At 07:24 AM 17/05/2007, Nathan Cain wrote:
>The Follower reminded me of Bret Easton Ellis' work,
but without a lot of
>the pretension. Starr's work has been moving more and
more toward having a
>mass appeal. He has specialized in writing about
shallow, callow, selfish
>characters, and he's done it well, very well, in
fact. For all her
>cluelessness, I think Katie Porter is his most
sympathetic character ever,
>and I think this novel has the most commercial appeal
of anything he's
>written. If it does turn out to be a big success, it
will certaintly be well
>deserved one.
Yeah, I thought about the American Psycho angle too, though
the key question there was the difference between fantasy and
reality- was the protagonist merely imagining performing
violent acts, or was he carrying them out. In The Follower I
don't think there's any question the antagonist is a
committing the acts. The question is more one about
determining what constitutes appropriate, possibly even moral
behavior in an environment where a central authorative voice
is in decline (and may never have been as definitive as
claimed.) When and where are lines crossed when the lines are
blurred.
Best, Kerry
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