Glamorama Notes

my favorite BEE novel and it isn't talked about enough, so this one has the most! victor one of the characters ever ...

The Cast List

one of my favorite pieces of information... the bret easton ellis ideal cast list for glamorama (at the time of the interview)

Q: Okay Bret, let’s say it’s winter 2022, we’re living in a perfect world, and Glamorama the movie is in pre-production. Who is being cast in the roles of Victor Ward, Jamie Fields, F. Fred Palakon, and Chloe Byrnes? You can have anyone you want.
A: Um, Tom Holland (yes, really, at this very moment, yeah), Florence Pugh, Paul Dano, Ana de Armas, Jacob Elordi as Bobby Hughes, though maybe too young. But that’s just today. Tomorrow is a different cast completely.

Tom Holland as Victor Ward

Florence Pugh as Jamie Fields

Paul Dano as F. Fred Palakon

Ana de Armas as Chloe Byrnes

Jacob Elordi as Bobby Hughes

doesn't seem like he went out of order so it's interesting that he chose pugh for jamie instead of chloe... but jamie does have her emotional moments, so maybe that's why

Chloë Sevigny

wondering if ellis named chloe for chloe sevigny (jean's actor in the american psycho movie). wasn't able to find any dates for when the actors were confirmed but principal photography began in 1999. glam came out 1998.. hm

edit: this is so silly considering the two/THREE christian bale mentions (the man himself; Russell, who is described to look like him; and Patrick, if you count him). it's so funny how the in-universe chloe thinks patrick is creepy though, lol

Narration Style

Q: When you (Bret Easton Ellis) say that working on a computer made you “go on too long”, is that why Glamorama took eight years to finish?
A: Well, that was the first book I wrote on a computer, but that was always going to be a long book, and ultimately the style and the character’s voice dictated it, and the computer had nothing to do with it. [...] In advance of the actual writing I do a massive outline, and experiments with the characters’ voices, etc.

Interview Source

(i love how he's basically saying that victor just talks a lot. lol)

honestly victor makes like no sense. victor and glamorama (stylistically) are soo dense because that's what victor wants... and even after being privvy to his vulnerabilities, his narration is still so vague. he never tells us anything.

glamorama is 'a story that the audience wants to see' because victor is always trying to please and impress. he assumes we want all flash but no substance, hence no personal explanations are given about his situation, even at the end, when he thinks he has it all figured out.

a good example of this is when he has a breakdown over chloe.

I see Tristan getting into the elevator and I want to ask him who he’s going to see and then maybe buy a couple of grams but instead I start panicking because I make a connection and Tristan spots me staring at him and he gives a little wave just as the elevator doors close and a horrible vision breaks open in front of me of Chloe in an ambulance, another detox center in the desert somewhere.

I’m still freaking out and shouting “But you don’t understand you don’t understand” and suddenly the director kneels beside me and gently tells the two crew members to let go, that it’s okay, shhh.
I’m shaking so hard the director has to hold my face in his hands, steadying it, before he can talk to me.

Basically summing things up, he asks, “Do you really want to go back up there?”

with the "horrible vision" playing out like a scene, rather than saying, "i'm worried that my girlfriend may die." "basically summing things up" is also interesting because it's such a conversational phrase and not something you'd find in a "Story."

edit: god dammit it's in the fucking text. it's literally the first sentence

"So I don’t want a lot of description, just the story, streamlined, no frills, the lowdown: who, what, where, when and don’t leave out why."

Epigraphs

There was no time when you nor I nor these kings did not exist.

— Krishna

You make a mistake if you see what we do as merely political.

— Hitler

compared to American Psycho's epigraphs these are such a spit in the face. it's great

the quote from krishna is from the bhagavad gita, which is a hindu scripture, and translates to "song of god"

my limited understanding of the original context is that a warrior, arjuna, is unsure of his participation in an upcoming war. he is talking to krishna, who offers those words to clear his doubts

an explanation of what the verse means: "Their individuality existed in the past, and their individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Therefore, there is no cause for lamentation for anyone."

in the context of glamorama... it sounds a little familiar doesn't it 🤨

Cold Opening

it’s funny how most “first time reading” glam posts are about section 31 where victor meets up with alison

probably because it has the Coldest Opening fucking ever, starting off with nonsensical dialogue and introduces like 7 characters simultaneously, most of whom will be irrelevant, which makes this dialogue really funny:

"I don't think I'm really part of the story," she says.
"You think any of these bozos are?" I snort. "Spare me."

it’s both a way of telling you, dear reader, who the story is about (it’s not these guys, so feel free to forget them) and also gives insight into victor’s character.

this is also a good example of the different levels of his unreliability, as both a narrator and character. it's such a normal thing for a self-absorbed person to say and after hearing the specks rant, you wouldn't think that he was telling the truth. as a character, he's already considered to be a "boy who cries wolf," thanks to the egregious claims and out-of-touch front he puts up.

