Its a review about this product
Clearly I haven't had time to read all of the hundreds of reviews on this book, so I'm not sure if these issues have been addressed before or not. However, I feel that many of the criticisms of American Psycho are seriously misguided because they do not appreciate the purpose and form of the novel. There are two issues, repetition and extreme violence, that seem to cause the majority of non-believers to trash this book. The so-called repetition, which refers not so much to actually repeating the same things over again, but more the the practice of describing people mainly by their appearance, what they wear, eat, etc.. using an insider language of brand names and unfamilar terminology. Since a brand-name is meaningless as a description to someone unfamiliar with the brand, the result is that the brand names are more or less interchangeable. This then envokes a feeling of incessant repetition and lack of meaning. Why does Ellis subject us to this mind-numbing assault? The simple answer would be that people who are actually familar with these brand-names and who live materialistic lifestyles actully interpret their surroundings in this language, hence it is simply an accurate protrayal of Patrick Bateman's inner dialog. The truth, however, is that this is not the real reason why Ellis writes in this style. The replacement of literal meaning with essentially abstract patterns makes the effect of reading the novel more akin to listening to music than listening to speech. And the use of mind-numbing repetition, just like in 'techno' music, is meant to create a hypnotic effect to place the reader in an altered state of consciousness. The genious of Ellis is his mastery of this hypnotism, so that his books are not intellectual experiences involving words or ideas, but are more like narcotic experiences.The use of extreme violence and sex is also an integrated part of this effect. Combined with the hypnotic effect of rhythmic 'repetition', the brutal assault on our most deeply held illusions about good and evil, right and wrong, speakable and unspeakable, finishes the job...making the reading of the novel an intense, almost traumatic experience. The result is that reading the novel has altered our mental wiring in a profound way, much like brainwashing, which if you are familar with groups such as Scientology and Landmark Forum/est relies on very similar techniques.Those of you who are too stubborn or cautious to let Ellis work his spell on you will simply skim past the 'repetitive' and/or 'repulsive' sections and completely miss out on the essential experience. Those of you who for whatever reason, whether it is conscious willingness or mindless obedience, let the book feed its rhythm into your brain will find the experience powerfully transcedental. Satire of the 80's is the theme but definitely not the point. In my opinion, the film version also failed to capture the essence of Ellis's writing, mainly by reducing the sex and violence to such a dilute and unprovoking level. For movies which come closer to the mind-altering effect, I recommend David Cronenberg movies, e.g. Existenze.
