And stream-of-consciousness? That’s been done already. That domestic comedy that you like, that’s been done already. “Look, everything has been tried already. In that episode, author David Lipsky is interviewed, and he says that when he spoke to Ellis about the authors that inspired him (Vladimir Nabokov and Ann Beattie), Ellis said – Episode eight of the Bennington podcast focuses specifically on Less Than Zero.She concludes, “If this book is an existential satire, its actual premise is that the world is hell disguised as paradise.” My Picador Classic edition (published in 2019) has a brilliant introduction by Ottessa Moshfegh, who explores the generative experience of reading the book, referring to TaB Cola (the first soft drink that allowed ‘…pleasure without guilt, risk, or penalty’), alongside the ‘…emblematic ills of the world in 1985’ – snorting coke, doing lunch, getting drinks at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel.The soundtrack – music is such a big part of the story and is woven into almost every scene (and clearly Ellis loved Elvis Costello and The Go-Gos).So, this is not a review but rather a collection of Less-Than-Zero-associated-thoughts: The podcast examines the years that Ellis, Donna Tartt and Jonathan Lethem were at college together, and specifically, the people and events that inspired characters in both Less Than Zero and The Secret History.

And, despite having a bunch of options for week one of Novellas in November, I decided to re-read Less Than Zero, purely because I am absolutely engrossed in the podcast Once Upon a Time at Bennington College (to the point where I’m waiting for each new episode to drop). Truly, there is nothing new left to say about Bret Easton Ellis’s generation-defining novel, Less Than Zero.

Less than zero ellis