Gewalt und Sexualität bei Bret Easton Ellis: Less Than Zero und American Psycho (German Edition)

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The characters and their interaction with society are the central points in both books. Warren Buffet and Donald Trump. The book by Bret Easton Ellis takes us into this decadent cocain addicted world, that basically revolves the hunger for parties and sex. The book by Don De Lillo presents a totally different atmosphere. The atmosphere is rather shapen by fear of those that have come too short in the capitalist world and the security needs of those who work on wall street who have by now become anonymous figures, that may only be identified by their stretch limousines.

The pace of the world has also changed as computers and video transmit news from all over the world into cars that have become indistinguishable from offices. Yet both books have a lot in common in terms of the topics they deal with and the kinds of characters they portrait. While Cosmopolis only draws a kind of gloomy atmosphere, American Psycho is also one of the funniest books I have ever read and has been turned into a fantastic movie, with which I have compared some of the scenes.

American Psycho is set in the stock-market fueled economy, cocaine addicted investment banking world of mid to late 80s New York. This leads to a certain uniformity of all high class wall street people that all share the same interests, the same clothes, vacation spots etc. In this world everything is valued according to its price haircuts, apartments [2] , its rarity e. Everything is concentrated on superficial things such as these prices — and only in the light of this superficiality the character of Patrick Bateman makes any sense.

Money and the power of money yet is an issue in the book, where almost nothing is not buyable and even the blood stained apartment is cleaned without questioning since it is a service that is paid for. Patrick Bateman obviously not only tries to fit in but also tries to be better than everybody else, as we can see whenever his ego is scraped. In the movie where this scene is altered a little the almost non-existing difference between the cards and thus the meaninglessness of this whole card business becomes even more obvious and Patricks reaction the more absurd [11]. In another instance Patrick goes out with his girlfriend Courtney and meets two other friends at a restaurant when the waiter asks whether they had been at the Onica exhibition which he has to deny.

Many more minor things are extremely important to Patrick.

Among the most important of these are probably the fear of not getting decent reservations at hip and expensive restaurants, which leads to one of Patricks standard saying whenever he drinks with his colleagues and friends [13] and the ever reoccuring question of where they want to eat comes up: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers.

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Explore the Home Gift Guide. The cover picture of YouthQuake is supposed to attract not only his own gaze but also that of other people in order to confirm his narcissistic self-image and to increase his power in a society dominated by celebrity culture, in which being looked at has developed into a status symbol.

With regard to Less Than Zero, it has already been noted that Clay and his friends do not grant Lene the satisfaction of knowing that she has been the object of their gaze during her appearance on television. Yet, this complete vision stands in opposition the fragmented sense of the self that the infant experiences due to their still undeveloped motor control. The disruption between the specular image and the self results in an admiration of the wholeness of the specular image on the one hand and in a rivalry with the image, which is perceived as threatening to the fragmented body, on the other hand.

Thus, the protagonist of the novel may already be regarded as a mirror image of the author, whose preoccupation with himself is then also conferred upon his fictional pendant. For instance, Bret resembles the protagonist of Less Than Zero in that he had a high-school girlfriend called Blair, with whom he broke up after he was accepted for college Lunar ; Like many of his characters in Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction, he was a student at fictional Camden College 5 , and when he returns to the university to work as a professor, he mirrors the actions of these characters by attending campus parties where he drinks beer from a keg and snorts lines of cocaine in student bathrooms In one scene, he mentions a former university colleague who had an affair with a boy called Paul Denton , which points to the homosexual protagonist of The Rules of Attraction.

On the one hand, narcissists distinguish themselves with their excessive admiration for their own self, which finds its expression, for instance, in a sense of grandiosity and a preoccupation with their own physical and social image. On the other hand, they are characterized by an alienation from their environment, including the people that immediately surround them.

The analysis will continue where it has stopped in the first chapter, by looking at the protagonist of Lunar Park and examining his failure to bond with members of his family. It was all about what he needed. Everything I desired was overridden, and I had to accept this. Robby even locks the door as soon as their conversation has ended and Bret has left his room It was a mission of his, a crusade, to weaken us, to make us intently aware of how we — not his behaviour — were to blame for the fact that he was no longer wanted in our lives.

On his affinity with the latter, Bret notes, My father had blackened my perception of the world, and his sneering sarcastic attitude toward everything latched on to me. It had soaked into me, shaped me into the man I was becoming. Both Bret and Robby are characterized by their self-absorbed manners, their lack of emotional display, and their attitude of indifference towards their surroundings, as is pointed out in the following conversation between Bret and his friend, the writer Jay McInerney, who is not oblivious to the similarities between father and son: Jayne thought it was giving Robby bad ideas.

