Postscript

I ought to state a couple things regarding the American Psycho analysis:

- Reading the book is something of a slog. Excess is the point, but it's still excess, and my sense when reading it was that it could have been much shorter and lost none of the point it was trying to make. I appreciate it more in retrospect than in the actual reading.
- I don't think the whiny Chicago professor is a serial killer in waiting, only that he exhibits a breathtaking lack of awareness of how good he has it and a Randian insistence that he doesn't owe the world anything for his success. Satire is exaggeration, and American Psycho accordingly takes this attitude of gross entitlement to arresting extremes.