nicknicknicknick started reading The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis

The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
The Rules of Attraction is a satirical black comedy novel by Bret Easton Ellis published in 1987. The novel follows …
books.
he/him/ho-hum. montréal, canada nicknicknicknick.net
This link opens in a pop-up window
47% complete! nicknicknicknick has read 11 of 23 books.
The Rules of Attraction is a satirical black comedy novel by Bret Easton Ellis published in 1987. The novel follows …
1) "All it comes down to is that I'm a boy coming home for a month and meeting someone whom I haven't seen for four months and people are afraid to merge."
2) "My mother and I are siting in a restaurant on Melrose, and she's drinking white wine and still has her sunglasses on and she keeps touching her hair and I keep looking at my hands, pretty sure that they're shaking. She tries to smile when she asks me what I want for Christmas. I'm surprised at how much effort it takes to raise my head up and look at her. 'Nothing,' I say. There's a pause and then I ask her, 'What do you want?' She says nothing for a long time and I look back at my hands and she sips her wine. 'I don't know. I just want to have a nice Christmas.'"
3) "A …
1) "All it comes down to is that I'm a boy coming home for a month and meeting someone whom I haven't seen for four months and people are afraid to merge."
2) "My mother and I are siting in a restaurant on Melrose, and she's drinking white wine and still has her sunglasses on and she keeps touching her hair and I keep looking at my hands, pretty sure that they're shaking. She tries to smile when she asks me what I want for Christmas. I'm surprised at how much effort it takes to raise my head up and look at her. 'Nothing,' I say. There's a pause and then I ask her, 'What do you want?' She says nothing for a long time and I look back at my hands and she sips her wine. 'I don't know. I just want to have a nice Christmas.'"
3) "A truck with video games strapped in the back passes by and my sisters are driven into some sort of frenzy. 'Follow that video game!' one of them commands. 'Mom, do you think if I asked Dad he'd get me Galaga for Christmas?' the other one asks brushing her short blond hair. I think she's thirteen, maybe. 'What is a Galaga?' my mother asks 'A video game,' one of them says 'You have Atari though,' my mother says."
4) "During the day I'd sit in the living room and try to read the San Francisco Chronicle and she'd walk along the beach and collect seashells, and before too long we started going to bed sometime before dawn and then waking up in the midafternoon, and then we'd open another bottle. One day we took the convertible and drove to a secluded part of the beach. We ate caviar and Blair had chopped up some onions and eggs and cheese, and we brought fruit and these cinnamon cookies Blair was really into, and a six-pack of Tab, because that and the champagne were all Blair would drink, and we'd either jog on the empty shore or try to swim in the rough surf."
5) "'Girls are fucked. Especially this girl. She is so fucked up. On cocaine. On this drug called Preludin, on speed. Jesus.' Trent takes another drag, hands it to me, and then unrolls the window and stares at the sky. We park and then walk through the empty, bright Beverly Center. All the stores are closed and as we walk up to the top floor, where the movies are playing, the whiteness of the floors and the ceilings and the walls is overpowering and we walk quickly through the empty mall and don't see one other person until we get to the theaters. There are a couple of people milling around the ticket booth. We buy our tickets and walk down the hall to theater thirteen and Trent and I are the only persons in it and we share another joint inside the small, hollow room.'"
6) "I get a message that Trent stopped by. He was wearing a really expensive suit, my sisters said, and driving some-one else's Mercedes. 'Friend of mine's,' Trent told them. He also told them to tell me that Scott O.D.'d. I don't know who Scott is. It keeps raining. And that night, after I get three of the weird silent phone calls, I break a glass by throwing it against the wall. No one comes in to see what the sound was. Then I lie on the bed, awake, take twenty milligrams of Valium to come off the coke, but it doesn't get me to sleep. I turn MTV off and the radio on, but KNAC won't come in so I turn the radio off and stare out across the Valley and look at the canvas of neon and fluorescent lights lying beneath the purple night sky and I stand there, nude, by the window, watching the clouds pass and then I lie on my bed and try to remember how many days I've been home and then I get up and pace the room and light another cigarette and then the phone will ring. This is how the nights are when it rains."