I was now my father. Robby was now me. I saw my own features mirrored in his — my world was mirrored there: Such parents expect their children to acquire the same qualities, values, and behaviour and to be representative of them for their own selfish reasons Rappoport ; Vaknin For one thing, this homage of a child as a mirror image of themselves confirms them in their narcissistic infatuation. For another, narcissistic parents may wish to forego the constraints of morality, which threatens to destroy their selves, by perpetuating themselves in their children Freud Lunar The results of narcissistic parenting tend to be twofold: Both Bret in Lunar Park ; 21 and Victor in Glamorama make self-conscious reference to the love and commitment displayed by their partners, who are, on the other hand, denied such affections.

Clay is no longer in a relationship with his high-school girlfriend Blair, but both in Less Than Zero 46; 63 and in Imperial Bedrooms ; , he flatters himself with the lasting feelings that Blair harbours for him. This is someone trying to stay young because she knows that what matters most to you is the youthful surface. This is supposed to be part of the appeal: As is typical of narcissists, Rain relies on this currency to establish herself both as the bearer of the gaze and as its object, which is indicated by the following quote: She engages in a sexual relationship with Clay, who is immediately smitten by her physical attractiveness , for the repeatedly declared purpose of gaining a role in a film for which he has written the screenplay 28; 42; Yet, as the narrative progresses, Clay falls in love with the actress, and sheds some of his affinities with Narcissus for traits that are closer to Echo.

Yet, his feelings grow stronger with the progression of the narrative, as evidenced, for instance, by his yearning for Rain when she leaves for San Diego and fails to return his calls or messages Clay is also upset when he finds out that Rain had an affair with his friend Rip, of whose wealth she took advantage , and that she is actually in a relationship with Julian Towards the end of the novel, he even turns to violence and drugs as a means of controlling her and manipulating her to his own ends So, as with the gender reversal in American Psycho, where female figures are occasionally portrayed as being superior to Patrick, the disempowerment of Clay at the hands of Rain is only of a temporary nature.

A striking example of this lack of commitment is the terrorist group in Glamorama, which is led by the retired supermodel Bobby Hughes. Voices outside in the yard.

A gate opens, then closes. Four gorgeous people dressed in black, wearing sunglasses and carrying chic grocery bags, move through the darkening garden and toward the house. Bobby and I watch them from behind the glass door. Jamie and Bentley eventually also suffer violent deaths at the hands of Bobby This indifference to or even delight in the emotional pain of another person is also exhibited by Narcissus, whose sadistic attitude towards Echo, the lovelorn nymph, and other people is captured in the following lines: Thus had Narcissus mocked her; others too, Hill-nymphs and water-nymphs and many a man He mocked; Ovid 3.

The self-centredness of the protagonist of Less Than Zero and Imperial Bedrooms, which is also commented upon by his friends on several occasions Imperial ; ; , is further emphasized by his callousness towards a friend suffering from anorexia: In Imperial Bedrooms, the temporary departure of his lover, Rain, elicits a stronger emotional response than the disappearance of his friend, Kelly, who is later found dead after having been brutally murdered Imperial 19; The release of a video showing the assassination of Kelly sparks some interest in Clay, but when he is unable to find the video on the internet, this voyeuristic interest quickly subsides in favour of his obsession with Rain: Their friend, Jamie, died in a car accident in which Dirk was also involved: Dirk never spoke about it a lot, just little details he gave us the week after it happened: A similar lack of respect can be observed on behalf of Tim, the narrator of the short story, who wishes to see the site of the accident in Palm Springs for the sake of curiosity.

How can blood get on the ceiling if you OD? How can it get there anway?

Marginalia 95

Scotty says only if you explode. Well, I went to the beach with Lance this really gorgeous punker who works at Poseur on Melrose and Lance gave me some Seconal, which helped a lot. I feel much better now. She seems primarily intrigued by the cause of the death, from which she seems to derive an exciting thrill as if it were a crime story, rather than grieving the loss of the person. Freud discusses such sadistic tendencies in relation with narcissism in a study of instinctual drives, in which he distinguishes two opposing drives: Like the death drive, the life death seeks to re-create an earlier state of organic life, but it does so by producing new life rather than destroying it Freud observes that the self-destructive instinct of Thanatos is typically directed towards oneself, whereas the sexual instinct of Eros tends to bind us to other people.

