Less than Zero
by Bret Easton Ellis, Christian Rummel · first published 1985
75% neutral25% critical
Set in Los Angeles in the early 1980's, this coolly mesmerizing novel is a raw, powerful portrait of a lost generation who have experienced sex, drugs, and disaffection at too early an age, in a world shaped by casual nihilism, passivity, and too much money a place devoid of feeling or hope. Clay comes home for Christmas vacation from his Eastern college and re-enters a landscape of limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porches, dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine. He tries to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his best friend f
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…if so, it was ancillary. He wasn't saying "I should have done things differently" -- instead he was trying to show how depraved, spoiled, and inadequate people are inside the ivory tower. Much as in "Less Than Zero" by Bret Easton Ellis, we are supposed to be shocked at how the privileged elite are venal, cruel, phony, unworthy, and get away with it too. You may or may not find that persuasive. But just as with…
on “Lost in the Meritocracy (2005)” ↗…reserve bitcoins and other forms of book / paper bitcoins. The futures market is one step in that direction. The balances held at exchanges are another one. See https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/136283.Less_Than_Zero for a historic comparison.
on “The Can’t-Lose Way for Your Business to Pop: Add Bitcoin to Its Name” ↗-- Read -- Don Delillo: End Zone Luc Ferry: A Brief History of Thought Brett Easton Ellis: Less Than Zero -- Working on -- Don Delillo: Libra Hubert Dreyfuss: Being in the World (it's taking me a long time...)
on “Ask HN: What is HN reading?” ↗Silicon Valley meets Bret Easton Ellis and Less than Zero. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less_than_Zero_(novel)
on “Silicon Valley 'nepo baby' publishes scathing first novel about growing up rich” ↗