American Psycho

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American Psycho is a novel by the American author Bret Easton Ellis . The book was published in 1991 and was indexed in Germany in 1995 by the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People . After the German publisher of the book, Kiepenheuer & Witsch , sued against it, the Higher Administrative Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia lifted the indexing in February 2001. Since then, the novel has been freely available again in Germany.

content

The 27-year-old Wall Street - Yuppie and investment banker Patrick Bateman is a typical upper-class snob late 1980s he lived in an expensive apartment, wearing expensive designer suits, borrows and consumes constantly videos and bored with his newly rich friends in luxury restaurants , Night clubs or at coke parties. The catalog of the hottest delicacies and branded articles as well as the discussion of the correct etiquette in questions of fashion and behavior are the focus of the non-stop small talk.

But behind this facade, Bateman hides a second life that his acquaintances have no idea: He tries to compensate for the permanent emptiness in his life with sex, violence and murder. His drugs are getting harder and harder, his nightly orgies more and more dissolute and sadistic and his excesses of violence more and more cannibalistic. More and more he gets lost in a bloodlust and finally can hardly distinguish between reality and fantasy.

interpretation

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In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis creates an “American nightmare”. Money and belonging to the affluent society didn't get Bateman any further. American Psycho shows the evil face of an amoral materialism from which there is no escape. Bateman has achieved what many dream of: to get rich and lead a carefree life. However, this life is marked by extreme boredom and emptiness. The only content, the only variety, is Bateman's nightmarish sex orgies. Bateman has strong marketing traits . He defines himself through the consumer items and status symbols he uses and feels attacked in his self-worth when his business card seems less stylish than someone else's, which he compensates with a murder. The fact that he is mistaken for other people of a similar lifestyle suggests that this character is common in his social environment.

Towards the end of the novel, Bateman causes a bloodbath in the apartment of an acquaintance he had previously murdered, which can no longer be concealed. He confesses all of his atrocities to his attorney, but realizes that even he is ignoring him, believing it is just a joke and mistaking him for someone else. This is a key motif of the novel - on the one hand, because Bateman is mistaken again and again (even by closest friends), and on the other hand, because he constantly confesses his crimes without being heard - and symbolizes the superficiality of the in-crowd society that he moves.

When Bateman wants to check again after the victims of his massacre, who he left behind in the apartment, he is surprised to find that the apartment is empty, has now been freshly painted and is now being offered for sale. And the taxi driver, who recognizes him as the murderer of a colleague, doesn't report him, but just wants his wallet and his Rolex.

The question remains whether the constantly increasing excesses of violence are “real” but are ignored by society, or whether they only take place in the protagonist's psychotic phantasy . In any case, Ellis is alluding to the motif of loss of identity that recurs in his novels. This is also hinted at by Patrick Bateman's treacherous name: Norman Bates is the name of the schizophrenic character in Hitchcock's film Psycho , who kills unsuspecting women in his motel (Bates' Motel).

In addition to social criticism, American Psycho also provides a portrait of a typical psychopath . The novel offers indications that Patrick Bateman does not only suffer from the superficiality of his life. His first- person narration repeatedly reveals character traits that suggest a narcissistic personality disorder . This includes Bateman's behavior when he gleefully waving a $ 100 bill in front of beggars or when he orders a cheeseburger in a Jewish restaurant and reacts very aggressively when that order is refused (cheese with meat is not kosher ): Angry, he insists to be served a kosher cheeseburger.

Further clues for a personality disorder result from the fact that Patrick Bateman is very eloquent, but rarely writes about his emotions. Although he has a girlfriend, feelings like love seem alien to him. He reports on his serial murders in an emphatically cool and factual manner, as is often the case with similar confessions from real serial killers. Despite his monstrous deeds, he never appears particularly excited, but always extremely cold-blooded. He also reports completely callously about his mother's visit to the old people's home. The only chapter in which, aside from emotions such as anger or boredom, he seems to have any real feelings is the one in which he talks about his admiration for the music of his favorite band, the progressive rock group Genesis . Indirect indications that Bateman's behavior could be explained by his past can be found insofar as the reader hardly learns anything about his childhood and adolescence and that something “wrong” in a family photo with the eyes of his father, but nothing else learns about this father. In addition, Bateman meets once with his younger brother, who, even more decadent and arrogant than himself, apparently causes great internal problems. The fact that he immediately gets seats in what is currently the hottest restaurant and knows the maître d'hôtel causes Bateman to feel inferior and suggests long sibling rivalries.

shape

The novel is written from Bateman's perspective. The plot is built up chronologically from sections of his life within about three years. The protagonist sees the world like a film and makes use of cinematic techniques in his descriptions (e.g. slow motion, panning, zooming in, etc.). The seemingly only constants of the novel are Bateman's endless strings of possessions and their brands. The rooms are not described down to the last detail, but reduced to their surface (designer furniture, pictures by popular artists). According to some authors, the work represents the deconstruction of a sadomasochistic aesthetic.

