Bret Interviewed In Vice Magazine

Vice Magazine has a 10 page interview with Bret. Lots of Imperial Bedrooms discussion.

I thought this was an interesting exchange:

Vice Magazine - I guess that people probe you about the autobiographical stuff so much because, when Less Than Zero came out, you were not just seen as a novelist. It was this voice-of-a-generation thing, and people lazily thought, "Well, he must be just like the people in the book because he's their age and he shares some background details with them." So you were marketed as a novelist but also as something more than a novelist. In a way, it was a book marketer's dream. Is that what you meant when you talked earlier about being exploited?

Bret Easton Ellis - Well, you know, it was fun at first. It was very fun. It seemed like a good idea to be interviewed for magazines and have your picture taken and be on television and stuff. But then it stops. After about a year, it's not a good idea anymore. Because what you realize has happened is that your identity--your real identity--is being consumed by this new narrative, this collective narrative, that's taking place with the public as well as the press. The real you is dying and this thing that's created is now going to be representative of you. And every time you meet someone, you know that they're going to have this entire set of associations, mostly fake, about who you are, and that is a difficult thing to process. I've got to tell you, it's a very difficult thing to kind of dismantle and work with.

That answer surprises me given that he made himself a character in Lunar Park.