The One About Patrick Bateman

victor, who gets jealous over a man sitting a bit too close to chloe, letting patrick flirt lightly with her AND THEN defending his obviously off-putting vibes is so....

the implication being that victor of all people thinking patrick is an 'unimportant fag' not worth the jealousy. lol

“I just like to keep—abreast,” he says, winking at Chloe.
After he leaves I finish the joint, then look at my watch but I’m not wearing one so I inspect my wrist instead.
“He’s strange,” Chloe says. “And I need some soup.”
“He’s a nice guy, babe.”

Fiction Becomes Reality

idk if i’ll ever get over how the real world circumstances of glamorama matched the text. How did ellis write such a boyfailure that his story also fails in sales and with the whole doppelganger thing coming in the form of zoolander???

Capricorn (Supposedly)

do you think ellis made victor a capricorn so he could make goat jokes. the references to mountains (mountain goats), victor being the (scape)goat. and um. victor being a throat ...goat.

Pop Music References

“Don’t do this now, Victor,” JD pleads. “Damien wants to be left alone.”
“But that’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh uh-huh.”
“Okay, okay,” JD pants. “Just get that fabulous ass over to Fashion Café, nab DJ X and do not sing ‘Muskrat Love.’”
“‘Muskrat Suzy, Muskrat Sa-a-am … ’”
“Victor, I’ll do whatever you want.”
“London, Paris, New York, Munich, everybody talk about—pop music.” I tweak his nose and march toward Damien’s chamber.
“Please, Victor, let’s go the other way,” JD says. “The better way.”
“But that’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it.”

“Hey Victor.” Baxter shakes my hand. “How’s the club going? Ready for tomorrow?”
“Do you have the time to listen to me whine?”

I order a bowl of raspberry sorbet and try to cheer Chloe up by turning it into a Prince song: “She ate a raspberry sorbet … The kind you find at the Bowery Bar …”

MTV (after polite laughter): “No. What really makes you mad? What really gets you angry?”
ME (long pause, thinking): “Well, recently, missing DJs, badly behaved bartenders, certain gossipy male models, the media’s treatment of celebs … um …”
MTV: “We were thinking more along the lines of the war in Bosnia or the AIDS epidemic or domestic terrorism. How about the current political situation?”
ME (long pause, tiny voice): “Sloppy Rollerbladers? … The words ‘dot com’? …”
MTV (long pause): “Anything else?”
ME (realizing something, relieved): “A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido.”

what's wrong with him (ellis making him have an "encyclopedic knowledge of pop music" because it was "kind of funny")

Chloe/Bobby Dialogue Parallels

Bobby glides in. I look up solemnly from whatever it is I’m doing. “You look nice,” he says.

“You look nice,” [Chloe] says, relaxing a little. “You look tired but you look nice.”

“What’s falling apart?” Bobby says, walking back up to me. “I think things are right on schedule.”
Pause.
“What … schedule?” I’m asking. “What … things?” Pause. “Bobby?”
“What things?”
“Yeah … what things?” “Just things.” Bobby shrugs. “Just things. Things about to happen.”
Pause.
“And … then?”
“And then?”
“Yeah … and then?”
“And then?”
I’m nodding, tears spilling down my face.
“And then? Boom,” he says serenely, lightly slapping my face, his hand the temperature of an icicle.

“Actually,” she says, “I think I’m supposed to stay here.”
“Why?”
“I think I’m supposed to shoot a scene.”
“What am I supposed to do?” I ask.
“I think”—Chloe squints at the script and then, looking up—“you’re supposed to go.”
“And then?” I ask.
“And then?” Chloe says, smiling.
“Yeah.”
“You’re supposed to come back.”

hey why do you guys have parallels it kinda freaks me out

something about how they were/are extremely successful models, how they both know victor well. how chloe compliments victor genuinely, while bobby does it to placate him and how chloe gives him an answer but bobby conceals......

you know..??

Come Back

"I don't care," she says, letting go. "I don't care if you come back," Chloe says. "I don't care anymore," she says. "Do you understand?"

"How do I know you'll come back?" Brad asks, looking up at [Bentley].

“And then?” Chloe says, smiling.
“Yeah.”
“You’re supposed to come back.”

At the door, standing in the hallway, I ask Davide, "How do you know I'll come back?"

actually it's never been more over than this

_{Source: TVTropes}

patrick: i can’t get into dorsia but my loser of a brother can. my life is actually a living hell

victor in the terrorist organization house:

You Don't Have The Clout 🙄

“If you ever touch her, Bobby, I swear to god I will fucking kill you, I swear to god,” I say, enunciating each word.

isn't it funny how bobby followed through on that threat. expanded more here