South Circular
text of Gothic literature, a paragraph detailing the horror of Jonathan Harker at his impending doom at the hands of Count Dracula is followed by a girly and anodyne letter from his fiancée Mina to a friend, illustrating the indifference of the decadent Edwardian bourgeoisie to its impending doom at the hands of malevolent Easterners. The foundational texts of the Gothic genre were written by authors living in a society obsessed with the blurring of boundaries between man and nature: accordingly, throughout their novels animals are threateningly anthropomorphised and humans are depicted as fighting an unwinnable war against their beastly urges. Ellis’s novel is no different. For example, the narrator notices that the polar bears ‘look stained and drugged’. Like the impoverished New York proletariat, they have been forced into drug-addled acquiescence by the amoral bourgeoisie. The seals ‘stupidly dive off rocks into swirling black water, barking mindlessly’ in pursuit of ‘dead fish.’ The ‘swirling black water’ is reminiscent of the abyss of mortality so central to existentialism. By ‘mindlessly’ pursuing temporary relief from physical hunger, the seals distract themselves from the meaninglessness of existence and their inexorable
annihilation by the abyss. The parallels with human consumerism are only too clear. The blurring of boundaries between man and nature is made explicit when the narrator observes that ‘the snowy owl has eyes that look just like mine, especially when it widens them.’ Human and owl eyes widen when exposed to darkness: accordingly, we might infer that the shadow cast by figuratively ‘dark’ violence and greed upon society thins the dividing line between human civilisation and the destructive power of nature. Moreover, by identifying himself with a bird of prey renowned both for its wisdom – unjustifiably – and its deadliness – entirely justifiably – the narrator construes himself as exceptionally
The foundational texts of the Gothic genre were written by authors living in a society obsessed with the blurring of boundaries between man and nature
intelligent and exceptionally lethal. Similarly, in Dracula Harker describes the Count as having an ‘aquiline’ face, thereby conveying a sense of his host’s predatory watchfulness. That this identification between the narrator and the owl is predicated at least in part upon falsehoods – owls are intellectually unexceptional when compared with other birds – implies that the winner-takes-all ethos of American society has instilled the narrator with a baseless vanity which only accentuates his transgressive desires. Ultimately, though the ideas expressed in American Psycho are deeply influenced by the ubiquitous cultural climate in which it was written. Its inclusion of various Gothic themes and devices secures it a place in a continuous literary tradition stretching from Horace Walpole to the present day. In particular, its exploration of the blurring of boundaries between man and nature and the banality of evil and the language, structuring and imagery used as vehicles for that exploration are deeply reminiscent of Georgian and Victorian Gothic works. What makes Ellis an original Gothic writer, however, is his ability to modify these themes and devices so as to subtly convey his concerns about the state of American society. It is this ability which lifts American Psycho out of the realm of cliché into that of unnerving and grimly fascinating Gothic literature.
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