Do you have a link? Or the name of the short story collection?
I tried google but I cant find it, only Bret's response.
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The New Yorker publishes savage takedown of Bret Easton Ellis disguised as a normal interview
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I tried google but I cant find it, only Bret's response.
I call this "White Male-itis". And yes, it's both rampant and insidious.
he's really amazing, the BHL interview was something else
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/bernard-henri-levy-on-the-rights-of-women-and-of-the-accused
Just read this. There was no sense of self-reflection on BHL's part. The blatant hypocrisy on display was insane!
I dunno man. I kinda like dumbasses being called out for there stupidity. Just like in this interview.
Yup.
Except he writes a book on politics while others should shut up between voting.
I enjoyed what I read from Ellis, had no idea what he'd gotten into. Cheers to the New Yorker though
I was looking for this earlier but it took me a while to find it, because as I say I will not tire of this dude getting clowned on:
https://www.bookforum.com/inprint/0...M-3oV5Ky0jy30NB8Yl6Y7z36rFHCnrMyi-L59cSj0lPtc
https://www.bookforum.com/inprint/0...M-3oV5Ky0jy30NB8Yl6Y7z36rFHCnrMyi-L59cSj0lPtc
He's the guy who did the book about people angry over business cards
Could not imagine wanting to read Brett Easton Ellis' real thoughts on the real world.... BEE should 100% keep away from non fiction lol
Yeah i'd like this as well. Been looking for it but can't find it.
What really is funny is the end quote there:
"It's interesting to have that back-and-forth pull in an interview. The only problem, however, is that I am not that political, and so, when we have this conversation, and you confront me with certain things like this, I really am, I have to say, at a loss. "
Really he made a ton of political statements and when confronted he actually turns out be a moron who has no fucking idea what he is talking about.
"It's interesting to have that back-and-forth pull in an interview. The only problem, however, is that I am not that political, and so, when we have this conversation, and you confront me with certain things like this, I really am, I have to say, at a loss. "
Really he made a ton of political statements and when confronted he actually turns out be a moron who has no fucking idea what he is talking about.
OP
OP
My new favorite hobby is watching this man get dunked on using almost exclusively his own words
It's a masterpiece. The "interminable, vacuous descriptions of meaningless shit" are intentional. They illustrate the shallow materialism that consumes Patrick Bateman's personality. In the novel, Bateman's idol is Donald Trump, which is fitting.
I don't understand why Bret Easton Ellis has embraced the culture he appeared to be critiquing with his novel.
What the fuck happened to BEE? He used to be a satirist who sometimes injected himself into his work as a way of showing he's willing to hold himself accountable for some of the many horrible behaviors he lampoons in his writing. Then he goes off the deep end by writing a non fiction book titled "white", which would imply an attempt at directing satire at things like white privilege and how it leads to emotional fragility and the luxury of political apathy. But instead of presenting it as clever satire by, say, finding humor in playing devils advocate for such behaviors, he reveals himself in an interview to be the exact thing he sets out to make fun of. I know, some will try to try to say, "but wait, is it possible he's just owning a persona for the purposes of creating a hilarious and provocative interview that embodies the themes of his nove...erm, memoirs in microcosm?" Are you fucking serious? That's just not possible. Real truth to power humor is about loudly proclaiming your righteous political stance, not playing around with a reader's subjective reality tunnels for the purpose of provoking laughter for those in the know, anger for those who are the target of the joke and thought/reflection for those confused by it. I know I haven't met the guy or learned much about his personal life beyond what he presents to the public or whatever, but its clear from that interview alone that he's a fucking terrible, irrelevant person who's incapable of being an effective absurdist anymore. Fuck him.
Does irony chelation involve closing out one's twitter account and going off to frolic be stern in the woods as in the style of Thoreau?
From the Andrea Long Chu review posted a little further up, I got some info about this book that seems incredible.
BEE's analysis of American Psycho is absurd. The text of American Psycho has none of this.
You know that thing with white male anti-heroes where everyone interprets these awful and vile people as heroes despite everything about the work telling you that's not the case? Bret Easton Ellis has bought into that for a novel he wrote. He is literally getting played by his own creation.
EDIT: One more thing about that review. For as scathingly as it ends, the author remarked on twitter that the original ending was basically so brutal it had to be removed. Given what the rest of that article is, I would absolutely love to see the one that was cut.
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At his best, he had a Didion-like unflinching journalistic eye and detachment that gave his morality tales a real sense of truth. The problem is his narcissism prevents him from delivering anything with more depth than essentially wagging his finger while standing on the precipice of complete nihilism. It ruined Glamorama, and prevented Lunar Park from being something truly revelatory. His current brand of social commentary, since his Post-Empire period, is such a obvious plea to be awarded the title of iconoclast that I'm not sure why he's even granted interviews anymore. Like, who gives a shit?
It's been quoted before but I had to quote this part near the end again....utter brilliance:
"BEE: I think I am an absurdist. I think politics are ridiculous.
Interviewer: Maybe don't write a book about it. Would that be the solution?
BEE: I think the problem is that I don't necessarily see this as interesting as fiction.
Interviewer: Yeah, I could tell."
Oh my god.
"BEE: I think I am an absurdist. I think politics are ridiculous.
Interviewer: Maybe don't write a book about it. Would that be the solution?
BEE: I think the problem is that I don't necessarily see this as interesting as fiction.
Interviewer: Yeah, I could tell."
Oh my god.
Ellis has been steadily in decline ever since his screenwriting ambitions resulted in one turd of a film after another, and it's obvious reading this interview that he has talked himself into a corner in his determination to avoid taking any sort of genuine, impassioned stance. If he was so weary of how high pitched political discourse has become in this country, he'd do the rest of us a service by keeping his mouth shut, but it's clear that he's rather just annoyed at being inconvenienced with other people's experiences with marginalization, persecution, oppression, and bigotry — the fucking nerve of these separated families and abused minorities and those advocating on their behalf!