Yet, in case of narcissism, which has already been defined as an investment of the libido in the self rather than the other, these relations are subverted, and under the influence of the narcissistic libido, the death drive is redirected from the self to external objects, which manifests itself in sadistic behavioural patterns The connection between power and the pleasure derived from inflicting pain is also established in the work of Freud Abhandlungen , who describes the cultural-anthropological origin of sadism as another means, besides courting, of overpowering the resistance of the sexual object.

In these sexual murders, the protagonist derives sadistic pleasure not only from eliminate people posing a threat to his narcissistic ego, but also from conquering sexual objects. Freud Abhandlungen 32 further notes that the sadistic component of the sexual drive constitutes a relic of cannibalistic cravings, which are also based on a desire for appropriation.

For instance, while watching the Patty Winters Show, the protagonist revels in the grief of parents mourning the loss of a child American In one chapter, Patrick stabs a five-year-old child in the zoo and pushes his dying body behind a trash can In more than one occasion throughout American Psycho, Patrick himself reflects on his sadistic behaviour and the underlying cause.

I had all the characteristics of a human being — flesh, blood, skin, hair — but my depersonalization was so intense, had gone so deep, that the normal ability to feel compassion had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure. In both passages, Patrick makes reference to the lack of compassion that underlies his gruesome crimes. The ability to feel compassion for others is also identified by Freud Abhandlungen 67 as one of the primary restraints on engaging in sadistic practices.

The psychoanalytic scholar states that children are prone to sadism because the ability for compassion is not acquired until a later stage of childhood development. Hence, narcissism and its manifestations are once again presented as phenomena that have their roots not so much in the individual as in beliefs and values of the society in which this individual is raised. Self-destruction The final chapter of the section dealing with Narcissus will be based on the tragic turn in the fate of the mythological figure, whose fascination with his reflection in the lake eventually proves to be lethal as he is unable to tear himself away from his own image and dies.

Patrick Bateman, for instance, is silenced and restricted in his freedom, and his individual identity disappears as he adapts to the beliefs and values propagated by the society in which he lives. It has already been noted that these beliefs and values, including capitalism and materialism, tie in with a narcissistic sense of self-worth.

In addition to his silencing, vanishing, and loss of free will, this self-destruction takes other forms which are more reminiscent of Narcissus than of Echo. I laugh spontaneously at nothing.

Sometimes I sleep under my futon. Moreover, some of these activities, such as the flossing of teeth until he starts bleeding, also involve self- mutilation. In the course of the narrative, Victor is haunted by his own image as forged pictures of him threaten to ruin his life, and towards the end of the novel, his identity is gradually usurped by a doppelganger, who leads his life in Manhattan while Victor is held captive in Europe.

In the course of the flashback, the protagonist reflects on his relationship to these people, which, he realizes, is solely based on superficial values: At first I was confused by what passed for love in this world: This was how you chose lovers. This was what decided friends. And I had to accept this if I wanted to get anywhere. Yet, the self-destructive consequences that arise from this narcissism are also hinted at in the flashback: On the verge of tears — because I was dealing with the fact that we lived in a world where beauty was considered an accomplishment — I turned away and made a promise to myself: The future started mapping itself out and I focused on it.

In that moment I felt as if I was disappearing from poolside in the villa on Ocean Drive and I was floating above the palm trees, growing smaller in the wide blank sky until I no longer existed […]. Hence, the final chapter of Glamorama, in which Victor is described as becoming immersed in the landscape of a mural at which he gazes, just as Narcissus transforms into a part of his surrounding environment when his body vanishes and a flower grows in its place Ovid 3.

This resemblance even leads Bret to mistake Clayton for a doppelganger of his own at one point of the story This disempowerment which Bret suffers at the hands of Clayton, as well as their close connection, is captured in the following lines: Because Clayton was — and had always been — someone I had known. He was somebody who had always known me. He was somebody who had always known us.

Because Clayton and I were always the same person. Clayton and the writer whispered. The present chapter will conclude the analysis by examining these two strands in conjunction.

For instance, Clay, the protagonist of Less Than Zero and Imperial Bedrooms, has no qualms about shunning and later plotting the murder of his former best friend, Julian, in order to achieve his selfish aims. In Glamorama, the distress and pressure to which Chloe is subjected in her modelling career is a sacrifice that her narcissistic boyfriend, Victor, is willing to take in order to satisfy his own lust for fame.

