im nothing in my soul if not committed to the bit

22 | they/he/she | tsh | bret easton ellis | classic lit

[sillypilled-friendcel]

ITS NOT GAY TO DEEPTHROAT HIS GUN IF HE'S YOU‼️‼️

[everymeeveryyou]

this CHICK. marla singer. did Not. have Testicular Cancer.

[postmodern-prometheus]

not bret in the prologue to the shards writing about how writing a book is about falling in love with someone in that it’s “impossible to resist, there’s nothing you can do about it” and then two pages later he’s talking about trying to hide the story of the shards in “the dark corner of the CLOSET.” like yes we know when you’re talking about writing you’re talking about queerness

[cosm1cgoresh1t]

Currently reading The Shards and can somebody get Bret some help with his daddy issue plz I’m on my knees😭 Why does he HAVE to name EVERY single mysterious dangerous male crush of the protagonist after his own dad?? I mean isn’t Bobby from Glamorama enough? Come on, now ROBERT Mallory? As if it isn’t enough for him to dedicate the whole Lunar Park to his issues TT

[cosm1cgoresh1t]

WHAT NO WAY Tim used to be blonde

For the context Tim appears to be Bret’s highschool junior fellow back in 1981 at The Buckley School in The Shards

[postmodern-prometheus]

this threw me for suchhh a loop

[pluggedinandreadytofall]

even if I didn't know that Donna Tartt and Bret Easton Ellis went to university together I would still be out here like

[postmodern-prometheus]

the shards is genuinely the only book i will recommend as a follow up to tsh

[postmodern-prometheus]

re-reading the shards AGAIN this is the second time this year smh. i may have a problem

but i gotta prep for the tv show AND its pride month. excuses excuses

[nahmann]

Richard: They’re just so sophisticated and ethereal, I’m utterly bewitched by their apotheotic synergy blah blah blah

Meanwhile what Judy sees:

[regardlessicarusflew]

I like to lie and say it’s seasonal but In actuality I’m Richard Papen every day of my life and not just when the snow in the mountains are melting

[nahmann]

Typa shit Henry saw at Bunny’s funeral on his sedative/stimulent cocktail in migraine-induced psychosis

[nottatastellata]

[lithiumseven]

May 15th and 16th’s journal entries by Jonathan are extremely interesting in terms of a gender analysis of Dracula because it is one of the clearest examples of Jonathan actually taking on the role of a Gothic heroine

Not only does he compare himself to a young lady of the past who would have occupied the room and done exactly what he is doing (writing to someone they love) and reclining on the comfortable couches, but this narrative turn is precisely the classic Gothic trope of a young woman who has been brought to a big old lonely house venturing out into an abandoned and forbidden part of the house (representing her mind) and discovering something exciting and terrible (sexuality). Think of Jane Eyre or Crimson Peak

The three women place him under a thrall and he is open about while being duly terrified he is also aroused. Notably he is also in a very submissive position which was customary for female characters at the time. Ravishing stories are very common in sexually repressed cultures because resistance to the idea and being in a position of submission gives the woman of the story plausible deniability in the face of sexuality

When the Count comes in it gets no less erotic and actually gets more direct as he verbally claims Jonathan as his and responds that he CAN love when the three women accuse him of being unable to, the implication clear that he will love Jonathan before giving him over to them for “kisses”

Jonathan then wakes undressed in his own bed, his agency removed by literally having been moved away from his progress exploring and back into where the Count is keeping him and allowing him to go

[rottenvampbat]

I don’t have any disorders these are all symptoms of being a vampire

[negativesofcash]

In an alternate universe, the secret history is a 2 hour long movie from 1994 directed by David Lynch

[janeydontloseyourheart]

hand on heart when I say this: I love THE greatest, Mr David Lynch. The Secret History is the book I'd automatically think of, gun to my head, after being asked "what's your favorite book? only one". and! I think I can see the vision, I do.

But. I. He loved LA too much for him to be able to grasp the Hampden atmosphere (LA people, ok, no hard feelings, it's just true). II. His preferred themes would probably make him gloss over the essential academic aspects as well as the dynamics of the Greek class in a way you can't because that's the beating heart of the story.

What I think it would fit like a glove: Judy (definitely the closest to his own characters than anything else) and the coke in the parking lot, virtually everything else outside the Greek class bubble, the ritual and the farm scene shot like a trippy dream sequence. And one could argue he could give Henry's obvious autism mental illnesses more consideration than turning him into a quarterback with glasses caricature like the fandom does but ehhh...that's it, imho.