7) "'Why?' is all I ask Rip. 'What?' 'Why, Rip?' Rip looks confused. 'Why that? You mean in there?' I try to nod. 'Why not? What the hell?' 'Oh God, Rip, come on, she's eleven.' 'Twelve,' Rip corrects. 'Yeah, twelve,' I say, thinking about it for a moment. 'Hey, don't look at me like I'm some sort of scumbag or something. I'm not.' 'It's...' my voice trails off. 'It's what?' Rip wants to know. 'It's... I don't think it's right.' 'What's right? If you want something, you have the right to take it. If you want to do something, you have the right to do it.' I lean up against the wall. I can hear Spin moaning in the bedroom and then the sound of a hand slapping maybe a face. 'But you don't need anything. You have everything,' I tell him. Rip looks at me. 'No. I don't.' 'What?' 'No, I don't.' There's a pause and then I ask, 'Oh, shit, Rip, what don't you have?' 'I don't have anything to lose.'"
7) "Rip told me that, on some quiet nights, late, you can hear the screeching of tires and then a long silence; a whoosh and then, barely audible, an impact. And sometimes, if one listens very carefully, there are screams in the night that don't last too long. Rip said he doubted that they'll ever get the cars out of there, that they'll probably wait until it gets full of cars and use it as an example and then bury it. And standing there on the hill, overlooking the smog-soaked, baking Valley and feeling the hot winds returning and the dust swirling at my feet and the sun, gigantic, a ball of fire, rising over it, I believed him. And later when we got into the car he took a turn down a street that I was pretty sure was a dead end. 'Where are we going?' I asked. 'I don't know,' he said. 'Just driving.' 'But this road doesn't go anywhere,' I told him. 'That doesn't matter.' 'What does?' I asked, after a little while. 'Just that we're on it, dude,' he said."
8) "Later, in the video arcade, Trent plays a game called Burger Time in which there are all these video hot dogs and eggs that chase around a short, bearded chef and Trent wants to teach me how to play, but I don't want to. I just keep staring at the maniacal wiggling hot dogs and for some reason it's just too much to take and I walk away, looking for something else to play. But all the games seem to deal with beetles and bees and moths and snakes and mosquitoes and frogs drowning and mad spiders eating large purple video flies and the music that goes along with the games makes me feel dizzy and gives me a headache and the images are hard to shake off, even after I leave the arcade."
Less Than Zero is the debut novel of Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1985. It was his first published effort, …
1) "[Welcome to: Hell (Ontario)]"
2) "'Etienne, did you do the reading?' 'YES I DID THE READING. It's a reductive mess of neo-materialist DRIVEL. Just more proof of this institution's FASCIST priority to perpetuate artworks as righteous conduits of HETEROPATRIARCHAL SUPREMACY." 'So Pam, did you do the reading?' 'please — i just came in here to eat my salad.'"
3) "'I WORK IN AN HOUR. YOU CAN CRASH HERE ON MY COUCH. YOU HAVEN'T BLINKED IN SEVENTEEN MINUTES.'"
4) "'Did you see Pam's painting today? So boring.' 'Your rants about Derrida last night were way more tedious, to be honest.' '... You have vomit in your hair.' 'Yes, I know.'"
5) "'Kaylee, you're in an ART program. If all you care about is marks, then maybe you shouldn't BE here. We can't keep having conversations about marks. We need to have a conversation about art, FOR ONCE. At THIS LEVEL, …
1) "[Welcome to: Hell (Ontario)]"
2) "'Etienne, did you do the reading?' 'YES I DID THE READING. It's a reductive mess of neo-materialist DRIVEL. Just more proof of this institution's FASCIST priority to perpetuate artworks as righteous conduits of HETEROPATRIARCHAL SUPREMACY." 'So Pam, did you do the reading?' 'please — i just came in here to eat my salad.'"
3) "'I WORK IN AN HOUR. YOU CAN CRASH HERE ON MY COUCH. YOU HAVEN'T BLINKED IN SEVENTEEN MINUTES.'"
4) "'Did you see Pam's painting today? So boring.' 'Your rants about Derrida last night were way more tedious, to be honest.' '... You have vomit in your hair.' 'Yes, I know.'"
