Bret Easton Ellis Slams Self-Censorship Among Artists

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/08/07/American_Psycho_Author_Bret_Easton_Ellis_In_Convers...

Himself no stranger to controversy, author Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho, Less Than Zero) criticizes a tendency among his fellow writers to practice self-censorship in order to appeal to a more mainstream audience. "If you're going to do audience testing before you write to see what's going to upset people," says Ellis, "you might as well be in advertising."

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Elusive cult author Bret Easton Ellis fronts up to his first ever writers' festival in Byron Bay and talks psychos, film studios and moral boundaries in fiction. The sometimes controversial author of cult novels such as American Psycho and Less than Zero speaks with ABC Sydney radio host Simon Marnie -- with some trepidation -- about his approach to the writing process.

Along the way, he takes us through the journey of being courted and sometimes disillusioned by the Hollywood studios, the furor surrounding the violence in American Psycho and the politics of serial killers. - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Bret Easton Ellis is an American novelist and short story writer. He was regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney. He is a self-proclaimed satirist, whose trademark technique, as a writer, is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style. Ellis employs a technique of linking novels with common, recurring characters. Among his best known novels are Less Than Zero, American Psycho, and Rules of Attraction.

Simon Marnie is a Sydney-based presenter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Local Radio weekend morning program in New South Wales. The program is broadcast throughout Sydney on Saturdays from 6am-12 noon and New South Wales from 10am, and on Sundays from 10am-12 noon in Sydney.

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[ReadLearnandBecome]

I remember when I was a kid and I realized that I could read about things in books that would never be talked about on TV or only after the subject is sanitized to make the audience feel safe and secure. Books can open up the world to you and make you realize there are other ways of thinking about things besides what our society has decided is socially acceptable. Reading has made me less certain in my opinions and I think that's good.

[quidproquo2004]

@Solarcoreg Nothing can prepare you for the experience -- not even the movie.

Good luck with it!

[jsmithbab6]

@Thastorcyclone I am afraid, i think your life is under thread

[theenigmajjames]

@ReadLearnandBecome Well said. I think Chuck Palahniuk has talked about what great freedom there is when writing a book. You can literally go anywhere within a novel. he said a book is as private and as consensual as sex. Good stuff there. He says, if you want the freedom to go anywhere, talk about anything, then write books. And Chuck and Bret both, along with others of course, have taken full advantage of that freedom. And thank God for them.

[ganondorfguy101]

This man changed my perception on literature. It's OK to write a book that has large amounts of graphic violence and sex. It's life, so why shield it from ourselves?

[stratocaster1986able]

He looks like Tintin.

[elsquibbs]

If it's common for authors to self-censor themselves in order to get published, it may indicate a void in the marketplace for a publisher who will push the boundaries and print the unprintable.

[patrickcorliss]

@PopCultureInstitute

Writers censor themselves every time they write text. Picking and choosing words for clarity of meaning is the craft.

Nobody writes the way they think and few the way they talk.

As an example, a mind may harbour offensive words and images that don't get put on paper or canvass. That's conscientious editing.

Better artists like James Joyce may try to capture these thoughts. The problem arises when you become intimidated and distort the message through fear.