If you have more than an 8th grade reading comprehension the "There Is No Patrick Bateman" passage in American Psycho is one of the most breathtakingly tragic tear jerking sections in any book that I have ever read I cannot think of an excerpt from a story that is such an insane mournful hopeless bleak gut-punch its in competition with The Pigman and Pink And Say for tragic moments in literature.
"oh hes so scary so wacky he puts the rat in her pussy the movie cut out the best gore" THE HORROR ISNT THE GORE. THE HORROR IS TRYING TO SOCIALLY SURVIVE IN AMERICAN CULTURE AS SOMEBODY SUFFERING FROM THE OCD-CLUSTER B-AUTISM TRIPPLE WHAMMY! THE HORROR IS HAVING NO SENSE OF SELF OR CONNECTION TO THE POPULATION OF THE WORLD YOU EXIST IN AND THEN LOSING YOUR OWN GRIP ON REALITY IN PRIVATE SILENCE WHILE TRYING TO KEEP UP THE ACT THAT EVERYTHING IS OKAY AND YOU ARE ACCEPTABLE AS A HUMAN AND YOU BELIEVE YOU DESERVE TO EXIST! THE HORROR IS HOW CLUSTER B ANTISOCIAL TENDANCIES AND IDEATIONS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IS SO NURTURED BY THE SELFISH CULTURE CAPITALISM FACILITATES. THE HORROR IS CLINGING TO MEDIA LIKE A LIFE RAFT BECAUSE IT IS THE ONLY MATERIAL REALITY YOU CAN BE SURE OF WHILE YOUR OWN CONCEPT OF NOT JUST YOURSELF AS A PERSON HAVING OR LACKING VALUE BUT YOUR VERY RIGHT TO EXIST AS A MENTALLY ILL PERSON ERODES ALONG WITH YOUR ABILITY TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FACTUAL EVENTS AND DELUSIONS. THE HORROR IS FEELING LIKE A MONSTER EVEN WHEN SURROUNDED BY MONSTERS!
"he electrocute the boobies and they explode"
HAVE YOU EVER TRIED CONNECTING TO OTHER PEOPLE AS NOT ONLY AN AUTISTIC BUT A "BAD" CLUSTER B AS YOU SLIP DEEPER AND DEEPER INTO PSYCHOSIS THAT YOU MUST KEEP PRIVATE OR FACE COMPLETE SOCIAL CRUCIPHION AND BEING SHUNNED FOR SCENARIOS YOU NEITHER CARRY OUT NOR CONTROL THE IDEATIONS OF?
HAVE YOU EVER EXPERIENCED FEELING LIKE A DIFFERENT SPECIES FROM THE "NORMAL" PEOPLE AND COMPLETELY FAILING NOT ONLY TO CONNECT WITH THEM BUT TO COGNITIVELY REMEMBER THEY ARE AUTONOMOUS?
HAVE YOU EVER DEALT WITH SEVERE NON-TIKTOK-FRIENDLY MENTAL ILLNESS? HAVE YOU EVER EXPERIENCED THE KIND OF MENTAL ILLNESS THAT THERE ARE NO POSITIVITY OR ENCOURAGEMENT MEMES FLOATING AROUND THE SUPPORT GROUP MEME COMMUNITY FOR? HAVE YOU EVER GOOGLED YOUR CONDITION AND FOUND PARENTS ASKING IF THEIR CHILD IS CAPABLE OF LOVING BACK OR GIVING INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO IDENTIFY AND ABANDON "TOXIC" PEOPLE WITH YOUR CONDITION ND ENTIRE BLOGS CALLING YOU AN UNLOVABLE MONSTER WHO WILL ONLY HURT ANYBODY WHO INTERACTS WITH YOU WHEN YOU SEARCH YOUR CONDITION AND THE WORD "HELP" ON GOOGLE INSTEAD OF A SINGLE PIECE OF ADVICE ON LIVING WITH THE CONDITION AND MANAGING SYMPTOMS OR POTENTIAL TREATMENTS?
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN CONVINCED THAT YOU WERE SO COMPLETELY BEYOND HELP THAT YOUR ONLY OPTION WAS TO DISSOCIATE INTO NOT ONLY COMPLETE SELF-ABANDONMENT BUT COMPLETE ABANDONMENT OF YOUR PERCEPTION OF REALITY EXISTING ONLY IN ANTISOCIAL IDEATIONS THAT HAVE BECOME AN ESCAPIST FORM OF MALADAPTIVE DAYDREAMING BECAUSE YOU LITERALLY CANNOT COPE WITH YOUR DISGUST WITH BUT LONGING FOR BELONGING IN THE WORLD YOU LIVE IN UNTIL YOUR RESENTMENT AT YOUR INABILITY TO ASSIMILATE TO IT IN A GENUINE WAY RATHER THAN A CONSTANT EXHAUSTING PREFORMANCE CAUSES YOU TO LITERALLY DETERIORATE INTO MADNESS?
"Ohh scary spooky sociopath washing his face" obsessively and preforming an entire routine of compulsions related to his obsession with his appearance because he feels his soul is unpresentable and that others will mock and reject him if he does not have a perfect appearance which he sees as his only offering to other humans
"he goes on creepy rants about music" he's autistic as fuck and media specifically music is not only one of the only things he's trained himself to make conversation about but the only solid thing as he floats through a reality made of jello he's retreating into media to cope with the isolation of going insane
"hes a scary bad NPD because he watches himself fuck in the mirror" how about the man is so disconnected from the act of sex, which is supposed to be an act of love and sensation or at least connection and intensity and even that the only joy he can extract from this most primal of human bonding acts is if he is performing well and looks dong it in a way that he thinks would make others approve or admire him more for how visually pleasing his disconnected sex is to the point where its not even an experience of sensation just performance for an invisible audience
DO YOU KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE SPENDING EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY PERFORMING FOR THE INVISIBLE AUDIENCE
Patrick is not a horror villain hes not a leatherface or Mike meyers or Freddy or Ted Bundy or Jigsaw. he's a mentally ill man who if we only take what we can prove to be true to be true which is a very small amount he's not only harmless and terrified but actually a better-behaved person than almost anybody he associates with. Patrick Bateman's story of not one of brutal dominance but the tragic decline of a sick person's health as they attempt to hide an escalating neurological failure. its the story of a man who feels so disconnected from others that the only way he can imagine he would feel a connection to somebody is by inflicting violence on them. Its a tragic depiction of mental illness like Charlie from Flowers For Algernon.