Anyone read the book "American Psycho"

[MotorCityMan]

I originally read it years ago, only because of the big stink about it. Anything that any group tells me I shouldn't read/watch/listen to, sorry, I have to experience it myself and make up my own mind.

The book is repulsive and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The murder scenes in the book are very hard to take.

Anyways, about 15-20 years later I decided to re-read it. Still repulsive, still very hard to take.

On the other hand, I can see much more so today than when I first read it, the book giving a look into the 1%, republican mind set. If you're not in the wealthy, 1%, you don't matter, if you're homeless you should just get a job, if you're wealthy, you can pretty much do whatever you want.

I kept picturing the main character, Patrick Bateman, looking like an Eric Cantor.

[Chan790]

1. Yes.

I've known Wall Street types and they're every bit as repulsive as Bateman. Eric Cantor aspires to be Bateman, Bateman is more like the predatory asswipes that run the banks. Trust me, if they could, they'd harvest and eat babies.

[Archae]

2. I read in one review, that it's not made clear if the whole book isn't just a fantasy of Bateman's.

That all the murders and stuff are just in Bateman's head, not in reality.

[Graybeard]

7. The movie makes it clear.

***SPOILER***

When I was watching the movie I hated myself for not turning it off. I hate violence and this seemed gratuitous and over the top. It just got more ludicrous and unbelievable. But the reveal at the end (when the diaries are found) made it all come together.

[Archae]

12. Too much cocaine...

[alphafemale]

11. Agree with Graybeard that the movie is not at all subtle about that.

Some people don't seem to pick up on that though.

[RiffRandell]

3. Yes, I read it when it first came out for the same reason.

I had read Less Than Zero in high school and liked it, but with American Psycho just thought it was ok.

Funny you brought this up, it's been running on some movie channel and I've been re-watching it here and there--probably because Christian Bale is in it.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. I saw part of the movie on tv once.

He was chasing a girl around his apartment trying to kill her. I wondered what the point was since it was so violent.

[Archae]

5. THAT is porn!

A couple making love-erotica.

A guy or girl trying to (or succeeding in) killing someone with lots of blood-PORN!

[ohiosmith]

6. Yes! Disturbing!

[FarLeftFist]

8. I enjoyed this disturbing little movie.

[davsand]

9. I was a bookstore manager when that book was in the news.

We debated the issue of book banning and the idea of putting the book behind the counter -v- simply carrying the book and putting it on the shelf along with all the other fiction. Staff was in agreement that if we were gonna hold our heads up as booksellers we had to put the book out. We put it on the shelf and figured we were done with it. Not so, however.

One woman came in the store and chewed a bloody strip off my ass for carrying something so anti-woman. I explained to her that we were not promoting the book but we felt that it needed to be on the shelves. She screamed a while longer and finally left the store promising we were gonna be picketed by her women's group.

She pissed me off. I admit it freely. My response was probably not one that a mall bookstore would have made, but it was in keeping with our store and our attitudes. I got staff together and they were in agreement, so I went full speed ahead. I called and rush ordered 25 copies of the book. I tore down my fairly sedate pyramid display of best sellers and replaced it with the Brett Easton Ellis backlist titles along with the few copies of American Psycho I did have in the store. We posted a sign in the center of the display stating that while the staff was unanimous in our criticism of the book's content, we were more passionate about our feeling that no book--no matter what our opinion was of the book--should ever be censored for any reason.

That woman was back in the store a couple of days later. She walked in and saw that display front and center and just about blew a gasket. She saw me standing there and was starting to work up to a full blown tantrum but I beat her to it by thanking her for giving me the idea for the display...

Funny thing in all of this? We sold maybe two or three copies of the book and ended up returning the rest. We did, however, have a library science class show up one day with the prof leading them into the store lecturing about the freedom to read and the First Amendment.

Ahh, the memories!


Laura

[applegrove]

10. I would not read it for million dollars, I would not even read Stephen King for that much money.