1 Rachelq Harman Walter Hesford Senior Seminar, Spring 2012 Mentor: Daniel Orozco Young, Rich, and Flashy:

The Violent Postmodernism of Bret Easton Ellis In the 1980s, the Literary Brat Pack wrote novels, novellas, and short stories about the affluent but apathetic youth who came to dominate popular culture due to their wealth, education, and complete disregard for responsibility. The writings of Bret Easton Ellis, Tama Janowitz, and Jay McInerny all reached commercial success through their descriptions of and appeal to this youth culture. Still, the success of the Brat Pack can primarily be attributed to Ellis and his first two novels that, in a shockingly candid manner, described the hedonistic lifestyles of wealthy, careless college students. During the tumultuous cultural transitions that took place in America in the 1980s, Bret Easton Ellis wrote about the experiences and changes taking place among the hedonistic and apathetic youth culture that he himself was a part of. His raw, at times rambling writing styles and often-violent subject matter reflected the simultaneously dangerous and delusional world in a manner that both shocked and inspired his readership. Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction, two novels written during Ellis college years, use postmodernist techniques to reflect on prevalent issues of the 1980s, from materialism and gentrification to drug use, alcohol abuse, promiscuity, senseless violence, and, above all else, the feeling of being completely alone in a crowded world.

2 Many social, cultural, and political changes took place during the time in which Elliss first two novels are set. Following the disappointment of the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and the ever-increasing disparity between rich and poor, an aura of complacency and apathy settled over youth culture. Inundated with the ready availability of teen-oriented media, consumer goods and designer drugs, focus shifted from civicmindedness to self-absorption. Characters in Elliss writing take this kind of socio-political indifference to an extreme in their actions and their speech to the extreme and exhibit in a hyperbolic pastiche of their real-life contemporaries, relying on MTV as their source of information and remaining painfully ignorant of the struggles of the lower class. Perhaps due to its novelty during Ellis genesis as a writer, the cable network MTV plays a large role in his characters lives. References to songs and their respective music videos litter both Rules and Zero, the latter of which goes as far as to take its name from an Elvis Costello song. Heather Mangine, Patricia Cunningham, and Andrew Reilly write in a chapter entitled Television and Fashion in the 1980s MTV influenced not only the music industry and television, but theatre, film, advertising, marketing, fashion, and almost every aspect of American culture during the 1980s. MTV immediately captured the attention of the younger baby boom generation, perhaps the richest consumer group in the history of the world (Twentieth Century American Fashion). MTV serves as a vehicle for some of the numerous pop culture references throughout his novels, most notably in Zero, which many reviewers at the time described as an experience nearly indistinguishable from watching the channel (qtd in Baelo-Allue). Sonia Baelo-Allue says in her book Bret Easton Elliss Controversial Fiction,

3 Less Than Zero is a 208-page novel divided into 108 very short sequences, from one single paragraph to three or four paragraphs, thus reducing the attention span demanded for each chapter and mirroring the speed and the flow of videos on MTV, which has a never-ending quality; it is 24-hour television divided into very short unconnected music videos or series of videos interrupted only by the veejays comments, interviews, or advertisements (48). Rules functions much in the same way in its division into brief sections that vary between viewpoints of various characters, often resulting in conflicting descriptions of their situations. The constant, contradictory back-and-forth mimics the breakneck pace of the music videos that provide, as Baelo-Allue says, the language that they otherwise lack (49). While Zero is told solely from the perspective of Clay, an 18-year-old college student home in L.A. for winter vacation, the quick cuts between scenes and in time also display the rapid, manic pacing of Elliss writing and of the eras entertainment. Fashion, also a big component of the Ellis world, was largely influenced by the videos shown on MTV. John Taylor of the highly successful hair metal band Duran Duran is reported to have made a comment about how band members were selected as much for their hairstyles as they were for their musical abilities, and that while some people worried about chords, he worried about his clothes (Fashion). Characters in Zero often act similarly, specifically referencing brands or performing artists when discussing clothing. In a scene early in the text, Clay describes the overwhelming materialism of his familys trip to the mall to purchase Christmas gifts: My mother has spend most of this time probably at Neiman-Marcus, and my sisters have gone to Jerry Manin and have used our fathers charge

