The Works of Bret Easton Ellis

[swanflake]

I was encouraged by several people to go to Bennington College. I never even applied, because I found out that it's a popular opinion that the school has really gone downhill since the early 90s.

Someone told me that, in the 80s, celebrities would go up to Vermont to party at Bennington--when Ellis and Tartt went there. Anyone have anything to add about that?

Queequeg, I remember thinking that Sean's account was probably more accurate too. But also, IIRC, there were also contradictions between him and Lauren.

Now I want to read something by this Jay McInerney guy.

[Deleted]

Yes, I saw that in Vanity Fair . . . apparently he named his main character Bret Easton Ellis but it's not a memoir, it's just Bret being all meta and clever or something.

I read Less Than Zero and it depressed the hell out of me. I liked the movie better with it's excessive use of Bangles Songs and pretty Andrew McCarthy. I tried to read Rules of Attraction and gave up. He just doesn't do it for me.

[Hamatron]

All of this characters seem the same:
They do lots of drugs
They'll sleep with anyone of any gender in any situation
They're incapable of relating to another human being
They don't even really relate to themselves

The only character that doesn't fit this description is the Jason Bateman character from American Psycho. So in BEE's world you're either completely inane and apathetic or a psycho killer.

Even BEE seems totally bored with his novels. They just sort of end without any type of character arch. They go through things without any reflection, insight, or change. Whatever dude, try this writing thing again once you've come up with a point.

[kayti2212]

jensational said:

Yes, I saw that in Vanity Fair . . . apparently he named his main character Bret Easton Ellis but it's not a memoir, it's just Bret being all meta and clever or something.

Thank you for clearing that up! I'm in the middle of that exact book right now (Lunar Park) and it starts off as a legitimate autobiography for the first 50 or so pages, but then takes the strangest turn. It becomes somewhat of a cross between a horror story and a thriller and I started to think that there was no way that this could be real, but the blurb says to remember that 'everything that you're reading really happened' and it didn't match up with the start of the book, and just God, oh God. Bret does my head in. I was thoroughly confused, but no more.

The only other book I've read of his (and own, in fact) is American Psycho. The violence made me ill and squirmy, but I do think it's a brilliantly written book. In Lunar Park, Bret actually addresses the confusion about whether or not the murders by Patrick Bateman were real, and the answer is they were all fantasies. I love the humour of AP. All the Genesis and Whitney Houston ramblings crack my shit up. And the detailed outlining of his morning grooming ritual! So very well done.

[hobocamp]

I just finished Lunar Park, and I really did like it a lot. I bought it because I read a blurb on the back and someone called it "surprisingly mature" for BEE. I absolutely cannot stand any of his other books because they seem extremely immature and amateur, so I decided to give it a try. The first chapter is extremely meta but hilarious, and then it calms down, then turns into a House of Leaves/The Shining-type story.

I'm not so sure about the ending though. Has anyone else read this?

[Deleted]

If Mary Harron was to adapt every BEE book, I'd find the movie versions of his stuff far more palatable and far less piffling. I enjoyed American Psycho immensely for a couple of reasons: the comic moments were so spot on, as kayti2212 says, and the horrific moments were the perfect reflection, the perfect externalizing of the contempt for the rest of humanity held by self-absorbed, yuppie investment bankers (like Bateman and 90% of the jagoffs in that profession with whom I rubbed shoulders in the 80s) which (over)populated Manhattan at that time. Fifteen years later, they all worked for Enron.

The heinous violence was utterly necessary, I think, to make flesh the murder of investments and companies which they committed each day.

[huntergrayson]

I heard that Jay McInerney was mad at him (justifiably!) because BEE took one of McInerney's characters and inserted her into one of his own books. Hey! It's one thing to "play" with your own characters, but to usurp someone else's?

Didn't stop Jay from popping a total boner over teh Gay Sexe in Glamorama. (SwanFlake, you might want to buy this one...don't return dirty books to the library)

I really liked Lunar Park. A lot. I hesitate to recommend it outright to a Ellis newbie because it references all his other stuff but I think it's brilliant -- it pretty much addresses a lot of the criticisms leveled at Bret, the author, (i.e - grow up, AP was so violent, etc) and then that struggle becomes part of Bret, the character,'s journey.

Granted, neither it nor Glamorama made much logical sense, but that made them all the more terrifying while reading them. Both made me fear my own sanity - I didn't feel like I was reading about someone losing their mind - I felt like I was losing my mind.

I really want him to finish the much-ballyhooed followup to Less than Zero. My teacher recommended it my freshmen year and it made me feel sooooo LA (hey! I've been there!). And Lunar Park made me want to re-read it and I can't find my copy. Boo.

I never read anything by Jay McInerney, but I know way, way more about him than Ellis. And he's writing wine columns and Bret's still writing books. Sooo....

I can barely keep track of all the connections, but I do love that the characters all know each together -- given how often he uses the same settings, it'd be weirder if they didn't know each other, especially with the college factor.

I know he's addressed it offhandedly, but is he really suing the makers of Zoolander?

[bklynred]

I stumbled onto American Psycho in college and read it several times then; but it was also a dark time for me. Plus, I'd never read about so many products! The type of writing was so new to me. Then the abrupt shift to nutty killer; it did wow me over. The movie, although starring my husband Christian Bale (what?), could never do it justice.

[huntergrayson]

You know, I saw the movie when it came out and really liked it, but only read AP a few weeks ago -- and man, I thought it lost so much in the translation. Just stuff like the Sally Winters show and Bateman's Donald Trump obsession...and the food, my god, the food. It seemed like it was really trying to capture the mood and feel of the time.

Speaking of, I was thinking back and Glamorama was not only extremely prescient, it might be the defining novel of "now" -- a world of massive celebrity worship that's only broken by acts of violence//terrorism, not to mention a free-floating anxiety everywhere.

Yep, I love him.

[marywebgirl]

kayti2212 said:

I love the humour of AP. All the Genesis and Whitney Houston ramblings crack my shit up. And the detailed outlining of his morning grooming ritual! So very well done.

So this comment, and the fact that I love those bits from the movie, led me to buy a used copy of this to read on my upcoming trip. Is it possible to read around the more gruesome parts and just read the funnier stuff?