flamingdog

AfterBurn, I think you're trying to take it too literally. I get that impression from your other posts in this thread, saying 'why doesn't he just move', and so forth. Maybe you need to look at it as more of a metaphor for how we in the west live our lives, rather than as a straight account of one man's behaviour.

To answer, I think Bateman is trapped in a cycle of consumption, as many of us are. Except with him it's raised to the power of n because he's so filthy rich. He can't leave because he's locked in. Yet simple acquisitiion does not feed the hunger in the soul. He doesn't feel anything. To quote, 'I simply am not there'. In order to make his life mean something, he kills (or imagines he does - it's a moot point as far as I'm concerned).

Also consider how people continually mishear him, or pay no attention to him at all, unless he is advising on the correct way to wear a cummerbund, or the aptness of a four-in-hand tie knot as contrasted with the windsor. You could almost argue he's a free radical, trying to effect change from the inside.

Edit - just had another brainwave: Just to further illustrate this point, bear in mind the occasion when he stabs the young boy in the zoo. He draws no satisfaction from the killing because the little boy hadn't got anything for Bateman to take from him. No memories, experiences, no opinions, because he was just a kid. That just goes to show why Bateman does what he does. He finds meaning in his killing. The killing of a small boy was meaningless to him. Hence, (if I recall correctly) he says he won't be doing it again.