4 account to buy him and me something and then to MGA and Camp Beverly Hills and Privilege to buy themselves something (23). This abuse of wealth and the ready availability of high-end commodities shows up again and again throughout Zero. Characters purchase, use, and discard clothing, cassette tapes, food, and drugs without any thought for cost, either physical or monetary, a reflection on both the media-dominated consumer culture perpetuated by networks like MTV and the disregard exhibited by the wealthy for their fortunate position. Elliss novels focus primarily on the lifestyles of the extravagantly rich upper crust on both coasts. However, the 1980s were a time of class struggles and In spite of the seeming affluence brought about by Ronald Regans presidency and policy of Reganomics, the theory that wealth would trickle down from the rich to the middle and lower classes, the mid-1980s were a time of great social division. Rather than contributing to microeconomics, those with a lot of money invested in untaxed stocks and other already well off businesses. In his article The Poverty of Bret Easton Ellis, John Conley discusses a 1988 incident regarding the eviction of hundreds of homeless from New York Citys Thompson Square Park. On December 14, 1989, while Bret Easton Ellis was finishing American Psycho, the entire park population was forcibly evicted, their belongings hauled away by city sanitation trucks. That night also happened to be the coldest one of the winter, to which then parks commissioner Henry J. Stern cynically quipped, It would be irresponsible to allow the homeless to sleep outdoors (116-7).

5 Sterns dismissive attitude is representative of much of the upper class, particularly the young members discussed in Elliss writing. In Rules, characters constantly debase local residents of their college town, or townies, speaking negatively about or more directly mocking them to their faces. In the opening chapter, Lauren drunkenly loses her virginity to an unknown man whom she eventually discovers is one of the towns residents. As she begins to comprehend the situation, she laments more that she had actually gone to bed with a townie (Rules 15) than about the nonconsensual situation in which it happened. This perspective is reflected and repeated by all the characters in each section of the novel. After splitting from Sean, Paul attempts to rebound with a townie because he suspects it will be both easy and uncomplicated, with no emotional repercussions, and because theres no one else available (242). He describes him as a townie who, for a townie, is actually pretty good looking (241) and even as he lusts after his beautiful face, [his] strong tight body, and [his] Roman nose (241-2), he constantly references how stupid he finds him. This notion of the worse off only having value when they can serve a physical is highly indicative of the general perception of the rich toward the poor during this time period. This derogatory attitude is mirrored in Zero, though in a more distanced manner. The characters, all rich college-aged students and dropouts, avoid the less fortunate at all costs. For instance, when Clay and Blair are driving across town, visible discomfort is shown on the part of both characters.

6 We pass a poor woman with dirty, wild hair and a Bullocks bag sitting by her side full of yellowed newspapers. Shes squatting on a sidewalk by the freeway, her face tilted toward the sky; eyes half-slits because of the glare of the sun. Blair locks the doors and then were driving along a side street up in the hills (Zero 142). For these characters whose biggest worries are finding more cocaine before they run out, being poor is an unimaginable fate. There is no sympathy or compassion for, or even real comprehension of, the difficulties faced by those not born into money. Instead, an easy solution is always available if and when the characters run into financial problems. As in real life, the rich only get richer while the poor are ignored and left to ferret out their own solutions to an inescapable predicament. These references in Elliss work, as well as his continual blending of both high and low culture references, use of lengthy, semi-run-on sentence structure, and exhibition of emotional blankness in both his tone and word choice are all indicative of postmodernist writing. Baelo-Allue provides this definition of postmodern writing in relation to Elliss style in the early chapters of her book, providing strong support for this assertion: Postmodernism usually refers to a certain constellation of styles and tones in cultural works: pastiche; blankness; a sense of exhaustion; a mixture of levels, forms, styles; a relish for copies and repetition; a knowingness of that dissolves commitment into irony; acute self-consciousness about the formal, constructed

7 nature of the work; pleasure in the play of surfaces; a rejection of history (Gitlin, qtd. in Baelo-Allue 26). Ellis writes in an incredibly self-conscious manner with a style that is incredibly aware of its intentions. His incredibly lengthy sentences take on an at times rambling feel that sucks the reader into an inconstant, chaotic, but at the same time inconsequential environment. His main characters, particularly Sean and Clay from Rules and Zero respectively, often repeat phrases either out loud or to themselves- Sean with rock and roll as a nonchalant way of dismissing an unpleasant or uncomfortable situation, Clay with the mantra-like disappear here as a reactionary statement to the crumbling world he sees around him. Situations are also repeated throughout the novels. Pauls early sexual tryst with Sean in Rules is vividly mimicked in Sean and Laurens later relationship, with the dominant roles reversed. This results in a surreal statement about the static nature of the characters lives and environment in which they are surrounded. By writing from varying perspectives throughout the story, Ellis is able to create a sense of uncertainty about what actually constitutes truth. For example, Paul describes his first meeting with Sean as mutually flirtatious and rife with sexual tension; Sean, on the other hand, barely mentions the encounter or Paul at all, leaving the reader to determine what is really occurring. Elliss novels employ constant low-culture references to consumer products (Coke, McDonalds, Becks), brand name fashions (Dior, Swatch), and popular entertainment (Talking Heads, The Night of the Living Dead, Penthouse magazine). By working these allusions without commentary or importance into almost every exchange or description, he highlights the consumerism prevalent in 1980s culture. Cassette tapes are made and