5) "'Kaylee, you're in an ART program. If all you care about is marks, then maybe you shouldn't BE here. We can't keep having conversations about marks. We need to have a conversation about art, FOR ONCE. At THIS LEVEL, you should have a basic understanding of― ... It's not easy to make something that feels right, is it?' 'snf. no.' 'Trying to make things to make other people happy is creative poison. It causes you to make safe choices. Do you LIKE this horse drawing?' 'Not really. I really like horses though.' 'Kaylee, you can keep making art about horses, really. BUT you can also make art about something else completely. You have choices.' 'But, how do you know when to commit to something... or when to move on?' '...I don't know.'"
Wendy is an aspiring contemporary artist whose adventures have taken her to galleries, art openings, and parties in Los Angeles, …
1) “[Like] so many wonderful moments in life and art, Shadow of the Colossus is defined by the space between its lines: the gulf between its quieter, contemplative moments and its tremendous spectacle. Strung end to end, its titanic battles would make for an amazing if exhausting barrage of action. But driving your horse across an imposing sunbaked expanse, twisting up through shade-mottled woods, only to find your ageless, unwitting foe at rest in the stillness of a lake gives the encounter exactly the breathing room it needs.”
2) “Valus is Ueda’s favorite colossus, a critically important introduction to the true meat of the game—one that took significant trial-and-error to get just right. It feels unfair until the moment it doesn't, all the accomplishment of fighting a ‘boss’ without the typical buildup. But at the same time I feel a bit conflicted by the violence of my actions and the …
1) “[Like] so many wonderful moments in life and art, Shadow of the Colossus is defined by the space between its lines: the gulf between its quieter, contemplative moments and its tremendous spectacle. Strung end to end, its titanic battles would make for an amazing if exhausting barrage of action. But driving your horse across an imposing sunbaked expanse, twisting up through shade-mottled woods, only to find your ageless, unwitting foe at rest in the stillness of a lake gives the encounter exactly the breathing room it needs.”
2) “Valus is Ueda’s favorite colossus, a critically important introduction to the true meat of the game—one that took significant trial-and-error to get just right. It feels unfair until the moment it doesn't, all the accomplishment of fighting a ‘boss’ without the typical buildup. But at the same time I feel a bit conflicted by the violence of my actions and the reward of a solemn, uncelebrated death. It's clear even in this first victory that what I'm doing is wrong on some level, though I've journeyed too far to not continue at least a bit further down this road, into the depths of Dormin's deal.”
3) “As I clamber up his shoulder, there's a moment when Gaius seems to have forgotten me, looking out over the beauty of the sprawling lands, still and unthreatened. It doesn't last long, though, and he turns his attention back to the nuisance. These final moments of fighting Gaius are monumental—it feels like a fight to the death at the top of the world, a clear view for miles in every direction save for the writhing titan beneath me. It's also the first time that the scale of the game is truly communicated. Wander, as a relative ant, on the apex of a stories-tall giant, who's standing on an arena, on top of a towering column of rock, in a lake, in a crater. Somewhere far below, my speck of a horse runs back and forth nervously on the shore.”
4) “Andy Nealen, an expert on minimalist design and an assistant professor of computer science and game design at New York University, regularly uses Shadow as a reference point in his classes. He's also the co-creator of Osmos, a serene puzzle game (and early App Store success) about colliding with smaller objects and avoiding larger ones in a visual Petri dish. Nealen tells me via e-mail, ‘Minimalism allows a designer to have a strong vision, but not describe it in every single detail, thus leaving the player to explore the elements, their connections, and their dynamical meaning. It also means only leaving the best parts in the design: If one part is better than the others, the others become a liability, and need to be removed or radically improved. The best designs and design processes I have witnessed have a 'cutting foor’ that is ten times the size of the final game.’”
