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The James Bond / Patrick Bateman Connection

I don't think I would have ever noticed this one myself.

Brands mark decisiveness and sagacity. Once Bond has discovered what is best, he never veers. When in London, his breakfast is "always the same": coffee from De Bry in New Oxford Street, brewed in an American Chemex, drunk from Minton china; toast with Norwegian heather honey from Fortnum's; a single brown egg, from a French Marans hen. Even the chicken sounds like a luxury brand.

(Ian) Fleming originated this tactic. Now we are habituated to novelists' use of brand labels, often lazily, to persuade us of the credibility of a character, or a way of life.

Our new age of novelistic product placement is represented with satirical excess by the pursuit of Fleming's device in Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho (1991). This novel's psychopathic yuppie narrator, Patrick Bateman, cannot separate character from object of consumption. "Courtney opens the door and she's wearing a Krizia cream silk blouse and Krizia rust tweed skirt and silk-satin d'Orsay pumps from Manolo Blahnik." There is a kind of absurd poetry to it. Even in solitude, Bateman clutches at his brands. A visit to his own bathroom becomes a materialistic hymn. "I stand in front of a chrome and acrylic Washmobile bathroom sink - with soap dish, cup holder, and railings that serve as towel bars, which I bought at Hastings Tile ... Then I squeeze Rembrandt on to a faux-tortoiseshell toothbrush."

I wonder if Ellis has ever been asked about Fleming's work - I certainly can't recall any discussion on the topic before, but its an interesting observation.

Christian Bale was asked about the Bond/Bateman similarities back in August of 2001. Here's what he had to say:

"I suppose there are actually a number of character traits that are similar between Bond and Patrick Bateman ... a complete lack of remorse in killing people, both are utter misogynists."

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