8 disposed as quickly as the Top 40 songs change on the radio; expensive designer clothes (the labels always specifically mentioned) are abandoned at the houses of one-night-stands without any concern or regret. The constant referral to and dismissal of a disposable way of life emphasizes the wastefulness and apathy the characters also apply to their own lives and bodies. In Rules, a student commits suicide after Sean unconsciously rejects her. Other than a one-paragraph first person description of the act (173-4) and a nearly incoherent rant from the perspective of the drugged-up girl who finds the body, she is no longer referenced except in passing, a casualty of the self-absorbed Camden culture that thinks only of what others can do for them. Similar disregard for human life occurs in Zero when Clay and his group of friends all willingly attend a snuff film involving the rape and murder of two underage children and then later attempt to repeat the encounter at the climax of the novel. While these events are decidedly sensationalized and intended to shock, they are also in no way discussed negatively. Elliss intention is not to promote morality or warn against the oftenvile actions of his protagonist; rather, he simply describes the actions and reactions experienced by himself and his peers. The promotional blurb on the back of Less Than Zero describes it as, a shocking coming-of-age novel about the casual nihilism that comes with youth and money, [that] marks the stunning debut of the first voice of a new generation. The story, a hectic, violent narrative detailing the Christmas break of several wealthy drug abusing college students, in no way fails to live up to these claims. Both Zero and his follow up novel, The Rules of

9 Attraction, chronicle the tumultuous changes of the second half of the decade, paying attention to several overarching themes not limited to but including sex, drug and alcohol abuse, apathy and self absorption, family estrangement, and the constant dishonesty perpetuated by the characters equally toward each other and themselves. Characters in both novels view sex as casual, unimportant, and to be given (and, sometimes, taken) freely. Rules opens in the middle of a rambling reminiscence about the night she drunkenly lost her virginity. As she awakens and begins to remember the painful, nonconsensual experience, the exact opposite of what she had anticipated, she reacts in a way indicative of the tone for the majority of the text: "It was beginning to dawn on her that she didn't know which one she had (technically) lost her virginity to (though odds were good it was the film student from N.Y.U. and not the townie), even though that seemed somehow beside the point on this post-virginal morning... Her bra was still on. And she said to no one, though she had wanted to say this to Daniel Miller, 'I always knew it would be like this'" (Rules 16) As previously mentioned, her largest concern is that a townie was involved, rather than the date rape as a whole. For the rest of the novel, both major and minor characters constantly enter into sexual situations described with varying levels of interest. In fact, the sexual acts themselves are never the focus. In a way, the characters are too self-centered to even relate the physical experience to the reader, instead choosing to focus on their own thoughts and derisions toward the person with whom they are copulating.

10 Characters act in a similarly irresponsible manner when it comes to substance abuse. The most important moments in Rules are framed around the context of drinking or smoking marijuana either in a party setting or as enticement to get someone to go home with the speaker. Similarly, almost every scene in Zero shows Clay or one of his friends either having an (underage) drink or doing cocaine, not to mention the constant chain smoking of cigarettes that occurs in both novels. Clay does enough cocaine, and is wealthy enough to afford to not only regularly keep the expensive habit going, but to readily gage the source and quality of that of his friends. A normal conversation with his friend Trent escalates within a few sentences to an invitation and an excuse to do more of the drug Clay purchased only moments before, though he does not reveal this fact: "I don't tell him I already have some and he takes out a gold spoon and presses the spoon into the powder and then holds it up to his nose and does this four times... I do four hits also and my eyes water and I swallow. Its different coke than Rip's and I wonder if he got it from Julian. It's not as good" (Zero 35). For the eighteen and nineteen year olds in Elliss writing, cocaine is a sophisticated and social drug with little to no stigma associated. While other drugs are also mentioned and abused within the novels, most notably in a horrifying scene in Zero where a fresh-outof-rehab shoots up heroin to the disgust of all present, none reach the level of acceptability that cigarettes, alcohol, and cocaine do. Ellis is also not specifically clear on where to draw the line between tolerable and unsavory. Depending on the situation and speaker, being blackout drunk can be seen as desirable or dangerous, and shooting up intravenous drugs can be used for research or for a death wish. Regardless, Ellis avoids a discussion of morality. The opinion of one character is just that, an opinion, with the overall reaction

