Everyone has heard of — and most of us have seen — American Psycho. Less idolized but equally fantastic is the uber-90s rush of The Rules of Attraction. Both of these quaint little films are based on novels by Bret Easton Ellis, a young writer who work tends to center on empty individuals with a bent toward insanity, typically oversexed and drug-addled yuppies with enough money to buy a small island or three. Glassy-eyed viewings of MTV frequently play into the “like totally” dominated lives based in L.A. and New York City.

I recently picked up Less Than Zero, an Ellis novel about… well, kids with lots of cocaine and Ferraris. The prose is simultaneously flat and breathless, like the lives of the characters — non-stop rushes from party to party, speeding on coke but nonetheless apathetic, motionless.

I’m halfway through… and I’ve noticed I’ve been wearing my cliché MTV shirt a lot more frequently, lately.

Literature