Leitmotifs

Music: Bateman keeps mentioning his love for music. He analyzes his favorite songs, their pros and cons, their history.

I must return some videotapes : The sentence I must bring back some videotapes occurs every time Bateman has committed a murder, is planning a new one, or otherwise apologizes for not going on a date.

Les Misérables : Allusions to the musical and the book Les Misérables can be found just as often in the novel as the numerous mentions of the Patty Winters Show . Bateman sees things, mostly casually, that point to the musical or the book Les Misérables . So he sees z. B. a poster on a street corner or listen to the soundtrack to said piece in various restaurants. The references to Les Misérables mostly appear when Bateman comments on the ugliness of society or its losers.

The Patty Winters Show is a morning trash talk show that Bateman watches regularly or videotaped. Bateman regularly mentions the topic of today's show, mostly casually and unrelated to the action. The topics are mostly so trivial or grotesque (e.g. real rambos, salad bars, the best restaurants in the Middle East, Princess Dis's beauty tips, men raped by women, or a boy who fell in love with a soap box) that the mention The Patty Winters Show runs like a running gag through the entire book. The casualness with which the often contrasting themes of the show are interspersed illustrates the interchangeability and the distance to other people.

This is not an exit are the closing words of the novel. They suggest that Bateman's numerous murders cannot mitigate his personal hell either. The same thing is indicated in the film when the camera moves to this sign and Bateman says from the off that there is nothing that can alleviate his pain, only that he can pass this pain on to others and finally that this statement is also irrelevant . The novel begins with the graffiti smeared on the wall of the Chemical Bank in red paint Abandon all hope ye who enter here , a quote from Dante's Divine Comedy , which refers to the entrance to hell ( inferno ). If the novel ends with the red note This is not an exit above a door in a Manhattan bar and at the same time refers back to its beginning, this closing ring of fate underlines how hopelessly and hermetically Bateman is condemned to an endless loop without redemption is.

References in other plants

In his book Lunar Park , Bret Easton Ellis makes frequent references to American Psycho and the characters it contains. Among other things, Ellis points out that the violent scenes could also only be Bateman's fantasies.

filming

In 2000 the novel was filmed under the same name under the direction of Mary Harron . The role of Patrick Bateman was played by Christian Bale . Other actors were Willem Dafoe , Jared Leto and Reese Witherspoon .

In 2002 there was both a less successful direct-to-video sequel with Mila Kunis and William Shatner called American Psycho II: The Horror Continues and a film adaptation of another novel by Bret Easton Ellis ( Simply Irresistible ) in which Sean Bateman , Patrick's brother from American Psycho , plays a major role. This film was named The Rules of the Game because there is already a film called Simply Irresistible .

music

  • The horror punk band Misfits released an album American Psycho with the title track of the same name.
  • The band Treble Charger released a song called American Psycho .
  • The band Manic Street Preachers released a song called Patrick Bateman on their single La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh) .
  • The American black metal band Krieg an EP named Patrick Bateman .
  • The rap group D12 released two songs with the titles American Psycho and American Psycho II (feat. B-Real ) on their albums Devils Night and D12 World ; B-Real released the song American Psycho III (feat. D12) on the album The Gunslinger Mixtape Volume 1 .
  • The Swedish black metal band Shining uses a quote from the chapter End of the 1980s in the song Claws of Perdition on their album IV - The Eerie Cold .
  • The Finnish metal band Children of Bodom used part of Bateman's final monologue from the film at the end of the song "Bodom Beach Terror", which is continued in the next song "Angels Don't Kill".
  • The music project Nachtmahr uses the final monologue of the film in their song "Katharsis".
  • The German industrial band SITD also uses the final monologue of the film in their song "Insanity of Normality" from the album Rot .
  • The German rapper Prinz Pi describes Bateman as a role model in his song “Wunderkind”.
  • The band Rammstein quotes in their song I do hurt you with the text passage Make a wish, I don't say no / And introduce rodents for you. part of the plot.

Expenses (selection)

Audio books

literature

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Bundesprüfstelle: Decision No. 4454 of January 5, 1995
  2. ^ Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia: judgment of February 15, 2001
  3. ↑ Arne Hoffmann: Bound in leather. Sadomasochism in world literature , Ubooks 2007, p. 169ff. mwN
  4. ↑ Do you understand Haas ?: Index me, Ursula! In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved December 29, 2010 .