Bret Easton Ellis and Writing

I went to see Bret Easton Ellis read from his new novel (the sequel to LESS THAN ZERO) IMPERIAL BEDROOMS. It was cool to see him read. He seemed a lot more relaxed than he did five years ago when I saw him read from LUNAR PARK. I hate going to readings of this kind. Idiots always ask stupid questions. Here's the thing, most of them are prefaced by biographical information or the flapping of the gums (just to talk in front of people) and I do not envy BEE having to placate those dudes. Though, I suppose he picked fun at some of the questions (from those who deserved it) in a way that made it seem friendly. One guys said, "I identified with American Psycho and it connected with me as I'm sure it did with everyone." Uh, that book is about a narcissistic serial killer! The same spoke five years ago, and made the same kind of scene. It reminds me of a guy I met at a Palaniuk reading, who came with his mom and dad. He had all of Chuck's books, up to LULLABY. His mom came in while we were standing in line and said, "You're Dad is angry! We have to drive all the way to Forks tonight. The Ferry's leaving. You better hurry up or Dad say he's leaving you here!" He threw a fit and eventually convinced his mom to convince his dad it was worth it. Awesome! Funny thing is that that guy went to Western. I had two classes with him. He was the biggest weirdo-dork-asshole I've ever met. But that guy could write and draw comics like a mother fucker. I think his name was Terrence.

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OK. Bret Easton Ellis. I'm sure I've blogged about him. I could go for days. But I'm not really gonna talk about him that much. When I wrote my first novel-thing "Standards" (about a successful indie band--based a lot of it on Mineral), the pastor friend of my friend read it. He met with me and talked about the use of "you," talked about expository writing vs. "putting us in the scene," and about what I've read. I hadn't read a lot, but I named off the good ones, "Tom Robbins, Vonnegut, Salinger, and Hesse." He said, "Good, now write down these titles: Less than Zero by Ellis, Generation X by Coupland, and...actually I can't remember the third one. I never read or found it, so I can't remember it. I was 19 what the fuck can I remember? Anyway. I read those books. Gen X was pretty good. I think it's an important book, but I didn't love it. I went on to read GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA (Fantastic) and MICROSERFS (Amazing--Must read this!! If you live in the NW) and a bunch of his other novels that were OK or bad. I read LESS THAN ZERO in two days. I feel asleep in the middle of the night reading it, woke up in the morning, and finished it. It was brutal and honest and full of lies and pain and anger and apathy. And it's first person barely had a conscious. Barely did a thing. Just roamed like a camera with limbs, a dick, and a nose. I've read it five times in my life. I'll probably read it again, maybe not. It changed the way I wrote. In fact, I wrote too much like it. Trying to publish my short novel BUMPING has run up against resistance because of my minimalistic style (though, someone has just read the first three chapters and asked for the whole thing !!!!) and its similarities to a screenplay. The problem is that the book is written relying on subtext and understatement. I learned that from Ellis and Carver. Let me stop and say, No I am not comparing myself to them. I am however acknowledging that I stole a lot of what I do from those two, especially Ellis. But looking at my stuff now, I don't know if I could go back and write another novel like BUMPING. While writing THE STORY THIEF, I developed a voice and style that leans away from this minimalistic style of Carver and Ellis. I think though, if I write another novel that's not TST related, I will try to write it as minimal as possible, but not too minimal. Here's the thing about screenplays. My fiction is nothing like my screenplays, However, I do write dialogue that makes my fiction look like screenplays. I've been working on that (thanks Ian and workshop crew!). But if I could, I'd just riff on dialogue for pages. That's what my screenplays do. I wrote a scene for the film DO YOU SEE COLORS WHEN YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES that was 15 pages long. In the final film it's not even a minute. In fact in the final draft of the screenplay it's less than a page. I cut the shit out of it (see I can do it!). Anyway, if you're ever in workshop or talking to someone about a story in workshop and they start talking about it being like a screenplay, but it's just minimalistic. Say, "Yeah, I see what you're saying, but it's not utilizing the form of a screenplay and it's just heavy on the dialogue." Or something like that.

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I think the point of that last section is to say that Ellis got me to start writing scenes and writing with a voice. Tom Robbins taught me how to write crazy (though looking back, that mother fucker is meta to the max. I'm gonna have to brush up on him before TST BOOK TWO). Aimee Bender taught me how to me quirky and magical. Gabriel Garcia Marquez taught me how to write Magical Realism like a storyteller. Tim O'Brien taught me how to write honestly. Haruki Murakami taught me how to leave things unanswered. Kate Trueblood taught me how to write down into character. Stephen King taught me how to pursue a project and finish it. There's more but these are the ones I remember.

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Em keeps calling me over. But I refuse to leave the computer because of what's on the TV. Pitiful. I will not out her, but it's awful and awful and awful. I know she knows it's bad, but for her I think it's like a car crash. She'll crane her neck and won't look away. She can't help it.

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I'm really digging Twin Cinema by The New Pornographers. Cool record. And I dusted off Amestory's Birds Underwater. Great stuff.

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Love to the max,

Joshua