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End of the 1980s

General Notes

The Dead Walk Among The Living

From The Rules of Attraction:

"I don't know what to tell you boys," the doctor said. "But your friend is dead. He's simply not alive."

Harry opened his eyes and asked, "I'm not dead am I?"

From American Psycho:

"It was never supposed to be!" I bellow, and then, "Why isn't it possible?"

"It's just not," he says, eyeing me worriedly.

"Why not?" I shout again over the music, though there's really no need to, adding, "You stupid bastard."

He stares at me as if we are both underwater and shouts back, very clearly over the din of the club, “Because … I had … dinner … with Paul Owen … twice … in London … just ten days ago.”

From Glamorama:

"The guy said his name was Bruce but he didn't give a last name, so who knows, right?"

I'm just standing there.

"This isn't happening," I murmur.

Bruce Rhinebeck is dead.

including lunar park but that's the premise of the entire story, sooo

Astrology

General

The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho, Glamorama

The Shards

Brother Books

“Oh, I almost forgot,” I say, reaching into my pocket. “I wrote you a poem.” I hand her the slip of paper. “Here.” I feel sick and broken, tortured, really on the brink.

— Patrick Bateman, American Psycho

On the computer screen are the words BRINK OF DESTRUCTION and automatically I’m thinking, Who’s Brink? and I’ve never heard of that band.

— Victor Ward, Glamorama

American Psycho and Glamorama are the Brother Books . to me.

The two books are similar in styles, with two majorly disjointed characters’ states of mind represented through repetition. They’re both unreliable narrators going through some shit.

In some ways, Victor is an extreme version of Patrick. Patrick, a movie fan, likes to narrate events in his life as if they were movie scenes, and Victor believes that his life is a movie. Whereas Patrick is a music fan, Victor lives and breathes music, inserting lyrics into conversation.

There are a lot of differences between the two, but where they differ most is how they live in response to their fathers' heavy expectations. Victor’s case is evident with his father confronting him in Glamorama. Patrick’s situation gets implied through working in his father’s company and how Ellis based Patrick's external persona on his father.


The handy-dandy Venn diagram comparing Victor to Patrick.

While there aren’t any concrete storylines in Ellis’s repertoire, American Psycho kicks off the trilogy of father-son stories:

American Psycho → Glamorama → Lunar Park

The shared themes between the stories could explain why Patrick and Victor (in a way) are prominent names in Lunar Park.

A theme of Lunar Park is the past catching up to you, which is also built first upon American Psycho, in the way of Patrick never really mentioning it, unless to diss or kill it (like with Bethany). Victor’s past comes to him in a haunting sort of manner, almost mocking him at his lowest points.

The Game

From American Psycho:

While walking back to the highway I stop, choke back a sob, my throat tightens. “I just want to …” Facing the skyline, through all the baby talk, I murmur, “keep the game going.”

From Glamorama:

"You are not a player," is the last thing Alison ever screams at me.

We Start At The Ending Or Some Shit Like That

you know how. american psycho ends with patrick not bringing up how price has a smudge on his forehead because he knows people would tell him there isn’t one. and how glamorama starts with victor doing exactly what patrick wanted to do, but with the specks

Body & Soul

patrick sold his soul, while victor sold his body...

in lunar park, about patrick bateman: "But he was curious, and he lusted. Was it his fault that he had abandoned his soul?"

victor is a model who is forced to accept that "sex sells." he has to put up with being demeaned and sexualixed (the madonna sex book, being on someone's "to fuck list"). the metaphor becomes literal with the body double

ROA - Glamorama

there are a few details that cross over from rules to glamorama (going to europe to find jamie, getting attacked by dogs, the pubic hair thing?, a desperate phone call to lauren) but there are some weird things that don’t line up

in the europe passage from rules, victor is looking for a “jaime” who graduated from camden. later on, sean says: “Robert’s in the next room with some other bimbo, some Camden dropout named Janey Fields.”

both lauren and victor call jamie “jaime,” while sean (somehow) gets the closest to getting her name right, but is also still wrong, because of course he is

what's funny about this detail is that sean calls jamie a "Camden dropout." in glamorama, jamie makes fun of victor for maybe/maybe not graduating... guess the tables have turned (though she could have always reenrolled, but it's wayyy funnier this way)

there are a few other things, like sean claiming to not know who victor is in rules, despite victor having a memory of hanging out with him while he was dating jamie, who he dated before dating lauren

then there’s victor’s age which is like this Whole Mystery

either he’d be 32 in glamorama or he’d be 13 starting college (16 in roa). unfortunately lying about his age would be more realistic 😔 this is also backed up by how ellis would also be 32 in the year he set glam in, 1996

OF COURSE: none of the BEE characters are very reliable when it comes to reality. it's just fun to wonder about the discrepancies

I Want To Know You

From The Rules of Attraction:

“I want to know you,” Sean whines.

“What?”

“Know you. I want to know you.” Pleading.

“What does that mean? Know me?” I ask him. “Know me? No one ever knows anyone. Ever. You will never know me.”

I tell him, “But I want to know you. I want to know who you are.”

He flinches and turns to me and says, raising his voice at first and then letting it drop softer, “No one will ever know anyone. We just have to deal with each other. You’re not ever gonna know me.”

“What in the hell does that mean?” I ask.

“It just means you’re not ever gonna know me,” he says. “Figure it out. Deal with it.”

From American Psycho:

“You don’t know much about me, do you?” I ask teasingly.

“I know enough,” she says, her initial response, but then she shakes her head. “Oh let’s just drop this. I made a mistake. I’m sorry.” In the next instant she changes her mind. “I want to know more,” she says, gravely.

From Glamorama:

“So act natural,” she says. “You don’t know me anyway.”

“I want to know you,” I tell her. “Can we see each other tomorrow?”