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| It's hard not to love Patrick Bateman when he looks like a Greek God... |
I spent my summer reading books about pyscho killers. And, while
some readers might think that the monstrous mind and body can only be found in slasher-horrors
with ugly creatures as their central villain, I'm beginning to think that the
best kind of monster is a human one. Let me explain...
In "Why We Crave Horror Movies" Stephen King
writes that "mythic 'fairy-tale' horror film[s]" often take away
"the shades of grey" that complicate everyday morality, so that
viewers can see "things in pure blacks and whites" (King 2). Certainly
that's true of many slasher films. Particularly when the villain is an ugly,
indiscriminating saw-toter. It's easy to
relax and enjoy the simplicity of a true slasher, because they're never overly complex.
No one's sad when the monster gets it in the end. Nor is anyone upset when that
douchebag who throws his girlfriend in front of the monster to escape gets his.
It's all in good fun. People who deserve to "get it," get it. Horrors
that feature human monsters aren't so fun. In fact, they make me downright
anxious for several reasons.
I read Easton's American
Psycho in June. If you've read (or seen) American Psycho, you know that Patrick Bateman, the novel's "protagonist," essentially gets away with
murder. He admits all of his disturbing crimes to his lawyer and his lawyer
treats it like a joke. But it isn't just the fact that Bateman gets away with
murder that complicates matters. It's the fact that Bateman is not completely
monstrous. He is a human being who sometimes lets his "uncivilized"
side break free. He lives a fairly boring (though luxurious) life that makes
him feel like he doesn't have a soul or personality. He feels like a nothing and
nobody in a sea of nothings and nobodies. His fears about being nothing are
frequently confirmed throughout the entire novel. For instance, Bateman's
"friends" and coworkers habitually mistake him for other people. I
found the mistaken identity theme strangely funny, but also depressing. Additionally, Bateman's conversations with his
friends are so boring and shallow ("How should one wear pinstripe
pants?") that I started dozing while reading it. I can understand
Bateman's frustrations. I have a boring job too. I get exhausted dealing with
coworkers who live their lives according to cliched, meaningless sound-bites,
like, "When God closes a window, he opens a door," "Believe in
yourself," and "Nothing worth having comes easy." Like Bateman,
I sometimes wish I could shake things up (uh...in a way that doesn't involve
murder in any way). That's the problem with "monsters" like
Bateman--they're so human--because they are human. Sometimes it's tough not to empathize with a
human monster, because there's a little slice of humanity that wants to break
free and handle social problems as a raging, violent id.
Easton knows that all humanity has a dark side. He makes a
point of lulling the reader into a sort of boredom (sometimes Bateman will talk
about music or clothes for chapters, for example) so that when Bateman randomly
throws in violent sentiments or compulsions, the reader is not only shocked,
but also entertained. I was disturbed while reading American Psycho, but it got to the point where I was just waiting
for the violence--the "good parts," the "big pay-off." I
think to some extent, Nabokov's Lolita
works a lot like American Psycho. Essentially,
Lolita tells the story of a
child-rapist who lies to a little girl so that he can control her completely.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that some people (classmates in my
undergraduate even) regarded Lolita as
a sort of bizarre romance. It's like some readers become complacent in the
horrors their reading, not only as stockholmed captives and victims, but also
as accomplices, as monsters. That's why I felt so anxious after I read American Psycho...I was cheering for
Bateman. Do you know how disturbing it
is to realize that as a feminist, socialist, passivest who abhors the poor
treatment of the homeless...I actually liked Bateman?
Now that is true
horror.
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