archetypes and tropes
It is worth pointing out that the hero for the serial killer in Brett Easton Ellis’s American Psycho …
… and, yes, I know: everything is fantasy sequences from the CEO boardroom and there is no serial killer here per se …
… reflecting a sociopathy of 1980s corporate New York …
And the hero of Patrick Bateman is… Donald Trump.
(An earlier vintage, I suppose.)
A curious archtype we have here. And that question swirls about… “How did he come to the summit as nominee of a major political party?” As far back as the late 80s / early 90s, he was an obvious foil to fulfill this role in (controversial, a book described by an actual murderer as his “bible” and floats about lists for “banned book week”) literature.
And trying to analyze the appeals and dis-appeals of the candidates will lead one into a little trouble. We got this one in 2000, and I’d wager George W Bush makes a better Paul Metzler than Donald Trump — but assemble Al Gore and Hillary Clinton for Tracy Glick, with now the gender bias coming fully into place. So,when (sans movie) an editorial appears after the first debate describing the teen film motifs with the know-it-all honor student (girl) who’s done his homework and the sneering devil may care (boy) who “plays by his own rules” — an anti-hero who I suppose fulfills his role — I see this later derided in a liberal mag as an example of media sexism. Which presents the problem / question of trying to analyze and spell out sometimes sexist motifs running across the American electorate.
Trying to churn Donald Trump into a sympathetic and redeemable character (and the ghost writer for Art of the Deal deeply regrets doing so) and you inevitably land on this contortion. Another William Randolph Hearst / Citizen Kane. And we await Donald Trump on the eve of his election walking to the balcony as his angry crowd of misguided true believers (who somehow think a Clinton 20 point landslide was “stolen” from the rightful winner Trump) is now desperately shouting “Rosebud!”