5 “[Before] I can fully stand he hits me again—and again—until I'm close to death. I finally manage to dodge one of his blows, luring him back across the courtyard and putting several obstacles between us as I climb back around and above him. He charges the column supporting the upper level that I'm now on and it comes crashing down, shattering off much of his armor and exposing a sigil on his furry back. Without his armor, Cenobia appears much smaller, and the impact of his charges now dizzies him, giving me a moment to jump onto his back. The rest is a messy, violent affair, as Wander is sprayed with the black blood of this bucking beast as its life is drained away. He's become vulnerable as I've become savage, and the city shortly falls silent again.”
6) ”It feels lonely sometimes, having such an intensely personal attachment to a piece of art. While Shadow has affected so many others, no one can really understand what it means to me. Just as I can never understand what it means to them. Or for that matter, anyone's favorite anything. There's a chemistry, possibly even a spirituality, in connecting so deeply with someone else's creation. In many ways, I define my life by relentlessly sharing the things I love with the people I care about. But that may ultimately come from a selfish place. Maybe it's less about wanting others to experience the same magic and humanity that I felt, and more about wanting to be better understood in some small way.”
1) "'I'm working towards a psychology degree to become a therapist.' 'COOL. SO YOU CAN TELL ME WHY MY LIFE IS SUCH A DISASTER.' 'Haha!' '"LOL"'"
2) "'OMG HAHA - Did you just take a pic of me? 'Oh HAY, I look pretty cute. Can you post that to fb?' 'Ok yeah, I'll post it later or something.' 'POST IT NOW' 'Okay! God.' [later] [Wendy commented on your photo] 'LOL OMG I LOOK SO AWKWARD HAHA!'"
3) "'The internet is an indispensable resource for all of that French philosophy that your smarter friends seem to effortlessly inject into their artistic practice.'"
4) "'I shouldn't have to take her abuse. I should stand up for myself for once. 'So fucking what if I burn bridges. Maybe I'm not meant to be an artist ANYWAY. 'Maybe I'm supposed to be marginal and miserable and broke FOREVER.' 'Isn't the water great?' …
1) "'I'm working towards a psychology degree to become a therapist.' 'COOL. SO YOU CAN TELL ME WHY MY LIFE IS SUCH A DISASTER.' 'Haha!' '"LOL"'"
2) "'OMG HAHA - Did you just take a pic of me? 'Oh HAY, I look pretty cute. Can you post that to fb?' 'Ok yeah, I'll post it later or something.' 'POST IT NOW' 'Okay! God.' [later] [Wendy commented on your photo] 'LOL OMG I LOOK SO AWKWARD HAHA!'"
3) "'The internet is an indispensable resource for all of that French philosophy that your smarter friends seem to effortlessly inject into their artistic practice.'"
4) "'I shouldn't have to take her abuse. I should stand up for myself for once. 'So fucking what if I burn bridges. Maybe I'm not meant to be an artist ANYWAY. 'Maybe I'm supposed to be marginal and miserable and broke FOREVER.' 'Isn't the water great?' 'IT'S SO RELAXING!'"
5) "'Well, you seem pretty laissez-faire considering the looming potential to destroy our own lives.' 'If by 'laissez-faire' you mean a hollowed-out, shallow, directionless husk, then sure. Sure am.'"
@todrobbins oh yeah i read it years & years ago, i think i rated it a 4, though i don't think the review got imported into bookwyrm. anyway: book good, game v good.
A massive, open world, brimming with mystery. A gauntlet of giants to overcome, living levels that must be destroyed... but …
1) "'C'mon! Let's go over to Angel's right now -- maybe he's there! We can wait for the satanists!'"
2) "'I've been going to a business school... I'm gonna be a big-ass corporate fuck! I'm gonna work for ten years, fuck things up from the inside as much as I can, and then retire when I'm thirty-five! That's the way to be subversive... Fuck this alternative pussy punk rock shit! You gotta get in the fuckin' game, man!'"
3) "'God, don't you just love it when you see two really ugly people in love like that?'"
4) "'Name one guy who lives up to your standards... you haven't said anything nice about a boy since you got over your Bruce Lee obsession.' 'I dunno... somebody like David Clowes...' 'Who's that?' 'He's like this famous cartoonist... John Ellis showed me some of his comics...' 'Yick! I hate cartoons!'"
5) "'Look, …
1) "'C'mon! Let's go over to Angel's right now -- maybe he's there! We can wait for the satanists!'"