11 within the novel remaining as passive as the characters themselves toward the gross disregard for health and well being exhibited by the users of these addictive substances. The characters in Ellis novels, influenced by the passive nature of their entertainment, social relationships, and easy access to anything and everything they could desire, live life in an overwhelmingly inert fog, unaware and uninterested in passion or selfimprovement. In Rules, students show complete disregard for their classes or classmates, not to mention their total apathy toward their own lives and bodies. As a transitory segment between major plot points, Lauren describes the sexual state of affairs between her and her friends: Im with Franklin now. Judy doesnt care. Shes seeing the Freshman, Steve. Steve doesnt care. She fucked him the night she went to Williamstown. I dont care. Its all so boring (Ellis, Rules, 101). Similar apathy is shown toward completing homework, attending classes, and forming meaningful connections with other humans. Judy is constantly referred to as Laurens best friend, but their complete disregard for each others emotions is readily apparent throughout the text. When Lauren enters into a relationship with the boy Judy has been lusting after, the stereotypical girl drama is subverted since neither character actually cares about who is with whom. This self-absorbed, completely lethargic way of life is summed up perfectly in an exchange between Clay and Rip in the final section of Zero, But you dont need anything, you have everything Clay says as they leave a room where a group of their friends are trying to replicate a snuff film involving the rape of a 12 year old girl. Rip is described throughout the novel as living a life of complete hedonism and availability, playing Atari all

12 day, sleeping around, and dealing cocaine at parties, so his response to the question is both surprising and understandable: I dont have anything to lose (189-90). The characters in Zero drift in between schools, easy jobs, hook ups and relationships, and possessions with no fear of failure. Because of this safety net, an attitude of complete indifference becomes comfortable and unsurprising. Clay, Rip, Trent, Blair, and the rest of their ever-evolving list of rich acquaintances require nothing to feel content, and because of this never find real satisfaction. Their casual attitude toward dangerous behaviors is merely a reaction to the easy lifestyles provided for them. They search constantly for an escape, a chance to disappear here, a chance to feel in world where emotions are constantly numbed by apathy and substances and the complete lack of consequences. A large factor in Elliss characters recklessness is the lack of parental or authoritative figures. Characters in Zero constantly make reference to their parents absence or, more often, to the absence of others parents. Clay describes his sisters in an incredibly detached manner, unable to even identify their ages or give them individual names. Instead, they become consumerist beings worth nothing that want nothing other than the latest clothes, drugs, and video games (23-4). Similarly, when describing his parents divorce, he says, He and my mother who havent said that much to each other since the separation which was, I think, about a year ago, seemed really nervous and irritated that the holidays had to bring them together like and they sat across from each other in the living room and said, I think, only four words to each other (65). The long, rambling nature of this sentence adds to the feeling of disconnect that permeates the entire meal, as well as the feeling of confusion and apathy exuded by Clay toward those he

13 doesnt view as valuable or dangerous (his ex-girlfriend, Blair, is treated in a similarly disposable manner). This is a common practice among Clays friends. Alana, for example, can only keep track of her fathers whereabouts by reading the tabloids. In Rules, all three primary narrators also experience this disconnect from their families, though in a much less passive manner. Sean, Lauren, and Paul all bluntly state their hatred or distaste for their parents, refusing to take phone calls, acting surly at family gatherings, and keeping their real thoughts and actions completely veiled. Despite the fact that they owe their financial stability and comfort to the very people they claim to abhor, these students act as if their parents are the primary source of their unhappiness and woes. Both Sean and Paul narrate their meetings with their families, Paul with his mother and childhood acquaintances family, Sean with his elder brother Patrick when they visit their dying father. When Ellis provides a section from the perspective of the family members, the meetings seem fairly average and far from ill intentioned; however, both primary narrators discuss the incidences with complete disdain and disgust. For them, the family serves no purpose other than an annoyance and a source of fuel for their completely self-centered, pleasure-focused lifestyles, and having to actually interact with and own up to their family members is far too serious and mundane a task to even be taken seriously or soberly. Perhaps due to the foggy atmosphere of a drug-addled, disconnected and isolated reality, dishonesty is a universal trait in the characters Ellis writes about. The fragmented storylines, told from the perspectives of multiple narrators, allows the reader to fully see

