First:
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So, let's consider the source of this commentary first.
Hah! The author of
American Psycho wrote that?
The topic of rich people justifying their complacency is fun.
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Mmm, I wonder where Ellis himself sits on this food chain.
That's like Stephen King suggesting that horror is cliche.
Of course it is. It's been the same novel since
Rage.
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I see this as the older generation of rich white people acting disgusted at the younger generation of rich white people's behaviors.
Old rebel is the old cool. New rebel is the new cool. Bad is the new bad. Old bad wasn't nearly bad enough. Changing of the guard.
Using the system that made you rich and elevated you to demigod status to insult the system that made you rich, etc. Deep.
Channeling Dr. Seuss: Just more stars on Sneetches.
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These people are having temper tantrums in public because they're got the spotlight and don't know what else to do with it.
Certainly nothing productive. I mean, Sheen isn't trying to "save the tigers" like DiCaprio. He's just a well-dressed inmate.
Charlie sheen isn't really giving us what we want. He's just giving America what it's used to. Natural progression of trash.
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Also, regarding the concept that Sheen is some type of zeitgeist:
Quote:
I am struck dumb, bored by those with outward manifestations of deviance which reflects their inner timidity. The pierced tongue, the visible tattoo, the dyed hair.
The only tattoo with any real meaning in the 20th-century is that of the concentration camp. Marilyn Manson, Dennis Rodman. They are mere celebrities - not Nietzschean supermen. So "shocking" - yet so easy.
So much more striking are the revolutionary minds in the grey flannel suits. The Burroughses, the Batailles,the mild-mannered librarians that are really the supermen of the avant-garde, the perverse, the erotic.
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Modify the quote to fit the man of the thread topic and it turns out Charlie Sheen is not a Nietzchean superman either. He's a drunken clown.
Nobody idolizes him. Many pity him. He's not cutting edge. He's a monkey on a spear. He's a large but forgettable ship... a sinking one.
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I find the comments to the article, shown at the bottom of the page in the source link, just as interesting as the article itself:
"Yes the story is about drugs. And no it shouldn't be lost amid the infantile bombast of one whose brain is misfiring like firecrackers on Chinese New Year. To attribute insight, evolution and some enlightened capacity to see through the Empire's shroud to a guy who doesn't have an off switch is provocative, but it's wrong. Charlie Sheen is damaged goods. And he did the damage. To rationalize his behavior is the ultimate example of not getting it."
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"Ellis is both right and wrong. He is perhaps right because Sheen is clearly behaving in such a way as garners him reward. (I say 'perhaps', because we - and this includes Ellis - do not have direct access to Sheen's actual thought process. We are all simply deducing his motivation based upon his behavior).
Ellis is wrong in another way, however - and the way he (& Sheen, and GaGa, and the Kardashians, etc) are wrong is much more important.
Ellis suggests that since this is the way media works that it is inherently good. That is the mistake that everyone willing to become a train wreck for a paycheck makes when they publicly barter their integrity and reputation in return for hard cash. This is prostitution - and the fact that it is the life's blood of media reality does not serve to grant such behavior value beyond the like value a whore gets for a back-alley job.
There is a distinctly postmodern aspect to this recent spectacle -celebrity phenomenon. Kim Kardashian may have been a wealthy socialite - but she is only famous because she was seen on the internet having sex. That's the only reason. And everyone in her family is cashing in on her enormous... spectacle. Everyone knows this, but since we have come to the point where celebrity -regardless of the cause - is itself a form of commodity, people like Kardashian (& Sheen) can reasonable view being mock-able as bankable. It's a tendency which goes hand-in-hand with the anti-intellectualism which sees certain political figures as viable simply because they are photogenic and willing to pander to the worst impulses of a public which confuses entertainment for reality.
Sheen is the Barbara Bachmann of Hollywood. Both will likely say being laughed at is worth the imbeciles they make of themselves. They are right. And they are wrong."
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"The difference between Sheen and a functioning addict is...wait for it...he can't function."
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"How appropriate the Bret Easton Ellis would write a treatise lauding self-indulgence and mental illness disguised as "honesty". He is a man who has made a career elevating addiction and mental illness to an art form fostered by the "Empire" rather than the sad results of people who struggle to deal with the demanding and often frustrating responsibilities of real life. I agree that in a world with real issues, real problems, real conflicts, naming Sheen as the most "real" person out there seems flawed in the most self-centered, repugnant way.
Celebrity is a show, by definition, and Charlie Sheen is wandering through the media machine like a Mad Hatter, sad and old and crazy. I guess if that perspective makes me part of the fictional "Empire", then I guess I will go back to my empirical life, earning a living (without slurring my employer), raising my kids (minus the porn stars and narcotics), tending to my relationships (without beating my spouse), and striving to be a caring and responsible human being."
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"...but those who think the article is deep and has great insight just miss the point. Sheen is a mess, and whatever makes the mess needs to be taken care of. All the rest is verbal diarrhea."
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"My god this is a stupid analysis. Charlie Sheen "gets it" just like every teenage does who hates everything and feels superior because he knows the latest texting shortcut and his parents don't. Sheen will not seem all that admirable and "New Empire" when he drops dead, which may very well be soon. And I've seen his latest videos and they are more desperate than funny. In fact, distinctly unfunny."
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To say that this isn't about drugs and the disease of fame is to say that second world war wasn't about guns and bombs.
Of course it wasn't. But you have to admit that without guns and bombs it would have been a much different war.
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Is all this the high brow equiv of reality teevee fart jokes? I think so. Fart jokes told in a Porsche while on coke.
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I read the article and all the posts here. But as with most things posted by the OP, I'm too stupid to "get it."
Somebody clue me in.