Bret Easton Ellis, the Seer
What will become of us in this society shaped by atomization, digitization, generalized confusion, and supreme eroslessness.
In his 2019 book, White, Bret Easton Ellis reflects on his childhood of carelessness and strangely fluid movement through the grittiness of existence. Images are often the most powerful entrance into the unknown, a fragile line between innocence and experience.
Counteracting today’s culture of victimhood (which has continued to unravel since the publication White), Ellis writes about the desire to watch horror movies, and how this childhood endeavor contributed to his development.
Whether it was Harold Robbins’ novels or The Exorcist, Ellis’ generation accepted this without much ado. “We consumed all of this,” writes Ellis, “and none of it ever triggered us—we were never wounded because the darkness and the bad mood of the era was everywhere, and when pessimism was the national language, a badge of hipness and cool. Everything was a scam and everybody was corrupt and we were all being raised on a diet of grit.”