Talk:Patrick Bateman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

yes

Contents

[edit] Original Research

I'm tagging this article because it contains original research. Feel free to comment. --81.159.220.9 (talk) 22:21, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Bateman as an antagonist

Shouldn't the character Patrick Bateman be the antagonist rather the protagonist of American Psycho? This is asked due to the mass killings he did. YUP 5:09, January 21, 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.201.143.109 (talk) 22:10, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

You are misunderstanding the meaning of the words. A protagonist is not a "good guy", a protagonist is the main character of a work of fiction. The antagonist is the one who opposes the protagonist. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 20:04, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] No

I don't think that it should be merged. The entry for Patrick Bateman in about both the book and the movie Bateman and has a different angle than a discussion of his personality *in the novel* from a literary perspective. I think some discussion of his personality is merited in both articles and while some information would be overlapping, the needs of each article differ sufficiently that they should be included on each page seperatly (possibly with a 'see also' link attached) Patrick Bateman is the consumate professional. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.21.16.66 (talk) 03:50, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dumping text

I am dumping text from American Psycho here until other editors decide what to do with it, because it is more relevant to this article (see talk page of American Psycho:

Unlike many real-life serial killers, Bateman lacks a particular or consistent method. He tortures and kills his victims in a variety of often outrageous ways, using a wide variety of implements, ranging from guns and knives to power tools and live rats, among others. It is interesting to consider those whom Bateman chooses to spare when presented with the opportunity to kill. Three prominent examples are his secretary Jean, his fiancée Evelyn Richards, and a gay friend and co-worker, Luis Carruthers; perhaps he is not able to kill them because they are all in love with him — doubts are allowed, concerning his fiancée.

His lifestyle and attitude to health are inconsistent: on the one hand, he is a health conscious, militant non-smoker (except for an occasional cigar), who works out, drinks diet soda, detests high sodium products, and orders decaffeinated espresso — he accidentally refers to it once as decapitated —; while, on the other hand, he excessively consumes alcohol and drugs. Other characters share his inconsistency.

Bateman's vanity is paramount, and is masked as a concern for health and well-being: obesity and tobacco-stink excite his disgust, while his cocaine abuse leaves few physical tell-tale signs. He is also deeply concerned about his hair; any suggestion of imperfection causes enduring panic, until he is reassured by friends. His vanity predominates reflections on his own image, mostly concerning how good he looks, for which his clothes, skin-care products, manicures, gym work-outs, and his hair-care products are essential. Often the story's narrative focuses on Bateman's attempts to 'score' cocaine, yet he is judgmental of his brother's use of the drug, and of several other freebasers

I agree that that text can be safely dumped from the American Psycho article. That's all stuff specifically about Patrick Bateman, and this is the Patrick Bateman article. --Halloween jack 21:10, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Thank you.Rintrah 10:25, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

---

changed 'torture murder' to 'torture', 'murder' - ayyem - 21 sept 06

Changing it back, seeing how Patrick does, in fact, engage in torture murder.--Halloween jack 17:12, 21 September 2006 (UTC)
He does engage in it - but isn't it strictly legal terminology? I'm just wondering if it could be better worded... Desdinova 23:32, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

No I have to disagree with you, torture murder is much better according to me.

[edit] Drug use

This article currently states in the comparison between Sean and Patrick that both characters use copious amounts of drugs but are not addicts. I'm not going to try and argue against this on seans behlaf as I ahve not read "the rules of attraction". However I have read "American Psycho" so will argue against this claim on Patricks part. Throughout American Psycho Bateman takes copious amounts of Cocaine and Valium, and in the gaps in time within the narrative it is strongly suggested that drug use would have occoured as it seems to be a norm of his social life. It is hard to see how someone who uses drugs this often is not an addict. Also Patrick throughout the book begins to become more and more anxious, as well as seemingly loosing grip of reality, which are both strong symptoms of drug addiction. We can also see patrick using valium constantly using valium to reduce these anxieties, and becoming more and more reliant upon valium to be able to keep up his apperance as a healthy sane man. Reliance on a drug is a form of addiction, and combined with the fact that his intake progressively increases, would be a strong indicator that he is in fact an addict. Thescumfiend 11:37, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Patrick's Sanity

The fact is that Bateman’s entire life as a serial killer is imagined. It was pure fantasy, or, perhaps more accurately, delusion. Bateman’s existence is so empty that he increasingly looks for meaning in the shallowest of pools around him – making the most money, having the best body, best toned skin, best suit, best business card, getting into the best restaurants and clubs, picking up the most attractive women, etc. When each new level of achievement or conquest fails to satisfy, Bateman turns to fantasies of violence to make his life seem more real and full of meaning. As he loses himself more and more in his psychotic reveries, everything about his life seems to make less sense. Eventually, he can’t tell the difference between his real life and his fantasy life, as is the case with most people who are truly insane. Some people refuse to believe this twist in the ending and excuse it away by claiming that the fact that Bateman is never caught and that no one believes his confession just reinforces the shallowness, self-absorption, and lack of morality that they all have. To be frank, this is bollocks and wishful thinking on the part of people who, for whatever reason, want Bateman to be a killer instead of a deluded shell of vapidity searching for meaning in an insane way. The real ending makes him, and the entire story around him, much more interesting. Anyone can be a killer, after all. Killing people is not the hard part and doesn’t make as much of a statement. If Bateman is really a killer, it makes the story a macabre fairy tale just like any other slasher flick – the only difference is the setting. But, the fact that Bateman can carry on a seemingly ‘normal’ (by the standards of his peers, anyway) yuppy life while diving deeper and deeper into pure psychotic delusion is the whole point and is how the ‘social commentary’ that every reviewer mentions is delivered. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aelogan (talk • contribs) 03:32, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] IMDb

The entire article has been copy pasted into IMDb, is that a copyright violation? http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0004406/bio --Steinninn 03:32, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia doesn't excise any copyright over its articles


[edit] What the f***, no Phil Collins?

He's a HUGE Genesis fan!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.255.68.241 (talk) 06:13, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Allen or Owen

in the film it was allen in the book owen this article uses both

[edit] Image copyright problem with Image:Batemanas.jpg

The image Image:Batemanas.jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

  • That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
  • That this article is linked to from the image description page.

This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --07:56, 15 May 2008 (UTC)