2) "'I've been going to a business school... I'm gonna be a big-ass corporate fuck! I'm gonna work for ten years, fuck things up from the inside as much as I can, and then retire when I'm thirty-five! That's the way to be subversive... Fuck this alternative pussy punk rock shit! You gotta get in the fuckin' game, man!'"
3) "'God, don't you just love it when you see two really ugly people in love like that?'"
4) "'Name one guy who lives up to your standards... you haven't said anything nice about a boy since you got over your Bruce Lee obsession.' 'I dunno... somebody like David Clowes...' 'Who's that?' 'He's like this famous cartoonist... John Ellis showed me some of his comics...' 'Yick! I hate cartoons!'"
5) "'Look, I didn't say you couldn't come with me... I just feel weird about it... you can still come...' 'Oh yeah, you really want me to...' 'What? I do!' 'Well maybe I don't! I don't want to go anywhere or do anything... I just want it to be like it was in high school!'"
One of the best-selling and critically-acclaimed graphic novels of all-time telling the story of two supremely ironic, above-it-all teenagers facing …
1) "'It was Not My Decision to become a Cultural Bearer. My own innate inquisitive nature has coerced me into this de-centered modality of creation, reflection, and existence, which runs parallel to the norms of post-industrial society. 'It truly is a heavy cross to bear. 'Upon acceptance of this residency, I look forward to bringing forth new possibilities within an alter-modern framework.' RING RING 'Hello?' 'Wazzup slut. Come get wasted by the train tracks, we got a twelve-pack.' 'FUCK YES SEE YOU SOON.'"
2) "[Meanwhile...] 'Mm ohm. You're so fucking hot.' 'YEAH. [A seven will do]. Where's your apartment?' 'NDG' '... NOOOOOO'"
3) "'So – I look forward to reading your scathing review.' 'Actually, I think Wendy and Winona's work is pretty interesting—' 'Not if you want a career, you don't. Listen Byron. Art school was ten years ago for us. It's time to let the fantasy go.'"
4) "From: …
1) "'It was Not My Decision to become a Cultural Bearer. My own innate inquisitive nature has coerced me into this de-centered modality of creation, reflection, and existence, which runs parallel to the norms of post-industrial society. 'It truly is a heavy cross to bear. 'Upon acceptance of this residency, I look forward to bringing forth new possibilities within an alter-modern framework.' RING RING 'Hello?' 'Wazzup slut. Come get wasted by the train tracks, we got a twelve-pack.' 'FUCK YES SEE YOU SOON.'"
2) "[Meanwhile...] 'Mm ohm. You're so fucking hot.' 'YEAH. [A seven will do]. Where's your apartment?' 'NDG' '... NOOOOOO'"
3) "'So – I look forward to reading your scathing review.' 'Actually, I think Wendy and Winona's work is pretty interesting—' 'Not if you want a career, you don't. Listen Byron. Art school was ten years ago for us. It's time to let the fantasy go.'"
4) "From: Winona Whatever. Fuck everyone. I'll see you soon. >:)"
Wendy is trendy, and has dreams of art stardom—but our young urban protagonist is perpetually derailed by the temptations of …
1) ”As always, before the warmind and I shoot each other, I try to make small talk. ‘Prisons are always the same, don't you think?’”
2) “‘This certainly does not seem like a lively neighbourhood.’ I indicate the starry field around us. ‘Where are we?’ ‘The Neptunian Trojan belt. Arse-end of nowhere. I waited here for a long time, when she went to get you. "You have a lot to learn about being a criminal. It's all about the waiting. Boredom punctuated by flashes of sheer terror. Sort of like war.’ ‘Oh, war was much better,’ she says excitedly. ‘We were in the Protocol War. I loved it. You get to think so fast. Some of the things we did - we stole a moon, you know. It was amazing. Metis, just before the Spike: Mieli put a strangelet bomb in to push it out of orbit, like fireworks, …
1) ”As always, before the warmind and I shoot each other, I try to make small talk. ‘Prisons are always the same, don't you think?’”
