Less Than Zero

The article I have chosen to look at when researching Bret Easton Ellis's novel less than zero was written by Rob Horning and appears on a pop culture site http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/134041- The article discusses several aspects of the novel and as the article is focused on his re-reading of the novel at a later date and an older age he notes how cultural aspects have changed and why the book appeals to an audience of young adults rather than simply adults, people who are beginning to experience life but not the 'real world' as he states " it depicts a world in which parents are always absent, money is never an issue, drugs are always plentiful, and everyone is down for sex with everyone else. People o.d. and parents have abdicated all responsibility, but that just sets an appropriate backdrop of extremity; they don’t constitute real problems." suggesting that although the events in the book are extreme the actual problems the book deals with do not constitute real problems, such as being dumped by his high school girlfriend and growing apart from his best friend. The article suggests that the extreme and graphic events in the book are juxtaposed by the clay's issues, it states that a scene where a teenage girl is about to be raped by the protagonist's best friend is displaced by the fact that all Clay goes on to do is "pout earnestly about his girlfriend dumping him."

He then goes on to discuss how at the time of his first reading of the novel it appealed to him on every level, in his teenage years an extremely horrific event followed by brooding about such mundane issues did not seem out of place at all because being dumped was such a relatable issue and apparently in no way out of place in the same way the funding of drug fuelled pool parties and night clubs was not an issue.