/lit/ - Literature

I get to be employed, have money and laze around my office while listening to Huey Lewis

I assumed most people don't want to be Bateman. His chief obsessions are brands and his self-image.

>>12554783
The funnest part about being Patrick Bateman is the pathetic ness. There’s something cathartic about it; like a Dostoevsky or Hamsun charater

>>12554783
In real life there is a trade off

>[x] Intelligence
>[x] Good looks
>[x] Life of ease

You can only pick two.

If you want to be intelligent and good looking, you are really going to suffer— Be born poor. Have terrible luck. Abject loneliness. No family. Struggle to gain employment. You will suffer the most. This is by design to temper your pride. I picked intelligence and good looks and now pay the price.

>>12555534

You probably aren't that intelligent if you struggle to find employment. It's that or you're lazy which is again your fault.

>>12555534
what's you're iq

>>12554783
Only incels dream of being him

>>12554783
>we all want to be Bateman
Speak for yourself, faggot. Bateman was a wimpy loser and a literal cuck with a grossly inflated self-image. Why can't some people into unreliable narrator?

>>12555534
so much cope lmao

>>12555651
This. Batemans life is hit because he isn't able to actually live. He is so cripplingly empty that the only thing that matters to him are making people think he's living. He strives to feel to the point where he will do anything to feel anything. He is completely depersonalized and empty. Anyone who wants to be him either 1. Never read American Psycho, 2. Didn't understand American Psycho, or 3. Is more unfulfilled than a normative wooden model shellcase of a human being.

>>12554783
we all relate to bateman in some way. He doesn't care about his friends, they are just around to bolster his own self image. and this is the same for him, and he knows this.

>>12555690
Shit*

>>12554783
I don't. I recognize that there is a minor potential for me to become Bateman, that there is a little him inside of all of us, but I don't want to be wielded by an uncontrollable psychopathy. People think psychopathy is a form of liberation, I see it as slavery.

>>12555690 >>12554783

People don't necessarily want to be him but can really relate to him. If your in a state of self-loathing or have been before you can appreciate bateman more and more as Ellis himself was suffering when he wrote this.

Obviously AP is a take on Yuppie culture at the time and the struggle to fit in Bateman was not a psycho from birth he was a manifestation of his surroundings

Not related exactly, but I just finished Less Than Zero today and man, I hate rich people.

>>12555630
False.
Securing a position that pays well boils down to nepotism and qualifiers on the basis of credential, not potential—outside of this, it's luck.
>B.S. (Preferably from Top University), M.S. preferred
>5-7 years direct experience
>3-5 Professional references
>MUST
>REQUIRED
>A MINIMUM
An HR rep of average intelligence wants their job to be simple and stress free. They are not going to take the risk of interviewing you if you do not meet these qualifiers, no matter if you profess exceptional skill or ability. Cover letters, whether sincere or aggrandized, are seldom read, and can even backfire if the HR rep dislikes a small detail or a word you used. Then, if you make it to the interview and state expert knowledge or profess intelligence, it is perceived as arrogance, or worse, if you make it on to the next stage, they fear for their own jobs if they really do think you're that competent. "Who the hell does this guy think he is?"........ "Not so great now ~[Sorry We have Decided to move on to other candidates]~ SEND".. Of course, someone who isn't an autist realizes this and adapts quickly. Intelligence and knowledge become a professianic secret, where they must be withheld until able to be concretely demonstrated, lest one be deemed a braggart, or delusional. Not speaking of work ethic, knowledge, or ambitions proved more successful than testifying of these things.
Mentioning menial odds and ends to explain the gap years is even worse. They view you working at say Citgo as being white trash Joe Dirt, too stupid and poor to get a real job, and certainly a sucker that will work for nothing.

And all to what end? Undergraduate degrees are highly proliferated, even among traditionally more lucrative fields of study. The higher the salary, the greater the nepotism. It's not what you know but who for the best positions. Unsolicited networking is not welcomed, especially whenever you lack clout, familial prestige, or even a nice vehicle to show up in. A few positions offered the paltry sum of $34k/year for highly skilled work. An insult.

All of this forced me to go back to school for another field, about 6 years ago, and my entrance was discouraging. For want of anonymity, I won't go into much detail but something as simple as securing a non-fellowship research slot before enrollment (so as to get free classes given the loan default), was fruitless for months.
>>12555640
Tested at 161.
>>12555675
I've lost every single one of my "friends" because of these sort of attitudes. Setbacks happen, and they impose real barriers and direct your focus on more immediate concerns, basic survival.
If you look good, speak well and possess intelligence, even more blame is levied against you. Stagnancy is ascribed to a disposition of laziness. Ironic, considering the grave misery of my past situation, left little room for relaxation—there was no games, no movies, no money to go anywhere or do anything—if examined, the accusers were lazier.

>>12556974
maybe if you read basic supply and command economics you wouldn't hate so much. hate is a strong word.

>>12557189
>supply and command

>>12557189
Gums & Butter - econ 101

>>12554783
To get a reservation

>>12557167
Behold the mental gymnastics of the under performing introvert that thinks he is smart. Protip bud, experience requirements are just listed to ward off retards.

>>12555666
based trips speaking the truth here
bateman is an entirely unenvious character, which is the well constructed irony given the immense lengths he goes to prove the opposite

>>12554783
The only part of Bateman's life that I find desirable is the financial security. Everything else I find pretty repulsive. He does have some pretty hilarious inner monologues and the completely random and inconsequential things that fill him with a "nameless dread" are pretty damn hilarious. Myself being a 27 year old amerimut, I can identity with parts of his ideology espoused near the end of the novel. I do find most of the "daily grind" to be utterly devoid of purpose and value, but in the end that's nothing really profound. I think most people within my age and economic bracket feel the same way.
And finally, I think anyone who's been on 4chan long enough will appreciate his belligerent racism, sexism, homophobia, and overall smugness.

>>12557189
>YOU'LL BE SENT TO TRAINING AT MY EXPENSE AND BE PAID A SALARY
Fuck that was EPIC!

>>12557933
>Behold the mental gymnastics
>Protip bud