Anyone READ American Psycho?

[Spider-Man]

If you did...how gory or violent is it?...be as specific as possible please.

[Romero&Juliet]

lol, good luck trying to find it in Canada dude.....oh, I tried and its NOT easy to find at all!!!!

I'd KILL to know if it was any good.

[The Claw]

no. books are boring.

[Spider-Man]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Romero&Juliet:
lol, good luck trying to find it in Canada dude.....oh, I tried and its NOT easy to find at all!!!!

I'd KILL to know if it was any good.</font>

There are like a thousand copies of it in Sanborn's...I haven't read it 'cause Im reading Black House.

[Dark_One79]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Spider-Man:
If you did...how gory or violent is it?...be as specific as possible please.</font>

Well, it has been a few years since I read/skimmed this one, but I recall it being very graphic in just about every way possible. I'd have to say the worst stuff never even made the film, no way would it have gotten an R rating.

Some things I recall (if memory serves right):

1. A chapter entitled "Killing child at the zoo" in which Bateman guts some 5 year old and then proceeds to act as a doctor and watch the kid die. Pretty sick stuff... but not as sick as...

2. Starving a rat and then putting it in a box where the only way out was to chew its way into a hooker's vagina. That was pretty disturbing, to say the least.

So yeah, I'd say this book is pretty gory and violent. It can be somewhat of a chore to read though. Ellis used such meticulous detail to describe every little thing, from business cards to cuff links. I suppose it ties into Bateman's materialistic ways, so it does have purpose. Still, it can bore you after a while. Perhaps this is why I skimmed certian parts of the book. Sorry Brett.

[Patrick Bateman]

Yes, I have read the book ( pretty obvious huh? http://www.joblo.com/ubb/smile.gif ), and it stands as my favourite book at this moment.

Actually the book was deemed TOO VIOLENT back in '91 when it was originally to be published, which resulted in barns&nobel taken it off their upcoming book lists in light of protests classifying "American Psycho" as simply a "How To Kill And Get Away With It" book.

Vintage Contemporaries released it in soft cover shortly thereafter. Although it is an excellent book, with chapters on music acts (Huey Lewis and the News, Genesis, Whitney Houston) that are amazing, the killing scenes are graphically brutal.

Here are the locations and a summary of the passages that the publisher found unacceptable:

The following contains SPOILERS for those who have not read the book.

#126 Bum asks for a quarter and gets more than he bargained for. Who needs eyes, anyway?

#161 Killing Dog: A gay man is walking his dog. It's a cute little Shar-pei. Better run. No, it's not the dog catcher.
#214 Paul Owen has the Fisher account, but that's nothing an axe and a rain coat won't take care of.

#230 Lunch with Bethany: Ex-girlfriend Bethany got away with just a broken arm and a black eye in college. Now there's a nail with her name on it.

#282 Girls: Jumper cables and pliers. That's gotta hurt.

#296 Killing Child at Zoo: Imagine a little boy watching penguins at the zoo. Imagine Patrick with a knife. You get the idea.

#300 Girls: A drill, a Bic lighter, and an escort service.

#326 Girl: A girl has an unpleasant sexual encounter with a Habitrail and a starving rat.

#343 Tries to Cook and Eat Girl: Patrick uses a dead girl for a table decoration before he attempts to surpass Wolfgang Puck.

#347 Chase, Manhattan: Street musician offends Patrick's musical tastes and is executed with a .357 magnum. A violent shoot-out follows.

Heres a more 'detailed' summary of Bateman's carnage in the book. Hope I dont leave out anything....
*
2 black kids - passing reference as to have killed

AL the Bum - pushes a long, thin knife with a serrated edge a half-inch into his right eye, after flicking the handle up - popping the retina; pulls his pants down - stabs him in the stomach and backs of his hands; slits the other eye; slits his nose in two; breaks open the muscle above his cheek cleaning the blade; crushes the legs of his dog by stomping on them; walks away laughing at the gruesome scene he just created.

