Materialism in Brett Easton Ellis Less Than Zero
A Loss of Innocence in a Culture of Excess
Feb 25, 2009
Less Than Zero as a title informs us of the vacuity of the characters that are explored. The title comes from an Elvis Costello song, who took his name from one of the biggest American cultural icons.
By choosing this title Ellis has emphasised the consumerist cultural link that is used throughout the whole of the novel. In Shopping in Space, Elizabeth Young notes that "both the book’s title and its singer are second-hand, and revealing of the way in which Ellis’s teenagers feel themselves to be at the end of things". It is this second-hand feeling that leaves them with a sense of disaffection and no real care for anything they experience, causing their erratic and disturbing behaviour.
The Ultimate Consumers
Young writes that they are "the ultimate consumers, victims of the hyperreal, doomed to life-long cycles of unappeasable desires". These desires can never be fulfilled as they are the same things that they are trying to escape from. Everything they experience is in terms of commodities, and therefore all their reactions are artificially created responses as everything has been experienced before. As nothing that they do or say is unique there is no value in anything.
Clay goes to visit an anorexic friend in hospital and she has copies of Vogue in her room and is watching MTV, illustrating the emphasis on unattainable physical perfection that is propelled in the media.
There is a scene where Clay, Kim and Benjamin are talking and Benjamin remarks "I bet you don’t even read The Face. You’ve got to". Style magazines are their pointers to what they should be listening to, or wearing, or watching. Shopping is used as a substitute for happiness. Ellis’s consumerism shows the drastic effects that growing up in a material world brings and the forced solitude that it creates.
They are constantly being fed information on what to like rather than being given a choice, and as Young further notes, they "are at the mercy of consumer capitalism, stunned by the storm of signs, codes and simulations emanating from advertising and television and all hopelessly alienated from any understanding of their predicament".
Sex and Romance
Alongside aesthetics, sex is also used as a commodity. The teenagers are promiscuous and romantic ideals are unattainable. The most obvious case is Julian who becomes a prostitute to pay for his drug addiction. When he tries to get out of the situation he is told "you’re a beautiful boy and that’s all that matters". This quote sums up the importance placed on beauty and youth in their world.
Clay remembers a time when he and Blair went on holiday to the beach together. At first they did the typical romantic clichés of walking on the beach and drinking champagne, but eventually they get bored and just watch the television, wishing that they were at home. This ultimate goal of romance is worthless as soon as it is achieved.
Disturbing Events
The most harrowing events in the novel take place towards the end. At a party, a snuff video is played and Clay and Blair are the only ones to feel uneasy about it, while the rest of the teenagers are aroused. This is followed by the discovery of a dead body in an alleyway. Rather than alerting the police, the teenagers instead play with it, putting a cigarette in the mouth of the corpse and laughing at their find.
When Clay discovers his friends raping a drugged young girl, he tells him it’s wrong, "You already have everything". This comment summarises the main theme of the novel. The teenagers are all so corrupt but the whole world of materialism is at their fingertips. Rip replies "If you want to do something you have the right to do it".
As all material goods are available to them, they truly believe that they can have anything else that they want too, which is the reason for their wild behaviour.
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