#antoninotati — Public Fediverse posts
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Bret Easton Ellis – author of ‘The Shards’ and co-executive producer of the new FX series – says he’s sad for Millennials: “Obviously there’s pain there; this is not the happy generation”
Bret Easton Ellis gets into much strife over the things he says. Usually the critics are a third his age (he’s 59 at the time of our chat, 62 today). Those critics are mainly speedy thumb-texters or Goggle Box-like couch analysts, who either have no idea what life was like before the internet, or don’t know how to use it properly now. What some critics fail to realise is that Ellis’ works are like diaries about the opulent 1980s – a time when things were less doom and gloom (admittedly, much of this D&G has been the result of said decadent era), but it was a time at least when vibes were more optimistic and aspirational. And perhaps, yes, sadly, ultra-competitive on the social circuit.
In retrospect, and in light of today’s woke values, Ellis’s fictional (and some part-factual) tales about excessive drug-taking, hard partying, serial killing and rampant infidelity would appear more nihilistic than the orgies and battlegrounds of ancient Rome, and he is often taken to task for taking the decadence thing too far. Heck, it’s mostly fiction, kids! And again, mostly retrospecitve.
In his recent book ‘The Shards’, Ellis continues his relaying of life in the fast lane, packing its pages with sketchy sex and unhealthy one-upmanship, material obsession and murderous rage, but there’s a catch: part of it is real.
Acting as a kind of ‘prequel’ to his first novel Less Than Zero (1985), The Shards [was] Ellis’s first novel in 13 years. While his book White of 2019 was part memoir / part podcast-put-to-paper, The Shards is what you might call autofiction (a cross between autobiography and make-believe). The story is set in his final year of high school. A murderer is wreaking havoc on the streets of Los Angeles, circa 1981, to a soundtrack of Scary Monsters and Hungry Like The Wolf. Opulence and high self-opinion were big in the early ’80s. It was a time when woke was just something you did with a hangover…
Now, as if by wish of mine come true, there is a TV series based on The Shards, just released on FX – the drugs-and-knives-connotating title intact, created by none other than my all-time favourite horror/thriller telly auteur, Ryan Murphy.
Now, while I’ve read the book, I’ve not seen The Shards yet – because the amount of entertainment online these days is overwhelming and if I subscribed to every channel and streaming platform, I’d be even more overwhelmed. Also, I’m a busy bloke unless you invite me to the party; and television PR is not what it used to be. Gosh they used to have smarts and manners in the ’90s, sending us writers things “for our consideration” – not redundantly wasting time on the consideration of witless influencers. Heck, I wish I’d gotten sent every Ryan Murphy production to preview even as it was being dropped to all – I would put all other entertainment and lifestyle features on hold to go and get all thesis-paper on it. Too late now. Everybody else has seen it. Late to the game. Just kidding, the delay in watching it has only got me more excited in anticipation to see it. And that soundtrack better be killer, gentlemen.
I did, however, manage to have a nice long chat with Bret Easton Ellis a couple of years back about that very book, and it’s an interview well worth dusting the cobwebs off of, and presenting to you now, dear reader.
Ellis, who not only lent the rights for the novel to be turned into a series by Murphy but came on board as executive producer and co-writer. Even the main character’s name is Bret Ellis, so we can only guess that we’ll be getting all the sex, all the drugs, all the decadence, and all the horror – straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
Such as you get here.
Interview by Antonino Tati
Hi Bret. What did you think of the immediate negative press you received for your previous book [to ‘The Shards’] ‘White’?
I think it was absurd. I think the mainstream media’s response to the book is Exhibit A in what I talk about in the very last chapter. This hysteric overreach that anyone who has an opinion that is different than theirs – than the bubble they reside in… I think White is actually a very chill book, tonally. I don’t think it’s hysterical and I don’t think I use any exclamation marks.
I don’t think my book is attacking anyone. I think what the book is calling for is a kind of calm, let’s-take-a-deep-breath, neutral attitude towards what’s happening and have a conversation. The idea that I am attacking Millennials when I’m actually quite sympathetic to them is part of the problem.
Aren’t you doing them a service by getting them to wake up and say something, rather than just Like something?
I live with a Millennial and I know that this is one of the great stressors: of being liked… His online presence and the crippling shame that occurs if you are attacked online; or if something of yours doesn’t get a lot of followers or a lot of likes. It seems to me to be a terrible way to live. I don’t know, where is this going to go?
The thing is, Bret, when we went to primary school, we were given happy stamps and stars for good work, right? But we didn’t expect to receive these in our adult life. Why is it that the new generation isn’t equipped with the armor to cope with critique?
My theory is that maybe many of these people felt they didn’t get enough attention or enough love from their mothers and fathers, who were narcissistic and wrapped up in their own lives. I certainly can say that this is true of me and many people I know of my generation. So I think Gen-X-ers overcompensated.
“I’ve talked to parents my age and they have wrung their hands and said, ‘I’ve overcompensated – I did not want my children to go through the childhood I had, and I wanted to give them everything I was lacking.’ They have ultimately said, ‘I think I’ve coddled them into helplessness.”
I talked to a parent who said, “I arrange ‘free range’ time for my child now” – who is actually a teenager. “I will actually not follow them or track them on the phone – and they can do that one day a week, like going to the mall or to a movie, or whatever.” We looked at each other and burst out laughing. Free range time? That’s all I had! I barely saw my parents. I was completely on my own, and by being completely on my own I fostered a kind of independence and it aided me to becoming an adult. Some of these parents have done the opposite to the next generation and they become so worried about them that they’ve over-medicated them, they gave in to their every whim, and also you have social media guiding them into a self-made bubble where they’ve built a world that they feel good about. Actually they’ve built a safe space for themselves. But once they go out of that safe space they encounter the often-unpleasant difficult realities of life, and you break down.
https://creammagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/bret-easton-ellis-radio-edit-what-do-you-think-.-breakdown.wavAbove: audio of Bret Easton Ellis discussing helicopter parenting and the perils of social media.