A Sharpei owned by "an old queer" - crushes his trachea; pushes the serrated knife into the belly as his guts fall out. The Sharpei is last mentioned dragging itself around in a circle, its tail wagging, squealing, licking its own intestines, spilled out in a mound on the sidewalk. Some still connected to its stomach.

The old queer - random stabs in the face and head; slashes his throat open; then shoots him with a gun twice in the face.

Asian delivery kid on bike - slits his throat.

Paul Owen - ax in the face twice.

Bethany - nails three fingers on each hand with a nail gun; sprays mace in her eyes, mouth and nostrils; continuously shoots nails into her hands; chews the flesh off her left thumb; stabs at her breasts with scissors slicing off one of her nipples; cuts out her tongue with the scissors; bites off her lips, saws off her left arm.

Elizabeth - bites nipple off; stabs feet and neck with butcher knife.

Christie - lit matches dropped on stomach; jumper cables hooked up to a battery on nipples and fried overnight; kneads her breasts with pliers; mutilates vagina; missing right arm and chunks of her right leg; left hand chopped off at the wrist; head cut off and hollowed out, lays below Patrick's piano, expected to be Bateman's own 'personal' jack o latern or halloween.

Child at the zoo - stabs in the
neck.

Torri - maces; cuts lips off with scissors; cuts legs and stomach with steak knife; cuts off her fingers with nail scissors; pours acid onto belly and genitals; stabs her in the neck repeatedly with steak knife; saws off head. Has sex with decapitated head.

Tiffani - Bites into vagina; maces; burns eyeballs until they burst; nails a dildo that had been tied to a board in her rectum; cuts all flesh from around mouth and widens the hole with a power drill which also rips her teeth from the gums; reaches into her mouth into her neck and pulls veins out from her neck through her mouth until her neck caves in; rips open stomach with bare hands.

Nameless girl - bites lips; maces; slaps and punches; knocks head against the wall several times; hands shot full of nails; drills through her teeth; broken glass in vagina; plastic tube pushed into her vagina; pours acid around vaginal lips; puts rat in the plastic tube, which runs up into her; pulls out the tube, trapping the rat inside girl's torso; cuts the girl in two with a chainsaw; forces a knife up her nose; hacks the bone off her chin; gouges her eyes out with his fingers.

The Rat - stomped to death.

Saxophone player - shoots in face with .357.

Iranian cab driver - shoots in face with .357.

Cop - shoots in head and then face with .357.

Unknown number of cops - shoots gas tank on squad car, blowing up.

Night watchman - shoots in throat.

Janitor - shoots right between the eyes.

Someone named Ursula is mentioned, who's brains were mentioned as being eaten by Bateman.

Bateman attempts to make "meatloaf" out of a previous female victim, but finds this task too frustrating and insteads spends the afternoon smearing her meat all over the walls, chewing on strips of skin he ripped from the body, then resting by watching a tape of last weeks CBS sitcom "Murphy Brown".

end of SPOILERS! http://www.joblo.com/ubb/smile.gif

Classic Quotes:

"Ahem" I cough. Vanden looks over warily, probably drugged to the eyeballs. Stash doesn't move.
"Hi. Pat Bateman," I say, offering my hand, noticing my reflection in a mirror hung on the wall - and smiling at how good I look.
She takes it, says nothing. Stash starts smelling his fingers."

"Besides, this girl's favorite movie is Pretty in Pink and she thinks Sting is cool, so what is happening to her is, like, not totally undeserved and one shouldn't feel bad for her."

"There's no use denying it: this has been a bad week. I've started drinking my own urine."

"I'm having a sort of hard time paying attention because my automated teller has started speaking to me, sometimes actually leaving weird messages on the screen in green lettering, like "Cause a Terrible Scene at Sotheby's" or "Kill the President" or "Feed Me a Stray Cat," and I was freaked out by a park bench that followed me for six blocks last Monday evening and it too spoke to me."

"THIS IS NOT AN EXIT."

There you go.
I hope I've been informative. It's been a long day, it scatters.

I have to return some Videotapes....

[Scully1888]

Right...

