AMERICAN PSYCHO & LESS THAN ZERO - did Ellis mean to include an almost identical scene in the books and movie?
This post includes a very small spoiler if you have NOT done one of three things:
- read either book, doesn’t really matter which one
- seen the movie American Psycho
- care about a part in the movie that is under five minutes in length, in AP is no more than three pages and in LTZ is a short page in length.
But I think you should read this post anyway because I made a discovery.
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (1991) is in my top three favourite books. I read it before I started to date my books but I remember that I read it in 2000, I worked with a girl who was reading it and having the word Psycho in the title was enough for me. In the minor, but WAY more than I usually do but still unsuccessful research I did for this post before deciding this was one for the readers and Googlers who happen across it I found perhaps the most disturbing thing about the book to a Canadian aside from its content is that according to Wikipedia;
A copy of the book was found in the house rented by Canadian serial murderers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, leading to speculation that the book had motivated Bernardo’s crimes. However, the first murder by Bernardo and Homolka happened in December 1990, before the book’s publication.
I also enjoy the film version of American Psycho [we watched it again last night which has prompted this post]. I feel that Christian Bale captured the character of Patrick Bateman with such disciplined and purely superb method acting that if it wasn’t a campy slasher flick he probably would have been nominated for some stuff. This movie also follows the book with very few missteps and the stuff they left out is more than alright with me, the full extent of graphicness both violent and sexual does not need to be written into a screenplay with every facet of his possible serial rage brought to the screen for the viewer to more than get the point.
Less than Zero (1985 Bret Easton Ellis), I read this in January of 2006, if memory serves I gave it five stars, I enjoyed it immensely. It was while reading it that I noticed the repeat. If it weren’t for the scene in the American Psycho movie I’d have probably missed it. Less than Zero is also a graphic and disturbing novel but it is pretty real and no less scary than Gossip Girl, although Gossip Girl is unfortunately marketed at a much younger audience.
I got to page 85 of Less than Zero and must have read the page over at least ten times. It had been years since I had seen the movie American Psycho but even longer since I had read the novel. But I knew I had seen on the screen almost word for word what I was reading on the page.
It is apparently common for authors and Ellis himself to repeat or carry on different characters on a smaller and/or larger scale but I can tell you I have never noticed anything this blatant before. I know that in his book Rules of Attraction the lead character is named Sean Bateman and during the movie I have not seen but read in the trivia [wiki] section on American Psycho where it mentions that in the movie Sean receives a phone call from his brother Patrick Bateman.
But this is a hell of a lot larger than that and my mind is rather boggled that it isn’t in at least one of the three FULL Wikipedia pages I read and none seemed to have any outward links that would be of any help.
I remember that when I finished Less than Zero I had a brief conversation with Adam about how shocked I was because the scene from the American Psycho movie stood out rather largely against the backdrop of a reference from a book published in the 80’s.
Last night while watching the movie it really started to take over my mind in an obsessive fashion the beginning where I say I didn’t research this post is bullshit for once I have now in the writing of this I called two people I have massive respect for in regards to everything not just their book knowledge and neither had heard about this but had both heard of Bateman’s brother in Rules of Attraction. I grabbed both books in the middle of the movie and was lucky enough to find the parts in both books. [American Psycho, Pages 360-362, Less than Zero Page 85].
In my mind, the easiest way to connect the three is to start with Less than Zero.
We have a conversation between the main character and his on again off again girlfriend;
(I am only including relevant parts of the page)
I roll over onto my back, I feel something hard and covered with fur and I reach under myself and it’s this stuffed black cat. I drop it on the floor and then get up and take a shower.
“Will you call me before Christmas?” she asks.
“Maybe.” I pull on my vest, wondering why I even came here in the first place.
“Clay?”
“Yeah, Blair.”
“If I don’t see you before Christmas”, she stops. “Have a good one.”
I look at her a moment. “Hey, you too.”
She picks up the stuffed black cat and strokes its head.
I step out the door and start to close it.
“Clay?” she whispers loudly.
I stop but don’t turn around. “Yeah?”
“Nothing.”
Even if you have not read Less than Zero if you have seen American Psycho that part although Christmas is Thanksgiving and the names are Courtney and Patrick, the lines I have used from Less than Zero are the EXACT words used in American Psycho in both the book and the movie and there are more from the scene that I haven’t included.
IF this was supposed to be some kind of allusion to the character of Patrick Bateman being a fan of Ellis and had read his novels then why the black stuffed cat? In order for there to be advancement in the use of a character from a book written around the time the character of Bateman is coming out of University I do not see the development or the relevance and if there is none this is extremely disappointing and screams lazy author to me, even if I do love two of his books.
By taking the stuffed black cat out of American Psycho I may have been able to accept some kind of continuing theme but being that it’s pretty much exactly the same dialogue used in both book and movie I can’t find a connection or a reason.
This minor reference to Patrick Bateman in Rules of Attraction that could be found by a four year old makes it extremely hard for me to wrap my head around why information on this other parallel is nowhere to be found especially when all of the articles state that Ellis reuses his characters. I am pretty confused and would LOVE to know if anyone has noticed this or knows why it isn’t mentioned anywhere [that I can find], I feel it is one thing to reuse a character but to literally plagiarize yourself, I don’t get it.
On an added note both Less than Zero and American Psycho are on the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, this flabbergasts me even further that I can’t find anything on this three way connection. Granted those lists are a dime a dozen and it also has Glamorama on it also by Ellis, which I hated, it quite frankly went straight over my head; I’m still surprised I finished it.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Looks like something I should look into this summer while I’m sitting on my ass! I’ve seen both but haven’t read either, I’m not sure why as it is usually the other way around for me.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
why don’t you e-mail Ellis and ask him? you might be surprised.
(other than that, no idea) other than the fact that he may have an attachment to a certain character or scene. King sometimes takes characters from other books and developes them into stories of their own. i think a lot of authors do that. what you are talking about sounds different, but, it may be that Ellis himself lived that scene.. or maybe, subconsciously, doesn’t realize he repeated himself. shotty editor.
it is OK to plagiarize yourself though, even though it may wig out fans.
it would be interesting to find out.