Legacy of Easton Ellis

I am a huge fan of satirist Bret Easton Ellis and he is one of the authors I like to get excited about when they have a new book released. Yesterday after making a joke about his dozens of pages of Patrick Bateman going on about Whitney Houston...I thought I'd look around the internet and see a few things about Ellis. I found out that Ellis is writing a sequel to Less Than Zero!!!! Less Than Zero is one of the most beautiful tragedies and difficult characters but so beloved. Of course, Robert Downey Jr. is well known for his incredible, foreshadowing? performance in that movie. On Wikipedia they had an interesting list of Ellis's legacy in pop cultural references and I thought it would be fun to copy here...

Did you know that Bret Easton Ellis built the character of American Psycho's Patrick Bateman on his own father. Hmm, ouch.

-On Bloc Party's 2007 album A Weekend in the City, the opening track, "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)", is based on the main character from Ellis's novel Less Than Zero. The parenthesised part of the title refers to the billboard that Clay drives past in the book.
-An album by Porcupine Tree, Fear of a Blank Planet, was largely inspired by Ellis' novel, Lunar Park. While the novel is told from the father's point of view, the record is mostly from the son's point of view, although "My Ashes" reflects the regrets of the son's dead grandfather as they scatter his ashes, referencing the scene at the end of Lunar Park.
-Eminem's group D12 have two songs called 'American Psycho' and 'American Psycho 2'.
-The Misfits have a song called American Psycho off their 1997 album American Psycho. The song is written about Patrick Bateman and references the story many times.
-Canadian rockers treblecharger have a song called American Psycho.
-Bret Easton Ellis is mentioned in the songs "Obsessions" by the UK band Suede and "The Booklovers" by the Northern Irish band The Divine Comedy (which also could be a reference to Ellis phrase 'This is not an exit' (American Psycho) taken from the book by Dante Alighieris - La Divina Commedia, Hell - Song III)


-Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers wrote a song about the character Patrick Bateman entitled 'Patrick Bateman'. The song was featured on the B-side of their single La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh) released July 26, 1993. The song gained a small amount of notoriety for the line 'I fucked God up the ass'.
-In the television series Dexter, the main character uses Patrick Bateman as an alias.
-In The Simpsons episode "Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes" Uncle Herb gives "The Great Books of Western Civilization" to Lisa as a present. She would receive Ethan Frome first and the rest through installments, ending in Less Than Zero.
-The mixed martial arts fighter Stephan Bonnar is nicknamed the "American Psycho" due to his clean cut facial features and resemblance to Patrick Bateman.
The 2009 Australia film The Beautiful and Damned directed by Richard Wolstencroft, and based on the famous novel by F.Scott Fitzgerald is dedicated to Ellis.
-Portuguese metal band Moonspell named a track in their 1999 album The Butterfly Effect "Disappear Here", having its lyrics inspired by the novel Less Than Zero.
-San Marcos, TX band The Patrick Bateman Experience take their name from the anti-hero of American Psycho. The majority of their songs and lyrical content are references to Ellis' work.
-Bryan Metro, the vocalist for the Detroit, MI electronic garage band The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre takes his stage name from the character of the same name in The Informers.
-Toledo, OH band HIGHLAND reference many of the themes presented in Rules of Attraction in their 2006 song "Ode To Ellis" including a constant theme of "recreational drugs and casual sex leading to one's confusing distorted vision of what true love is."
-Connecticut hardcore band Bateman is named for the anti-hero of American Psycho.