TLDR: Lynch, may the stars bless him forever, would have been the right choice to direct an adaptation of any of BEE books and/or whatever story you would have set in "Hampden", anything happening outside of TSH. Lynch would have been great to portray them through the BEE-lens of The Rules of Attraction where BEE characters refer to the Greek class as the weirdos. A Judy Poovey-centric story is perfectly Lynchian so is Richard's life in California. BEE, a quintessential obnoxious los angelino, is a Mulholland Drive fan. Just like Lynch wasn't right for Dune (precisely because he didn't care about the narrative core of Dune and that's fine, not everything is for everyone), he could have made a great Bennington-esque movie adaptation for BEE but not for Tartt.

PS: I'm of the opinion that the only TSH adaptation that wouldn't be egregious would necessarily have to be animation, which I say inspired by some amazing fanworks I've seen around. In today's Hollywood -- absolutely not. Keep those executives away. Should never ever be made. Look at what happened to The Goldfinch (not only the industry wasn't as dire back then as it is a full clout nightmare now, TSH is much, much harder to adapt due to the tone). OP, I know tone is hard to read via text but I mean no hostility or rudeness through any of this. I'm really grateful for your post because it made me think of all of this as I tried to put it into words. As you probably noticed, I care a lot about this topic. Thank you for giving me a chance to talk about it.

[negativesofcash]

wow i did not think my simple idea from too much twin peaks input would spark this level of thought in anyone... thanks for your insights

just the idea of being interested, as in richard's case, or involuntarily thrown into a very specific situation and getting deeply captivated by it, then realising far too late that there is no direct way out and it turning into your personal worst nightmare was so lynch-esque in my head i cannot unthink the two being linked :P

[janeydontloseyourheart]

I am, I'm afraid, the equivalent of Henry's "I love Homer" about the things I care about (it's the autism) and I understand the intensity can be offputting but it's the only mode I have. I understand how it looks obnoxious and annoying and I assure I remain very thankful for the post making me think of the possibility more deeply.

I think I can see what you mean (and twin peaks is great!!!!!!!), feel free to elaborate on the worst personal nightmare bit if you want, please, because I never saw any of it as Richard's personal nightmare. I don't see the involuntarily bit too since he chose to join solely due to his eagerness to belong and his search for individual identity and validation that stem from likely having CPTSD due to his family trauma.

I don't think they are entirely unlinked either! I can see Lynch really enjoying Henry's search for not thinking, his search for "leaving yourself" but then there's all the "grounded" part of this story I can't see him being able to get.

All of this said, you know what this made me think? I really, really wished we could have seen a TSH-adapted short Lynch series where each episode is one of the group's dream. So you have Richard's dream, Bunny's dream, Camilla's dream and so on. Different art styles, different themes, different fears. Maybe Henry and Bunny's connect to each other. Maybe Camilla and Charles' have similarities. Originally written by Lynch himself but based on Tartt's characters. Basically answering the question: what would the Greek class dreams look like? And what would they say about each character?

[postmodern-prometheus]

I would DIE for a David Lynch adaptation of The Rules of Attraction or (even better!!!!) Less than Zero!!!

[cuppydogshane]

MESSAGE TO ALL SICKOS: LIVE FOREVER

[apolloniansorrow]

julian in that first class discussion

[loebleopoldwp]

The leads in Rope (1948) according to the MPAA Analysis Chart

[annabelle--cane]

stop. analyse that text through the lens of its author's intentions and original historical context. okay now take the author out back and kill them dead and analyse that text as though it were published by your mutual yesterday and is in direct conversation the contemporary discourse that's most relevant to your life. okay now pick your favorite angle of interpretation and come up with the strongest possible argument against it. now imagine that the text is your best friend and that it means you well and that you naturally give it every benefit of the doubt because you're on its side and you want the best for it. now imagine that the text wants you dead and it'll eat you if you don't eat it first. now pretend that you found this text locked away in a cave with no evidence of when or where it came from and you have to divine its meaning solely through its internal coherence and nothing else. okay now address the elephant in the room aspect of the text you've been ignoring because you find it boring or confusing or uncomfortable and become the number one expert on it. now spend forty minutes assigning all the characters dnd classes with at least three sentences of reasoning each. okay now do the cha cha slide.