2) “‘This certainly does not seem like a lively neighbourhood.’ I indicate the starry field around us. ‘Where are we?’ ‘The Neptunian Trojan belt. Arse-end of nowhere. I waited here for a long time, when she went to get you. "You have a lot to learn about being a criminal. It's all about the waiting. Boredom punctuated by flashes of sheer terror. Sort of like war.’ ‘Oh, war was much better,’ she says excitedly. ‘We were in the Protocol War. I loved it. You get to think so fast. Some of the things we did - we stole a moon, you know. It was amazing. Metis, just before the Spike: Mieli put a strangelet bomb in to push it out of orbit, like fireworks, you would not believe—‘ Suddenly, the ship is silent. I wonder if it realised it has said too much. But no: its attention is focused elsewhere. In the distance, amidst the spiderweb of Perhonen's sails and the spimescape vectors and labels of habitats far away, there is a jewel of bright dots, a six-pointed star. I zoom in in the scape view. Dark ships, jagged and fang-like, a cluster of seven faces sculpted in their prows, the same faces that adorn every Sobornost structure, the Founders: god-kings with a trillion subjects. I used to go drinking with them.”
3) “The King of Mars can see everything, but there are places where he chooses not to look Usually, the spaceport is one of them. But today, he is there in person, to kill an old friend.”
4) “‘It's how we honour our heritage,’ the Eldest says. She has a powerful voice, like a singer. ‘Our zoku is an old one: we can trace our origins back to the pre-Collapse gaming clans.’ She smiles. ‘Some of us remember those times very well. This was just before the uploads took off. you understand. The competition was fierce, and you would take any chance to get an edge over a rival guild. We were among the first who experimented with quantum economic mechanisms for collaboration. In the beginning, it was just two crazy otaku, working in a physics lab, stealing entangled ion trap qubits and plugging them into their gaming platforms, coordinating guild raids and making a killing in the auction houses. It turns out that you can do fun things with entanglement. Games become strange. Like Prisoner's Dilemma with telepathy. Perfect coordination. New game equilibria. We kicked ass and drowned in piles of gold.’”
5) “Mieli claims that her systems need to recharge and that she has some damage to regenerate, so she goes to bed early. Perhonen is quiet as well, dodging the orbital sentinels, no doubt; or hacking into their systems and manufacturing convincing excuses about why they lost her for a moment. So I am as alone as I have been since the escape from the Prison. It feels good: I spend some time simply watching the night view of the city, on my balcony and drinking, single malt this time. Whisky has always tasted like introspection to me, a quiet moment after taking a sip, the lingering aftertaste, inviting you to ponder upon the flavours on your tongue.”
6) “I stand in the robot garden with my old self, weighing the gun in my hand. He is holding it too, or a dream reflection of it. It's strange how it always comes down to two men with guns, real or imaginary. Around us, the slow war of the ancient machines goes on.”
7) “His guberniya virscape is a machine garden, vast and blooming. The seeds he planted during the long Dyson winter when the guberniya slowed itself down to shed its waste heat have blossomed, and now there is variety, variety everywhere His gogols swarm around him like a flock of white-coated birds as he plumbs its depths: plunging a billion pairs of hands into black soil where each particle is a cogwheel that fits together with its neighbours perfectly, to feel the seeds of new composite minds about to bloom. Engineer-Prime himself is everywhere, directing the culling of this memetic tree, watching that flock of genetic algorithms alight into a new parameter space from a branching process. With infinite gentleness he pulls up a freshly bloomed shoot of a newly made gogol, one with a rare disorder that makes it think its body would be made of glass, easily shattered: something he thought lost centuries ago. Combined with an exquisite schizophrenia, it will result in a mind that can divide and recombine itself at will, integrating memories: something Matjek's warminds will love. He splits off a gogol to carry on the mundane details of the work, and returns his attention to the big picture, letting Engineer-Prime shoot upwards to the sky, white lab coat flapping in the fresh breeze. Yes, that patch there will yield a good harvest of Dragon-speakers. In that vast labyrinth, single-minded Pursuers are already gestating: soon they will be ready to explore parameter spaces larger than worlds, mathematical ants, combing the vast Gödel universe for unproven theorems.”