His boyfriend is also embarrassingly centrist-Democrat too. Can't criticize precious Joe Biden being too intimate in his interactions with other people clearly uncomfortable being fondled, smooched, and sniffed, that's just #MeToo going TOO FAR! But everyone he knows finds sexual harassment and assault abhorrent. Don't forget, Bret Easton Ellis doesn't care what anyone thinks, which is why he wrote a whole series of essays emphatically saying so over and over while complaining about how shrill liberals and progressives are.
What a hack.
His boyfriend is also embarrassingly centrist-Democrat too. Can't criticize precious Joe Biden being too intimate in his interactions with other people clearly uncomfortable being fondled, smooched, and sniffed, that's just #MeToo going TOO FAR! But everyone he knows finds sexual harassment and assault abhorrent. Don't forget, Bret Easton Ellis doesn't care what anyone thinks, which is why he wrote a whole series of essays emphatically saying so over and over while complaining about how shrill liberals and progressives are.
What a hack.
At this point, are we sure it was a satire and not a love letter?
It's like the Hulk Hogan tweet about jabroni marks with the added irony that Patrick Bateman is the exact kind of guy who would fund Hulk's lawsuit against Gawker
But BEE is the one who repeated the "I'm not that political" line, I don't know what you're getting at here...
i knew there was something off about Ellis when i discovered his twitter a few years ago. disappointing, as at the time i'd just finished American Psycho for the first time and considered it a very solid book. reading this interview is making me wonder whether some of that shit was even meant satirical in the first place.
Fun little fact for y'all because this stood out to me: In the interview, he's quoted 10 (11 if you count a quote from a previous interview) times saying "I don't know".
I've always found people who use "I don't know" as a deflection to be incredibly insightful.
I've always found people who use "I don't know" as a deflection to be incredibly insightful.
I'm not who you quoted, but the title story from Girl with Curious Hair is a parody of BEE's affectless style. There's also an interview DFW did (I think it's the Charlie Rose one, which should be on YouTube) where he criticises the cynical, minimalist writing of the late-80s/early-90s and uses American Psycho as an example. He basically calls it a nasty book, with no positive message.
Tbh nothing he said about BEE was that inflammatory--it's basically just tied to his own philosophy of writing, and given how BEE was a minimalist while DFW's magnum opus is 1000+ pages it shouldn't be a surprise they don't see eye-to-eye artistically. Those few, minor comments really hurt BEE though, to the point where he doesn't miss an opportunity to rant about DFW decades later. It all seems tied to his own anxiety of literary success and the fact his own literary celebrity was so brief in contrast to DFW's. Which isn't to suggest that DFW is beyond criticism (his behaviour was often reprehensible and needs calling out), just that BEE seems to be constantly lashing out from a place of professional jealousy.
This piece is a ton of fun, and my favorite bit has to be:
"a man who is surely 70 percent dinner" is an absolutely lovely turn of phrase.
Nothing happened to him. He's always been this, it's just that what he is was, until recently, so fucking ridiculous to normal thinking people that he was assumed to be writing satire. The slow dawning horror of the modern lit world as they realized American Psycho wasn't intended as a satire of Reagan's America but was pretty much just what Ellis thought about life was very entertaining at the time it was happening. Now not so much.
fantastic, what a dingdong. btw the same interviewer had a pretty brutal one with Donna Brazille RE her taking a job at Fox a couple weeks back:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/donna-brazile-explains-why-she-is-working-for-fox-news
American Psycho is genuinely fantastic and still works as a teardown of obsessed, narcissistic, materialistic masculinity being unable to confront itself so it turns outward in a bid to destroy what it sees as its rightful possessions, namely women.
I would never have believed for a second the same person who wrote it gave that interview. Jesus, what a downfall.
I would never have believed for a second the same person who wrote it gave that interview. Jesus, what a downfall.
She talks like Trump, constantly self aggrandizing. People like this think they're unfathomably brilliant, but when they talk they don't sound intelligent at all and everything they say is just hapless babbling to try and make themselves sound as awesome as they think they are.
And to think I was a fan of his work in my teenage years. That was before I realized he was just as shitty as the characters he portrays.
Now we know he was writing from experience. And that Donna Brazile quote. Wow.
Thanks for sharing. There was some masterful journalism at work here. It is interesting to see how these self proclaimed "centrist" pretend to be neutral, but show that they are indeed being political. Ignoring to answer or give answers to things they are reacting to. Sure maybe he is "just" horrible idiot, but I feel like there is also something sinister at play where you pretend to not care so you can have this "moral" high ground for being "sensitive".
It is okay to give predators and bad people the benefit of doubt, but not their victims! It is sad that we people think that the personal experiences we have, are universal for everyone. It is quite hurtful for us white men to attempt to empathize with others or accept any wrong doings. Our poor consciousness!
It is okay to give predators and bad people the benefit of doubt, but not their victims! It is sad that we people think that the personal experiences we have, are universal for everyone. It is quite hurtful for us white men to attempt to empathize with others or accept any wrong doings. Our poor consciousness!
It's like he literally isn't listening to himself. He acts like his views are new and insightful but he doesn't know shit in the end by his own fucking admission. He feels he's fit to admonish people's actual empathy and effort to change our culture simply because he's never been told, or rather never internalized it when he was, that his weak, uninformed opinions don't fucking matter.
You've never seen American Psycho? At the very least I'd expect most people to be at least tangentially familiar with Ellis from that movie.
It's probably fading from relevance, since it hasn't been rebooted recently.