Occasionally, the roles of Narcissus and Echo are reversed in terms of gender so that a female character is empowered by means of her narcissistic investment in herself whereas a male character is relegated to a position marked by silence, rejection, and other losses suffered by Echo in the myth. Yet, towards the end, the novel reverts back to traditional gender relations when Clay forces Rain to stay in a relationship with him by means of drugs and violence, choosing to be as ignorant of her feelings as she has been of his.

Hence, the gender reversal in Imperial Bedrooms is only temporary, as is the one in American Psycho, where Patrick steps into the role of Narcissus more often than he is thrust by a narcissistic woman into a position akin to that of Echo. So, once again, the gender relations, which initially appear to be in favour of the female character, are eventually altered to suit traditional patterns, with Cheryl being reduced to occupy a disempowered and dependent position as she craves for the attention of her boyfriend, who, in the end, dumps her via a note which he leaves in her apartment.

The following statement is likewise indicative of his transition from Narcissus to Echo: In this scene, as opposed to the beginning of the novel, Victor is no longer able to derive any erotic pleasure from his self, which suggests that his narcissistic self-love has vanished together with his power. Hence, the title of the present chapter not only refers to the encounter of characters reminiscent of Echo on the one hand and characters based on Narcissus on the other hand, but also to the transformation that many Narcissus-like characters undergo and that relates them more closely to the oppressed nymph.

This observation raises the question whether the transformation from Narcissus to Echo is only expressed in terms of disempowerment as it is experienced by the mythological nymph or whether it may also imply a reformation whereby the initially narcissistic characters experience some moral growth. The protagonist of Glamorama, in fact, undergoes substantial character development, becoming more attentive to the needs of others, both in his immediate environment and in society as a whole.

Back in his home country, Victor has re- established contact with his estranged father, and engages in a relationship with Alison, with whom he initially had a sexual affair and for whom he now genuinely cares. Instead of pursuing his modelling career and consolidating his reputation as a celebrity, as he used to do, Victor goes to law school, declining a role in a film in order to concentrate on his studies. Yet, despite his change for the better, Victor is not granted a happy ending, being instead abducted to Europe and replaced by a doppelganger.

As illustrated in Glamorama, in which Victor is eventually undone by his double, that is, the very image which he narcissistically admires, these self-absorbed characters often turn into their own worst enemies. In American Psycho, Patrick also engages in self- destructive behaviour which stems from his narcissism, or more specifically, from the pressure which his pursuit of power and perfection places on him, as well as from the undermining of his individuality as the ideals that guide narcissistic striving are socially dictated rather than individually defined.

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On the one hand, there are those characters whose concern and love for others renders them, like Echo, vulnerable to oppression and discrimination. These characters are opposed by the ones who intertextually relate to Narcissus in that they derive their power from their excessive preoccupation with themselves and indifference to the needs and plights of others. People extending their concern towards others are running risk of disappearing by fading into oblivion or, at worst, by being robbed of their physical existence by those who do not refrain from acts of violence as a means of achieving a competitive advantage.

As a result of these self- destructive tendencies, characters commonly associated with Narcissus, such as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho and Victor Ward in Glamorama, have also been discussed in relation to Echo.

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It is usually male characters who resemble Narcissus in that they are empowered by their self-love, whereas female characters tend to exhibit parallels to the disempowered and oppressed nymph whose love is spurned. There are occasional instances of gender reversals in the intertextual evocation of Narcissus and Echo in works such as American Psycho and Imperial Bedrooms, but this female supremacy is only of a temporary nature, as it is usually reverted towards the end of the narrative or the disempowered male finds another female victim over whom he can exercise his power. The Rules of Attraction.

Secondary literature Adorno, Theodor, and Max Horkheimer. Consumerism, Culture and the Contemporary American Novel. An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. U of California P, The Journal of American Popular Culture 1. Text, translation and commentary of the Diegeseis. Keith, and Joshua D. Theoretical Approaches, Empirical Findings, and Treatments. American Psycho, Glamorama, Lunar Park.

Interview with Bret Easton Ellis. An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary. Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. Less Than Zero und American Psycho. U of Marburg, Didn't anyone figure that out? An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Bright Lights, Big Advances. Bret Easton Ellis und die Postmoderne. U of Heidelberg, Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie. Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag, Die Geschichte der Stimme. Hedges, Elaine, and Shelley Fisher Fishkin.

The Figure of Echo. A Mode of Allusion in Milton and After. Eros and the Shattering Gaze. The Analysis oft he Self.

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