Hmm

I think this blog may have to be put on hold for a while...

New Book

I think we should read a play! They're shorter and I'm starting to get CRAZY busy. The only problem being plays can be really hard to find... What do some of you have easy access to? I'm assuming everyone has Shakespeare stuff but I don't know how interested people are in translating ancient runes (ok so we couls always read Harry Potter hehe).

I'll post on AP when I get more than 5 minutes to be on the computer...and it's not 7am.

VERY IMPORTANT

ALSO, can we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE have a movie screening of American Pyscho and, much much more importantly,  American Psycho 2: All American Girl starring Mila Kunis and William Shatner??  If you're not convinced, here's a dialogue sample courtesy of IMDB.com:

Rachael Newman: [after strangling Brian with a condom] Ribbed, for her pleasure. 

....Brilliant!

20th!

Tis the 20th! Is everyone finished?! I'm...not.  But I am so close and will be by tonight.  To tide you eager readers over, here are some things I've done in the last week:

1) Spent more time working and not enough time reading!

2) Become immune to intense rape and torture scenes!

So, the book! What'd you think? Things certainly do start a-moving in the last two hundred-some pages.  I'll reserve judgment until I've finished the back fifty, but I think we should start getting your comprehensive thoughts (and ideas for the next book choice?  Given what I just subjected you guys to, perhaps someone else should pick the next book).

Remembered C!

C: I think the finish date was set for the 20th

ABC, easy as 123!

Ok, so I don't have time for a long post but I wanted to address a few key points:

A: Grace, your post is funnier than the book.

B: I don't think the book is sexist and I agree that Ellis is satirizing the upper class business "yuppie," but there was something way back in the early chapters that made me think that Ellis isn't particularly fond on women... can't remember what at this point so i guess it doesn't really matter.

C: hmmm there was a C I swear...

D: Tom Cruise? I'm bad at the whole pop culture thing.

We're On a Road to Nowhere...

Loving your input so far ladies.  Admittedly, I did read only to the 105 mark, but here's my input thus far:

I agree with Em about the humor--it's one of the funniest books I've ever read, right up there with books like A Confederacy of Dunces.  Yesterday, for example, I was sitting on the quaint front porch of our cabin in Michigan with my mom when I started laughing uncontrollably.  My mom asked what was so funny, and I told her that Bateman had just told some girl at a club that he wanted to cut off her arms and dance in her blood because she can't here.  My mom's reactions was "that's so 80's."  What Ellis does best is take a character known for hyper excess and machismo and take it just that one step further than is even human, which seems to be what makes it so funny.  It's Gordon Gekko with a chainsaw.  The clothing/food descriptions are, yes, tiring to read, but I think they're kind of necessary because the book is set in the first person and that is the only way Bateman processes the world around him.  Also, part of what makes it difficult not to see the book as sexist/racist/homophobic/ageist/overall insulting is because it's in the first person, so it's impossible for us to see Bateman as anything but on top.  I take comfort in the fact that the Talking Heads would hate such a jackass.

I love what Emily said about how everyone always confuses another with one another.  There are several names that keep getting floated around of characters we never meet, we just know that they look a lot like other ancillary characters.  Even when another character confuses Bateman for someone else, he isn't remotely offended and defends the guy's mistake because they work at the same firm and wear the same clothes.  Bateman isn't trying to stand out as the top of his game, he just desperately wants to be part of the game.  

There was this really great moment in one of the many restaurants they visit in the first 100some pages that I thought was really illuminating.  They've just received the NONVINTAGE champaign from the incredibly rich acquaintance ("jackass") of theirs, and one of his friends (is it Price? I'm at work so I can't reference the book, hence the lack of names/specifics in this post- sorry!) and the friend lets drop the amount of money he makes.  It's $190k/year.  Sure that's more money than our wildest dreams, ladies, but for a world in which Manhattan apartments cost millions/year and dinner costs up to $1000 a night, well it's not nearly as much as I expected.  And yes, these men make plenty of dough and all have very fuckable secretaries and do lots of blow, but, except for the ones that have inherited multimillions  (which is a few of them, but definitely not all of them), they're closer to the upper middle class they despise than the true upper crust.  Maybe that's why Bateman tries so hard to be mistaken for other similarly dressed guys.  It's that Tom Cruise image they're going for, even though they can't quite live like him.  (Speaking of, I'd really like everyone's thoughts on the Tom Cruise scene)

I think the Les Miz motif is really funny.  When Price gets pissy about his "hick" clients wanting to see it, he expresses pride that he's seen the original in London, even though they all scoff at it for being populist.  I think I need to read more before I fully grasp at it's meaning, so everyone have at it.  