...eh...

...aye, that's pretty fucked up! LOL

[Adam Bateman10]

I think this book is the greatest work I've ever read.. It is undeniably funny

[Requiem-for-a-Dream]

I read it and loved it. Extremely gory and violent, but so much so that it becomes humorous.

Matt

[A.J. Hakari]

I read about 100 pages before I gave up. The overload of lingo and terminology threw me for a loop...perhaps I should give it one more go when I'm in a more intellectual state of mind. http://www.joblo.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Spider-Man]

Patrick Bateman:
Dude, thanks for the detailed stuff! Later, Im gonna read it, sounds like fun.

[HannibalGuy]

Who COULD watch a TRUE verson of the book in a film? I could stomach it!

[Gangsternumber1]

I have read many books which where turned into films The Beach and Hannibal and then i got American Psycho i started reading it but i couldnt keep up it started to bore me the way it jumped from subtext to subtext it really annoyed me i read some of the details
Patrick Bateman mentioned so i will try and give it a go

PS Anybody know what the Requiem for a dream book is like.

[Patrick Bateman]

You're welcome Spidey. http://www.joblo.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Inglorious]

I'm reading it right now. I started it about 15 days ago, I'll be done with it in about 5 more days. I actually like it quite a bit!

[KillerKlown]

Originally posted by Dark_One79
Starving a rat and then putting it in a box where the only way out was to chew its way into a hooker's vagina. That was pretty disturbing, to say the least.


It was even nastier when he sliced her up with a chainsaw just after inserting the rat, which came out of her torso only to be squished underfoot (or did he throw it against the wall? Can't remember).

[Jon Lyrik]

Originally posted by KillerKlown
It was even nastier when he sliced her up with a chainsaw just after inserting the rat, which came out of her torso only to be squished underfoot (or did he throw it against the wall? Can't remember).

Riiiiiiiiiiiight...

Suddenly my stomach feels a little notted...

[X-Nightcrawler]

I did, I really liked it but it was EXTREMELY violent.

[Psychocandy]

I've read a lot of horror. I've read James Herbert. I've read Shaun Hutson. I've read Richard Laymon for fucks sake. I immersed myself in the splatterpunk subgenre that emerged in the mid eightes. I've read some very reprehensible and violent stuff. Then I read American Psycho. And it shocked me pale. It really did. I remember reading a particularly malicious scene on the bus to work one morning and when I stood up I was overcome by a wave of nausea (admittedly I had sank a number of beers the night before and was suffering an acute hangover). As far as i'm aware there is not a movie in existence that contains even a small degree of the violence that exists in this book. And i'm counting the Guinea Pig series and movies like Mordum and it's ilk in that assessment (I haven't seen these but i'm very aware of the content). The movie very cleverly got around the violence by focusing on the black humour angle of which there is much in the book. As well as being the most violent book i've ever read it's also one of the funniest and most clever. Basically it's a masterpiece. But not for everyone.

[Inglorious]

Still reading American Psycho. But has anyone hyere read The Rules Of Attraction, Glamorama, or Less Than Zero? All, also by Bret Eason Ellis. It's hard to track Rules... down here, it's banned in Libraries, and most book stores WILL NOT carry it.

[KillerKlown]

I read Less Than Zero a few years ago - It's not as graphic as American Psycho, but it's still a witty satire on the hedonistic Reagan era.

[Cyclonus]

I have a confession to make: I started reading American Psycho but gave up on it. Like the other guy said, Ellis bogs down his writing with too many annoying, unneccessary details. I just didn't feel like slogging through the book if the whole thing was gonna be like that.

[Inglorious]

Originally posted by Cyclonus
I have a confession to make: I started reading American Psycho but gave up on it. Like the other guy said, Ellis bogs down his writing with too many annoying, unneccessary details. I just didn't feel like slogging through the book if the whole thing was gonna be like that.

Well that's a bit of a let down. I am actually a fan of the "unnecessary details" as you put it Cy. They are actually more relevant than the eye let's you notice. Mostly he uses useless details for showing materialism in AP, and actually, hidden between it all is the funny off-ramblings of Patrick Bateman, how he will slip from designers to offing a young Korean adopted boy.