14 the way in which characters lie to themselves and each other. In Rules, the relationships between Sean, Paul, and Lauren are always uncertain due to the unreliability of each of the narrators. For example, when Paul describes Sean- He was always so animated around me, but so reserved and serious in front of other people. In bed, too, hed alternate between being melodramatically loud and then a parody of the strong, silent type (99)- he holds nothing back, and the reader gets a sense of serious attachment. Pauls sections are the longest in the section of Rules during the purported relationship between himself and Sean, which he views as wonderful until his trip to Boston where he realizes the hollowness. Sean, on the other hand never really discusses Paul unless he is actively participating in the scene. The strongest example of this comes when Sean fails to give Paul a ride to the bus station, saying Theres no way Im driving this dude to the bus station. I cant believe he even asked me (117). The use of the word dude, along with his trickery when he pretends to be unable to start his motorcycle, implies that the intimacy so strongly desired by Paul is perhaps nonexistent; however, Elliss writing style makes it almost impossible to determine who is lying and who is telling the truth. This scenario is later mimicked in the relationship between Lauren and Sean- his sections become longer, more rambling, and filled with declarations of love for a girl he doesnt even know exists until halfway through the work; hers become sparser and more terse and still centered around her run-away ex-boyfriend Victor. Again, the reader understands that one or both of the involved parties is not being honest, though in this situation it is very clear that Lauren is being at the very least more honest with herself than Sean during his tryst with Paul.

15 While this form of roundabout dishonesty is not revealed in Zero, due to the single narrator rather than multiple speakers, lies still abound both from and toward Clay, the speaker. He often lies through omission, ignoring phone calls and feigning ignorance about blown off plans, and is lied to by lovers, friends and, more often than not, his drug dealers. Early in the novel, he attempts to meet up with Rip at a caf to enact a drug deal, only to wait fruitlessly for hours. When Clay later confronts him at his ritzy home, Rip claims that it was just a misunderstanding: "He then looks at me and wants to know what I was doing at the Caf Casino in Westwood when he clearly remembers telling me to meet him at the Caf Casino in Beverly Hills. I tell him that I'm pretty sure he said to meet at the Caf Casino in Westwood... [I] get the feeling he never showed up at the Caf Casino in Beverly Hills either" (Zero 51). Still, there is no anger or sadness felt at the recognition of a lie. The characters in both novels expect to lie and be lied to, and in a culture of disappointment this constant dishonesty becomes both acceptable and predictable. It is also worth noting that the repetition of the proper noun Caf Casino is an incredibly postmodernist technique, utilizing both the highly specific and high-end business as a pop culture reference and the repetition of the proper title as constant reminders of the wealth and real-world connections exhibited within the book.

16 Although Rules and Zero are both self-contained novels with unique storylines, Ellis heavily employs the technique of referencing characters from past or future novels to provide better context for their actions and to emphasize certain similarities. Rules especially provides brief vignettes from the perspective of Clay, the narrator of Zero, although he is only known as the boy from L.A. This dehumanization of a character that informed readers know intimately builds on the sensation of anonymity and isolation that overwhelms the majority of his characters. Conversely, readers of Rules get a peek into the perspective of Steve the Handsome Dunce, mentioned briefly in Zero only by his unflattering nickname. Patrick Bateman, anti-hero of Ellis later novel American Psycho also makes an appearance as Seans brother, allowing the author to subtly set up the sociopathic murderer as another anonymous, even sympathetic human being through his own eyes during his interaction with Sean in the hospital with their dying father. Recognizing these crossovers is far from essential for an understanding of any of Elliss novels; however, having this knowledge adds to the significance of the interactions between the characters. Additionally, Elliss self-referential nature becomes in a way its own pop-culture allusion, another level of metafiction that functions much the same as the continual discussions of brand names, popular bands and films, and consumer products. In fact, through films and merchandise, Ellis work has become in its own way commercialized, recycled for profit in an ironic pastiche of the world Ellis himself called out for over-commoditization and abuse of capitalism. After the instant success of Zero in 1985, Ellis was catapulted to the affluent celebrity status of the bands and actors constantly

