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connieischill's reviews
1501 reviews
White by Bret Easton Ellis
3.0
Great first half, but the second half descends into Ellis repeating himself. I do think it's funny that Ellis insists he's a centrist but is so caught up in his emotions over the left's reaction to the right and alt-right. Ellis paints himself as this easy-going, relaxed, 'wow stop yelllling' kinda guy, but when he actually delves into his actual personal life, there's actually a lot of heated emotion and thought there. Like, he must be having some reaction to the left's anger if he spends half a book talking about them, and it is kind of telling that he tries to take a centrist stance but it just... doesn't work.
There are things I agree with. I live in the UK, where it's becoming increasingly obvious that there isn't much of a distinction between labour and conservative values anymore, and I know a lot of people who made the decision to vote third party or not vote at all because of that. The same can be said of American politics - using 'democrat' as a false cover for politics and ideals that really aren't all that different from republican stances, when you actually peel back the layers. People do use victimization in order to hide from reality, and to punish those who disagree with certain thoughts and opinions. There's a lot of disillusionment surrounding politics, and I think Ellis has a great take on it, again when he isn't bogged down by this false-centrist position he believes he's occupying.
The personal parts are what really hit for me. He talks about film and books, how they influenced him growing up and influenced his writing, but also shaped the headspace he was in. It wasn't quite tough love; more like adults were still preoccupied with themselves moreso than their children, which is why so many of those children wound up as helicopter parents. It's certainly an interesting point, and it's funny to note that those self-obsessed boomers largely turn out to be doting grandparents, too, even if they weren't that as parents themselves. Ellis perceives this as a bad thing, and while I agree it's made our generation overly sensitive in some respects and means that people have lost the ability to actually have meaningful debate in a lot of spaces, I also don't think it's entirely bad, and Ellis's fatalist approach means he just winds up shaming anyone and everyone's genuine passion for social issues. There's a lot of nuance there I could probably go into more, but I'm tired and don't want to right now.
I love how Ellis talks about his career, his passion for his work even if he tries to shade the passion he has, because, again, he gets wrapped up in trying to remain impersonal and really hammers home this fatalist point of view that really doesn't match up with how much he actually does show he gives a shit about his work. There's also a really short part of I think the final chapter where he talks about what I believe is the TV show Pose, where he ALMOST starts to show emotion, but cuts it off so he can start talking about leftists again. Honestly, even just editing down of the last 100 pages wouldn't have made his centrist defence quite as boring as it wound up being, purely because he repeats himself again and again and again and again.
However, we have to remember that Ellis is a fiction writer first and foremost, and a good fiction writer at that, and impersonality is an approach he takes in most of that fiction. His characters are dazed, lost, and not quite sure of what they're doing, and these random peaks of emotion and contradiction in that final half could be the fiction writer peeping in. He's a self-admitted troll, who takes some glee in provoking people, so that might actually all be part of his intention. I don't know, but I wrote all of this, and it's my opinion, so I'm keeping it here, since Ellis also believes in absolute freedom of speech!
There are things I agree with. I live in the UK, where it's becoming increasingly obvious that there isn't much of a distinction between labour and conservative values anymore, and I know a lot of people who made the decision to vote third party or not vote at all because of that. The same can be said of American politics - using 'democrat' as a false cover for politics and ideals that really aren't all that different from republican stances, when you actually peel back the layers. People do use victimization in order to hide from reality, and to punish those who disagree with certain thoughts and opinions. There's a lot of disillusionment surrounding politics, and I think Ellis has a great take on it, again when he isn't bogged down by this false-centrist position he believes he's occupying.
The personal parts are what really hit for me. He talks about film and books, how they influenced him growing up and influenced his writing, but also shaped the headspace he was in. It wasn't quite tough love; more like adults were still preoccupied with themselves moreso than their children, which is why so many of those children wound up as helicopter parents. It's certainly an interesting point, and it's funny to note that those self-obsessed boomers largely turn out to be doting grandparents, too, even if they weren't that as parents themselves. Ellis perceives this as a bad thing, and while I agree it's made our generation overly sensitive in some respects and means that people have lost the ability to actually have meaningful debate in a lot of spaces, I also don't think it's entirely bad, and Ellis's fatalist approach means he just winds up shaming anyone and everyone's genuine passion for social issues. There's a lot of nuance there I could probably go into more, but I'm tired and don't want to right now.
I love how Ellis talks about his career, his passion for his work even if he tries to shade the passion he has, because, again, he gets wrapped up in trying to remain impersonal and really hammers home this fatalist point of view that really doesn't match up with how much he actually does show he gives a shit about his work. There's also a really short part of I think the final chapter where he talks about what I believe is the TV show Pose, where he ALMOST starts to show emotion, but cuts it off so he can start talking about leftists again. Honestly, even just editing down of the last 100 pages wouldn't have made his centrist defence quite as boring as it wound up being, purely because he repeats himself again and again and again and again.
However, we have to remember that Ellis is a fiction writer first and foremost, and a good fiction writer at that, and impersonality is an approach he takes in most of that fiction. His characters are dazed, lost, and not quite sure of what they're doing, and these random peaks of emotion and contradiction in that final half could be the fiction writer peeping in. He's a self-admitted troll, who takes some glee in provoking people, so that might actually all be part of his intention. I don't know, but I wrote all of this, and it's my opinion, so I'm keeping it here, since Ellis also believes in absolute freedom of speech!