A note on sexism:  I certainly haven't decided yet whether I think that the book is sexist, but right now I'm leaning toward no.  I don' think Ellis is Bateman, I think Ellis is satirizing Bateman.  Although you have to dig through all the first person self-congratulation to get there, Bateman is ultimately a sucker.  He spends way too much money on products that are generally not worth it, and tries so hard to stay 80s young that he ices his face.  If we knew anyone who did that (or regularly got manicures/facials/fake tans), we'd die laughing at them. I think it's fair to accuse him of being an asshole and he may have inadvertently inspired a few other assholes (I think Tucker Max masturbates to the front cover of American Psycho), but I generally thinks it's wrong to blame an author for a person's reaction to a book.  If you read American Psycho and come out of it thinking it's okay to rape and murder women, then you've misinterpreted it.  

If you want a sexist, look no further than Norman Mailer.  He writes like a beast, but that bitch stabbed his sixth wife at a dinner party...

OK so that was long.  We should pick a date to finish the book by, and then we'll be able to discuss the end and the novel as a whole.  I can go through it pretty quickly.  What do y'all think?

About the lack of violence thing... yeah, After it got to the bloody sheets things I just assumed that several of the women he had been with previously had ended up dead. *shrug*

Gotta eat supper but what does everyone think about the whole Les Mis motif?

Psycho Killer, Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Admittedly, I saw the movie before I read the book. Also admittedly, I am almost done with the book. My apologies :/ But I will only discuss up to 105, which I believe was the page we all decided on.

Anywho, I will try not to ramble only because I have to get ready for work soon. In short, this book is hilarious. A perfect satire of the neo-yuppie-Wall Street-business-type (best adjective I could think of) world that young people, especially in the 80's when the book takes place, were being sucked into. The violence and sexism, although not very subtle at all, is in my opinion completely appropriate, as this world of complete excess that these men have been sucked into is completely vapid and materialistic. One of my favorite elements of the beginning chapters, and throughout the book, is how the men always confuse each other for different colleagues, and no one really knows who they're talking to at any moment. How each of them, despite wearing a different Valentino suit and Bill Blass tie, is completely and exactly the same.

I will agree that the beginning few chapters, up until his date with Courtney, are a little boring. They're just sort of Ellis' introduction into this shallow yuppie world that Patrick lives in. He is so passionate about such mundane things, like popular music and designer fashion, so as to blend in with and go unnoticed among his colleagues, since we can come to detect he has much to hide from them. The chapter where he goes through his daily grooming routine is one of the best things I've read (and also is one of the best scenes in the movie). Also loved the scene with the business cards - how something so seemingly mundane to us could drive him into a panic. As someone who has seen the movie, it was very surprising to see the total lack of violence in the first third or so of the book, since for those who have seen the movie, this is not the case.

Ahh I gotta get going but will hopefully write more later! Let's hear some more input!
-Em

Through 105

Well, to start out, I've never seen the movie, but Jane told me that there's something with a chain saw during sex or something like that, so I was expecting there to be more violence, although I'm sure it gets there.

I agree with Kailey that the beginning was kind of boring, because even Bateman's obsessiveness over what everyone is wearing just seemed monotonous, not psychotic. Because of that, it was kind of a nice--although disturbing change--when within him listing what people are wearing, he throws in his dark thoughts like wanting to brutally kill someone. I'm still not sure if he's actually killed people. I know he has the bloody sheets at the dry cleaners, but then what does he do with the bodies? Also, because of his extreme prejudices, it seems like he would only kill people who he has met and therefore who are known by others in Bateman's circle of acquaintances. I'm hoping that Ellis will go more into that.

In terms of the chauvinistic element, I find it interesting that it's not just Bateman, but all the men he seems to be acquainted with--especially Price. The only difference between them is that Bateman is actually psychotic, although I'm sure it could be argued that Price is psychotic in his own way. I find it interesting though that there are no female characters who challenge the men's chauvinistic beliefs, which like Kailey said, does put Ellis' own beliefs into question. At first, I was thinking that it's just because Bateman sees every woman as dumb or lesser than him, but I think it would be really interesting if there was actually someone who challenged his belief. For example, take the part where Bateman and his friends are talking about how there are only two types of women: hot and dumb or ugly and smart--I think it would be great if he were confronted by a woman who was hot and smart. I'm sure he would have some sort of psychotic reaction to that, but it would still be really interesting to see that unfold, especially because I find it annoying that all the women we've encountered so far are so pitiful.

I'm looking forward to Bateman really cracking, because I really would like less of his narration on clothing and brands and more actual plot instead. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that jumped out at me, but I can't think of it right now. Based on Kailey's last comment, I'm guessing there will be more to talk about coming up.

As far as what to read up to next, I'm really fine with anything. I would say we could finish it by the 20th? I don't know if that's too soon for anyone, but that way we could finish before I leave for RA training, only because I have no idea what my time is going to be like once I'm back.

