Good to see some active collaboration between two satirists and commentators who cut their creative teeth in the 1990s, Irvine Welsh and Bret Easton Ellis. As I say in my book, there’s little doubt that BEE’s American Psycho was an influence on IW when he was looking for an example of casual sadism in the episode Bad Blood in Trainspotting.
Bad Blood contradicts the prevailing ethic of the book by identifying with the perpetrator of cruelty instead of with the victim. That leaf is straight from American Psycho. I haven’t read any more of BEE’s stuff, but what was striking in American Psycho was the way he caught the detachment and alienation from ordinary people and everyday morality among the young people because of their unearned wealth. What it had in common with Trainspotting was similar detachment and alienation among the junkies who, for different reasons, weren’t engaging with ordinary people and everyday morality.
We’ll see how their joint talents transfer from the page to the studio and the small screen.