extreme. The lies we live, the outrageous lies we live are nothing when compared to how day by day the truth seeps out of our lives. Sublime yet bombards you with extremities. Sums up our society. Sums up humanity.

>>4973572
Very few people talk about American Psycho like it's the ultimate masterpiece of modern literature.

Shut the fuck up.

>>4973100
>>4973111