17 referenced in the novel. In more ways than one, he became inescapably embedded in the fame machine of easy status and easy money that he cynically discussed in his novel. Bret Easton Ellis was only nineteen when he began writing Less Than Zero, and barely twenty-one when it was published. Within a year, it had sold 50,000 copies (Baelo-Allue 13) and propelled him to celebrity status. Many critics, however, made note of the fact that, much like the characters in his books, Ellis came from an incredibly affluent family that provided him the means with which to go to an expensive liberal arts school with connections to the publishing world. As Baelo-Allue points out, his profile was not only about Less Than Zerobut also about his life as a student in California and the separation of his parents (14). He regularly abused drugs and alcohol and lived in the excessive manner seen since the beginning of the glorification of the cult of celebrity of the early 1900s. When Petry describes Elliss characters as spoiled rich kids, studio executives, yuppiedom, cocaine and drug abusers in general, Betamaxes, Oingo Boingo concerts, and psychopathic murderers (160), he is also describing Ellis himself. Mike Petry goes on to say that Elliss obsession is always the de-individualization and disaffection of the subject in consumer society; and his characters are always extreme. They are extremely flat, greedy, and mean; extremely perverse and rich- and extremely violent. Throughout, Elliss fictional universe is on that functions completely in hyperbole (160). While this is true to an extent, anyone looking at contemporary popular culture can easily see where the hyperbolic lifestyles of Elliss teens have blurred into reality. For

18 celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, or Lindsay Lohan, existing family affluence has garnered fame and success, and with the ready availability of designer drugs, easy sex, and the freedom to completely block out the reality of the struggling average American. Singers and rappers refer constantly to selling or using drugs, drinking every night, and fucking bitches without regard or respect. Hook-up culture has been glorified and accepted as normal by experimental youth looking for something, anything, to fill the lonely void that seems prevalent in our consumer-oriented society. Materialism runs rampant as people stand in line for days and spend hundreds of dollars on video games, technological gadgets, or the latest line of designer gowns. The Internet has allowed an entire generation to distance themselves even more from their peers, connecting only over social gatherings centered around drinking and smoking. With a divorce rate at over fifty percent, respect for the family unit has rapidly disintegrated. In short, the world described in Elliss early novels has not only persisted but also pervaded beyond wealthy youth culture to encompass the lower and middle classes alike. The Rules of Attraction and Less Than Zero are blunt and shocking portraits of selfabsorbed, self-destructive youth fueled by pop culture and excessive wealth to live apathetic and perpetually numbed lives. Author Bret Easton Ellis uses postmodernist techniques to highlight the wanton abuse of sex, drugs, and money he witnessed among his peer group and the upper class youth of the mid-1980s. His youth, combined with his highly specific writing style reflective of the emotions experienced by himself and his characters, combined to create graphically violent and sexual stories lacking in morality or judgment, serving merely as a reflection on where he saw culture headed. Nearly thirty

19 years later, the apathy and amorality discussed in Rules and Zero abound in contemporary popular culture, from the glamorized and ridiculously dramatic lives shown on reality TV to the hook up party culture that dominates youth culture from Beverly Hills, CA to Moscow, ID. Rebelliousness was far from a new concept when Bret Easton Ellis came to prominence in the mid-80s, but the self-centered hedonism completely cut off from real world issues or events was. Novels like Zero and Rules serve now as a clear reflection both on the burgeoning societal changes among the wealthy college-aged youth written about in the texts and the contemporary youth culture that to this day exhibits the apathy and excess that took root during Elliss generation.

20 Works Cited Baelo-Allu, Sonia. Bret Easton Ellis's Controversial Fiction: Writing Between High And Low Culture. New York, NY: Continuum, 2011. Conley, John. "The Poverty of Bret Easton Ellis." Arizona Quarterly: A Journal Of American Literature, Culture, And Theory 65.3 (2009): 117-137. MLA International Bibliography. Cunningham, Patricia A., Heather Mangine, and Andrew Reilly. "Television And Fashion In The 1980s." Twentieth-Century American Fashion. 209-228. Oxford, England: Berg, 2005. MLA International Bibliography. Ellis, Bret Easton. Less Than Zero. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985. Print. Ellis, Bret Easton. The Rules of Attraction. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1987. Print. Martin, Theodore. "The Privilege Of Contemporary Life: Periodization In The Bret Easton Ellis Decades." Modern Language Quarterly: A Journal Of Literary History 71.2 (2010): 153-174. MLA International Bibliography. Petry, Mike. "Pulling Down The Fun-House Of Postmodernism: Forms And Functions Of Violence In American 'Brat Pack' Fiction Of The 1980s And 90s." The Aesthetics and Pragmatics of Violence. 155-168. Passau, Germany: Stutz, 2001.