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/lit/ - Literature

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4855222 No.4855222 [Reply] [Original]

So I'm reading "Less than Zero" right now and while it is very good (though I'd imagine it was better in the 80s) I have but one question.
Why does Ellis use the word "and" so much?
It's just kind of monotonous - staccato. Is it supposed to be repetitive? Replicating their vapid and pedantic lives by just being tedious, perhaps?
Great book so far though.

>> No.4855226

I'm taking a shot in the dark, but perhaps he was following Hemingway's lead--"and" being one of his favorite words.

>though I'd imagine it was better in the 80s

Perhaps. I read it in the 80s (geezer) and it definitely struck a chord.

>> No.4855230

>>4855222
I think his over use of "and" has the same rationale as the use of present tense: it flattens everything out to lessen any possibility of sentimentality or overt moralizing. It's like the scene in The Great Gatsby where there's a party taking place at Gatsby's house, and it's the only scene to be described in the present tense, which makes it seem extremely boring, like the party never ends and there's nothing to learn from it, really. Because depth and emotional weight are added in hindsight or with the help of the past, and if you strip the past from an event (or use the conjunction "and" over and over) you're forced to look at it without context, which is it's own form of moralizing.

>though I'd imagine it was better in the 80s
I disagree; I think people may have been more immediately drawn to it in the 80s because it's about a culture they're familiar with, I think Less Than Zero has actually gained resonance as time has gone on, because it's not really about the 80s.

>> No.4855233

>>4855226
You know, I've always kind of romanticized the 1980s. Not to the degree of YouTube comments on "Stairway to Heaven" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" (regarding the 70s), but it had always piqued my interests as this kind of monolithic turning point in popular culture. Everything seemed to have become a product at once, the music, while for the most part tasteless was rather interesting. I'm looking at New Wave artists particularly.
Well, this book pretty much flushed that naive romanticism down the toilet. While it was obviously an extremely exaggerated, fictitious landscape, it really made me see that they were just as vapid and hopeless as the youth of today. Just more Wood paneling and Floral print couches.

>> No.4855236

>because it's not really about the 80s

A book written during a period of time that's not about that period of time. Genius.

>> No.4855244

>>4855226

>>4855233
here. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Cheesy but true.

Still, I can remember plenty of good moments--universally good moments--beyond the usual shallow party time bullshit. Looking back, cocaine didn't help the decade much. To this day, I'm glad I had no taste for uppers.

>> No.4855260
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4855260

I tell Trent that I can't find Julian and that I'm strung out and tired. He asks me where I am.
"In a McDonald's in Sherman Oaks." I tell him.
"That's why." Trent says
I don't understand and hang up.

Why is this so fucking funny?

>> No.4855267

>>4855260
are you from the LA area?

>> No.4855271

>>4855267
A big reason that I picked this book up is the fact that I just moved here (K-Town) about 3 weeks ago.

>> No.4855278

>>4855271
While I think that Less Than Zero is an excellent work of American literature that is not dependent on any one scene or geographical location, there is some added benefit in understanding what "the Valley" is or where Wilshire Blvd is or who lives in Bel Air and so on.

>> No.4855285

>>4855278
I used to come down to L.A. a lot with a buddy of mine, his uncle lived in Bel Air (Hamner Drive)
Seemingly, the only people who live in Bel-Air are old people.

>> No.4855310

>>4855285
because it's super expensive to live there.

>> No.4855666

>>4855222
I had an office manager that was a drunken whore new jersey party girl on weekends, and I let her borrow this book because it was "good". She didnt read it, but her mother did and it made her mom sit her down and talk to her about the direction her life was going in.

>> No.4855694

>>4855222

I feel like it's kind of dated in that 80s way. Kind of like how you watch Kiss of the Spiderwoman now and it reeks of the 80s, but not in a good way. I thought it was alright, but there was something that felt kind of dated about it.

>> No.4855744
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4855744

So was this book another version of Catcher? The few times people have brought this book up, they always say its a slightly older Holden in the 80's

>> No.4855757

>>4855744
Lets not go even close to that. Its a story about a kid in 80s LA doing drugs and living a worthless lifestyle that slowly descends from normal rich-kid loitering to being a participating member of a completely decadent society. Except its written by Ellis so its to fuckin hip for its own good, and really requires you to have either lived the 80s or lived in LA, just like American Psycho really resonated with similar yuppy douches in NYC.

People who read psycho now read it for gore but the people who read it then took it as legit criticism of their lifestyle devoid of any merit.

>> No.4855766

>>4855744
God, no. The contrast each other, if anything. Clay is a shell of a human being (the hint is in his name). Holden is emotional and passionate. The only similarity is that they both feature young people in a major city.