Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964 in Los Angeles ) is an American writer .
Life
Ellis grew up in Sherman Oaks , California . In 1986 he completed a music education at Bennington College in Vermont . This college later served as a template for the fictional "Camden Arts College", which plays a central role in his novel Simply Irresistible (The Rules of Attraction) . In the early 1980s he played keyboard in several new wave bands, e. B. at "The Parents".
During his studies Ellis gave the later novel Unter Null as a work for a creative writing course. His professor was impressed with the work and motivated Ellis to publish the novel. In 1987 he moved to New York City , where he published his second novel Simply Irresistible . In 1991, Ellis rose to become a cult author with his third novel, American Psycho . The excesses of violence and sex, described in detail, which are embedded in the meaningless life of the protagonist Patrick Bateman, have brought the novel a lot of attention. After American Psycho made him famous around the world, Ellis's drug excesses escalated . A minder accompanied him on reading tours on behalf of his publisher Vintage Books in order to curb Ellis' drug consumption .
Three years later, in 1994, the short story collection The Informers appeared , in which some characters from his previous books appear. However, the informant was intended to fill the gap, as the publication of his novel Glamorama had been delayed several times. Finally, Glamorama was published in 1999, but was received by the critics much more negatively than American Psycho . In 2001 the feature film Zoolander was released , starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson . Ellis accused the producers of Zoolander of stealing the idea of Glamorama. Between 2005 and 2009, this litigation was apparently settled in a secret agreement.
His next work, Lunar Park , was a semi-autobiographical novel, the main character of which is also Bret Easton Ellis and is also an author.
A sequel to Unter Null , called Imperial Bedrooms , was released in 2010 when Ellis moved back to Los Angeles. In this novel, some characters from Unter Null reappear, but around the age of 40 and married. The film adaptation of The Informants came out in 2009. In March 2012, Ellis announced that he was writing the script for another sequel to American Psycho .
He wrote the script for the 2013 film The Canyons .
He has been producing his own podcast since 2015 . There he speaks for an average of one and a half hours with an artist whom he often knows personally. It's about films, literature, current political and social issues and social attitudes. Among others, he has already sat with the directors Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth , the actors Judd Nelson and Alex Pettyfer as well as the musicians Kim Gordon and Michael Angelakos ( front man of Passion Pit ) as well as the writers David Shields and Mark Z. Danielewski .
Writing style and topic
Ellis uses a very simple and flat style of writing. He often works with the stylistic device of repetition, in American Psycho, for example, the protagonist repeats the sentence over and over again: “I have to bring some videos back” before or after he has committed an act of violence. Ellis' works are characterized by a quick, hard language. In each of his books, drugs and sex play a major role, reflecting the image of a "lost generation" that Ellis fictionally created.
The author is often referred to as "Catcher in the Rye for the MTV Generation", ie " The catcher in the rye of the MTV generation". His characters are often superficial and interchangeable, there are hardly any other topics of conversation than drugs, fashion, etc. The decline in values is discussed as well as the "fun generation" who are looking for the next kick, regardless of feelings or laws to take.
In his novels, various characters appear in supporting roles or through mentions. Clay, the protagonist of Unter Null , appears in Simply Irresistible as the narrator, the protagonist is Sean Bateman. In American Psycho , scenes from Unter Null are addressed again, but in which Clay is replaced by the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, the brother of Sean Batemans. In The Informants , an anthology of short stories, Clay and Patrick and two characters each from Unter Null and Simply Irresistible appear .
A lunch that takes place between Sean and Patrick Bateman is described from Sean's point of view in Simply Irresistible and Patrick's point of view in American Psycho . Glamorama describes long stretches of Victor Ward's European trip, whose return from Europe Lauren Hynde in Simply irresistible longingly waits. In Glamorama Patrick Bateman is also mentioned, and in Lunar Park , almost all find Ellis' major characters again.
Works
- 1985: Less Than Zero ( Less than Zero ), dt. Sabine Hedinger , KiWi Paperback (2006) ISBN 978-3-462-03700-5
- 1987: Simply irresistible ( The Rules of Attraction ), German by Wolfgang Determann, KiWi-Taschenbuch (2001) ISBN 978-3-462-03000-6
- 1991: American Psycho . German by Clara Drechsler and Harald Hellmann, Kiepenheuer and Witsch (2006) ISBN 978-3-462-03699-2 (indexed in Germany from 1995 to 2001)
- 1999: Glamorama . German by Joachim Kalka , Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1999 ISBN 978-3-462-02834-8
- 2005: Lunar Park . German by Clara Drechsler and Harald Hellmann, KiWi-Taschenbuch (2019) ISBN 978-3-462-05206-0
- 2010: Imperial Bedrooms , German by Sabine Hedinger, Kiepenheuer & Witsch , Cologne 2010. ISBN 978-3-462-04236-8
- 1994: The informant ( The Informers ). German by Clara Drechsler, KiWi-Taschenbuch (2009) ISBN 978-3-462-03053-2
- 2019: white. ( White , Memoir) Translated by Ingo Herzke . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2019. ISBN 978-3-462-05351-7 ( White )
Film adaptations
- 1987 sub-zero ( Less Than Zero )
- 2000: American Psycho
- 2002: The Rules of Attraction ( The Rules of Attraction )
- 2009: The informant ( The Informers )
Secondary literature
- Sarina Schnatwinkel: The nothingness and the pain. Storytelling with Bret Easton Ellis. Transcript , Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-8376-2791-6 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Bret Easton Ellis in the catalog of the German National Library
- Bret Easton Ellis in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Bret Easton Ellis in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
- Bret Easton Ellis in the nndb (English)
- Interview with Bret Easton Ellis: “I'm afraid of the mirror” . In: Die Zeit , January 5, 2006, No. 2 by Georg Diez
Remarks
- ↑ The Believer - Bret Easton Ellis's LUNAR PARK
- ↑ Less than Zero Author Biography | Bret Easton Ellis | BookRags.com
- ↑ Andreas Kilb : " Executioner and his poet " - Review in Die Zeit No. 50 of December 6, 1991
- ^ Bret Easton Ellis alone at home - netzeitung.de ( Memento from June 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Review by Christian Jürgens: “ The monster is a moralist ” in: DZ
- ↑ collective - Bret Easton Ellis interview . BBC. Archived from the original on April 24, 2011. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
- ↑ Helmut Krausser : “ I am Hell ” - Review in: Die Zeit No. 12 from March 16, 2006
- ↑ "Ellis' young bastards from 1985 have now become old, rich, giant bastards," writes Stefan Mesch in his slap of the accompanying online video game .
- ^ Bret Easton Ellis Muses American Psycho Sequel
- ^ Bret Easton Ellis Podcast . In: PodcastOne . Retrieved March 30, 2016.
- ^ Bret Easton Ellis | Literary kicks
- ↑ Carmen Stephan: "Glamorama" Ellis in Wonderland , review in Spiegel Online from December 1, 1999, accessed October 5, 2019
- ↑ Doris Plöschberger: Ellis novel "Lunar Park" packed with crying misery , review in Spiegel Online of January 21, 2006, accessed October 5, 2019
- ↑ Gerrit Bartels: Bret Easton Ellis novel "Imperial Bedrooms": Zero must go , review in Der Tagesspiegel of September 25, 2010, accessed October 5, 2019
- ↑ Jan Wiele: The new book by BE Ellis: American Weichei , review in the FAZ from April 20, 2019, accessed April 25, 2019
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ellis, Bret Easton |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 7, 1964 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Los Angeles , USA |