Just my take on it of course... just... my... take.

[Scully1888]

Read it last summer, and I have to say that as long as you have the stomach for it, it has to be read. Now.

Which is more than I can say for the film, which (having seen it after reading the book) I was bitterly disappointed with.

[Inglorious]

Originally posted by Scully1888
Read it last summer, and I have to say that as long as you have the stomach for it, it has to be read. Now.

Which is more than I can say for the film, which (having seen it after reading the book) I was bitterly disappointed with.

I respect both the film and the book. But jeez! Does the writes (Bret Easton Ellis) just hate animals (dogs especially)? Gosh, breaking dogs legs, torturing dogs, and killing dogs? That is just mean and also very sad.

[KillerKlown]

Originally posted by Penut
Does the writer (Bret Easton Ellis) just hate animals (dogs especially)? Gosh, breaking dogs legs, torturing dogs, and killing dogs? That is just mean and also very sad.



I would say he hates women even more, judging by some of the scenes in the book!

[Inglorious]

I'm only at Page 200. My weekend became a bit more over whealming than I thought. So I probably won't be done until Friday. But yeah, I think so too KK. Animals and women, he's not a fan. But also gay people... I wonder who he sleeps/slept with?

[Scully1888]

Yeah, but we need to remember that this is the character of Patrick Bateman we're talking about here, not Bret Easton Ellis. Just because the character he's writing about is a homophobic woman and animal hater, doesn't mean he's one himself.

[stevereno]

I got the book for christmas but I have yet to read it.

I loved Bret Easton Ellis' "THE RULES OF ATTRACTION" and found myself quoting characters and downloading all of the songs mentioned in the book. So before I read "AMERICAN PSYCHO" (which is written and takes place after ROA) I decided to read "LESS THAN ZERO" (Which takes place before ROA) When I'm finished with it I plan to tackle Patrick Bateman's killing saga.

[heretic]

The Rules Of Attraction is avilable on Amazon.co.uk

just thaught id let you all know :)

[Inglorious]

Originally posted by stevereno
I got the book for christmas but I have yet to read it.

I loved Bret Easton Ellis' "THE RULES OF ATTRACTION" and found myself quoting characters and downloading all of the songs mentioned in the book. So before I read "AMERICAN PSYCHO" (which is written and takes place after ROA) I decided to read "LESS THAN ZERO" (Which takes place before ROA) When I'm finished with it I plan to tackle Patrick Bateman's killing saga.

Paul Denton is seemingly working on Wall Street in American Psycho as well. Around Page 100 I believe he is mentioned. And Patrick even goes to dinner with Sean (his brother) Bateman. Camden is mentioned quite a bit as well.

[stevereno]

Originally posted by Penut
Paul Denton is seemingly working on Wall Street in American Psycho as well. Around Page 100 I believe he is mentioned. And Patrick even goes to dinner with Sean (his brother) Bateman. Camden is mentioned quite a bit as well.

Yeah, in R.O.A. a chapter is based on Patrick. and also a chapter is based on Clay from Less Than Zero. The books must be read in order for you to really understand.

SHIVER ME TIMBERS

[_eraserhead]

Oh shyt! I just bought it Saturday! I can't wait to start reading it, which will be tonight! Weeeeeee!

[JurassicMik]

I loved the movie of American Psycho but I couldn't get past the first 5 pages of the book.

[horror junkie]

I just finished reading AP today and I loved it!!! The graphic descriptions were at times hard to stomach but the book as a whole was absolutely hilarious!

[wheresdonnie?]

The book is a superb satire on the 80s yuppie culture. And yes, there is some undeniably sick shit in it too. The rat does spring to mind.

[Cronos]

American Psycho is one of my favourite books, its so well written and is hilarious at times but also damn creepy at others

[chinton]

I hated the book with a passion but then I hate Ellis's style os writing. Movie was far better even if it wasnt as violent.