Ok, let's chat...

I cannot count the number of times I have been reading this book and thought to myself (or out loud) “wow, this guy’s a psycho!” Most of the time I would realize how stupid this sounded, considering the title, and promptly looked around o make sure no one heard me.

For the first fifty pages or so I just marveled at how a character can be so self-obsessed and self critical at the same time. The majority of Bateman’s time is spent evaluating everyone’s clothing, looking to score and scoping out his next lay (by the way, the term “hardbodies” confused me for awhile. At first I thought it referred to hot waitresses, then shortly realized they’re just hot women in general). Knowing the general route the story takes from the movie, I found myself waiting for something violent and nasty to happen. This probably isn’t the best way to go since it made everything up to the first hint of action rather boring (though if I remember correctly, the first bit of action in sex not murder…and really bad sex at that, and that’s where we leave off).

So up until now nothing has really happened worth talking about. Ellis is just building up the character: his obsessive compulsiveness, and ultimate chauvinism. Bateman is the perfect example of a chauvinist based on this definition “Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one's own gender, group, or kind.” Not only does he see women only as objects of a man’s pleasure, but he sees himself and his colleagues, all upper-class businessmen and other investment bankers, as far superior to all other “normal” folk, and his hatred of the homeless is all too evident. I’m actually going to go research Ellis. With most novels, the separation of author and any fictional character is very clear, but for some reason while reading this I can’t help wondering if perhaps Ellis is a bit sexist? Or maybe a bit prejudice against the lower class? Anyway, I’ll look it up and get back to you.

Alrighty, what are reading to next? Personally, I think we should just set a date to finish it and then chat again. I’m having trouble holding back, I’m at 160. For those of you who haven’t gone beyond 105 yet, this shit is NUTS!

Oh Boy!

Wow, Kailey...what a dream! Very strange, but an interesting look into your subconscious. I finished reading till page 105, but Grace wrote on facebook that she should have it finished tomorrow, so we should probably wait to post anything that could give stuff away.

American Psycho

I'm on page 106 or something like that... Going to bed but I'll post probably tomorrow night after work. Looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks! I'm kinda meh at the moment...

Dream that should be a book on our list!

So Gabrielle from Zena Warrior Princess is, in fact, a faerie! Yes, it's true. And the Faerie Queen found out that she and Aladin were desperately in love so she granted her to him. But during an invasion of giant troll things she stepped in front of Aladin to protect him from troll leader who wanted his crayons. In an instant Gabrielle was horribly wounded and the stout little goblin figure that is Aladin's friend (and is sometimes how I see everything that's happening...apparently my subconscious views itself as a stout little goblin thing) realizes that the queen will not be pleased! At this moment the story blurs somewhat to return to my basement, which apparently is the limbo-type world between Aladin's world and the Faerie world. While I'm standing there in goblin mode Aladin climbs out of the dryer, apparently the entrance to Aladin's world, and begins morosely collecting various wood pieces which he says is for Gabrielle's coffin. Shocked, I quickly inquire as to her state of wellbeing...or death, and he informs me that she has yet to die but he can do nothing for her. As he carries what 2 seconds ago were wood pieces and are now crayons through the dryer passage I jump at the vicious screams of the faerie queen from the land up above (the faerie world being up the stairs)! She seems to have discovered the plight of her beloved Gabrielle (maybe it's Zena). The voice is terrifying and shakes the world to it's core! She screams something about revenge and killing and immediately horrible shrieks of pain are heard from above that tell me the Faerie Queen is wreaking havoc on the above world, killing all the nice little faeries! I immediately try to hide anywhere but there really aren't that many good hiding places in my basement! I hear her voice getting nearer and I am getting more and more frantic in my searches for cover but it's no use! I decide that even if I did find a place to hide she is the Faerie Queen and would know where I was anyway... I start to walk back to the little stool I stand on (I guess to make me seem taller when I face the Queen), realizing that I am a second from dying a most horrible death!!!
Then I wake up.... My heart was pounding and I was SO scared!!! Then I realized that I was a goblin frightened of a faerie and Aladin was going to be much worse off so I got up and started getting ready for work... *shrug*

100 Pages by Monday the 10th!!! Let's do it! Then everyone can post about it Monday!?

When to Start

I got the book over the weekend, so I can start reading whenever. I don't have it in front of me right now, but maybe we should read until a chapter ending around page 50 or 60 to start out with? Maybe by next Monday?

Also, the fact that Anne almost fell into a waterfall because the rock broke is great and if I weren't at work, I'd be laughing my ass off, so yes, I see Kailey did a good job with the sadism.

Out of curiosity, when's everyone coming back to Boston? I'll be back on the 23rd...