But he did create Patrick Bateman, which then was brilliantly brought to life by Mary Harron’s script and Christian Bale’s performance. It’s been written exhaustingly (and by better observers) the 1980s metaphor which Bateman and American Psycho express. But Bateman is wonderful for what he represents to us personally: the self-importance we ascribe ourselves, the bullshit we obsess over, and the illusion of it all.

American Psycho’s most memorable moments are in Bateman’s preoccupation over trivialities, often culminating in panic attacks (my personal favorite is when he starts sweating over a co-worker’s better-rendered business card). But I’ll be damned if I haven’t met any person (myself included) who hasn’t gone off-the-deep-end over something similarly banal.

American Psycho’s lesson is that none of us are beautiful snowflakes — we’re just interchangeable, materialistic, self-absorbed nut-jobs, trending indifferently through a society of have’s and have-not’s. Most villains want to subvert society; Bateman shows us it already has been.

Patrick Bateman: “Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y