Ellis in his 1982 yearbook.
We’ll talk more about the perils of social media in a moment, but I want to go back to where you were given the freedom and an environment of ‘non-paranoia’ while growing up. We have helicopter parenting today and some parents are over-zealous in their protection of their children. Has this worry rubbed off on the next generation?
That could be well and true. I know that definitely is a narrative in my partner’s story; that was his mother what you just described. What was supposed to be something that was supposed to aid in a child’s comfort actually added to a child’s sense of stress and paranoia.
And sense of victimisation. Likes online often coincide with incidents where an individual has worn their heart on their sleeve or shown a weakness and I suppose that kind of feeds into the idea that playing victim is a likeable thing.
It does.
As opposed to when you and I were growing up, just pushing through or being the hero was what was admired. Now it seems we’re celebrated every time we show we’re weak…
That’s true. I do see that my partner is much, much more interested in people who have become victims, or who have victimised themselves; or who have terrible ailments; or who are transgender; people who are going through immense physical and emotional difficulties, rather than someone who wins an award, or someone who’s an individual. That’s what really bothers me, is this notion that the individual doesn’t matter but the group does.
“It’s an argument that my partner and I get into a lot. I grew up admiring individuals doing something amazing or creative. He cares more about the group and what the group thinks. What does the group think about this video? Or this video game? Or this victim movement?”
It’s like the ’90s meme ‘Kill your idols’ is suddenly going viral.
Yes, but around the world, people still do like soccer stars, people do respond to huge pop stars. But one-on-one, when I talk to my boyfriend or his friends, they identify with people who are injured in some way more than people who aren’t.
Is there a certain Us-versus-Them at play? When a person is liking someone’s victim situation, aren’t they kind of saying ‘there’s someone weaker than me, hence I like it’?
Yes, of course, that plays into it as well.
Isn’t that less celebratory and more sadistic and sinister?
Well I’ve never met a more passive-aggressive generation than Millennials. There’s a passive-aggressiveness there, and I think you’ve just located it. There is a very ‘Oh, I’m just a likeable victim’ mentality going on but ‘I’m very positive and I really want the best for everybody’ – but the slightest questioning of that, the slightest hint of the reality that comes in, I have never seen a group turn on you with a snarl and a snap so goddamn quickly it’ll make your head spin.
It’s like an episode of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ but real life, really.
Yes, and not with drag queens, sadly. That is a very strange dichotomy; between that upbeat positivity and this almost whiplash anger at almost anything that intrudes upon it.
Instead of the proverbial silver soon, would you say Millennials were born with a silver smartphone in their mouth?
Completely I would. Obviously there’s pain there; this is not the happy generation.
“There’s a lot of stress; a lot of anxiety about being likeable; about dealing with technology; about being distracted by technology; and I think there’s a real lack of pleasure in the amount of information they’re privy to. You’ve got so much of everything that nothing really matters in the end.”
I saw a headline some time ago that read: Bret Easton Ellis Takes On Generation Wuss…
That happened years ago on my Twitter feed where I began to notice things about my partner and his friends that were so shockingly weak. Little things that they couldn’t do or were confused by. So I decided to put some of that stuff in my book [White] and I really did not think it was going to be circled so heavily and dissected by Millennial writers – I mean the angriest, longest reviews have been from Millennials. The reviewers were, like, “The old and irrelevant white writer Bret Easton Ellis”. That is Millennial in a nutshell; Exhibit B of what I’m talking about: this over-reaching hysteria about anything that comes close to investigating the world with a critical eye. It’s depressing in a way, but I never meant to poke a stick at Millennials.“Millennials weren’t created in a vacuum; they were a reaction to many of the values of my generation and Gen X. Of course they were tired of our nihilism, our negativity, our coolness, our irony. Maybe it’s normal to react against that with an aspirational viewpoint, but it’s disturbing to hear them say “Why would I want to see that movie when it’s so negative?”
What do you think are the nihilistic aspects of today’s generation? What about your Kim Kardashian followers and people that are infatuated with Instagram; two examples less about victimisation and more about selfness.
And fakeness. You’re putting out a fake version of your life; you’re becoming an actor. I know quite a few people who are not having a great time right now – they’re kind of depressed, having problems with their relationships, have addictive issues, or are unemployed… and then I see their Instagram feeds and everything’s awesome; they’re smiling under palm trees, or holding their little baby with their husband – even though I know they’re getting a divorce in eight months. There is something nihilistic about that, compared to my generation which just said, “It’s all fucked”.
You just need to look at the popular drugs during any given generation to see that they reflect the overall attitude. Look at cocaine and how it tied into decadence and greed. Today there’s crystal meth, ketamine – harsher drugs than they were taking in the ’80s.
They’re taking cheap drugs. They’re not taking, dare I say it, the better cocaine that was available to all of us in the 1980s [For the record I only tried it first time in the early ’90s and have only done it two or three times since, AT]. Drugs are so bad now and everything is so cheap. Of course everyone is smoking or snorting crystal meth; it’s relatively inexpensive. Or they’re taking organic drugs, like Kratom, which is sweeping across America [and which works like morphine]. A lot of this is about the economic disadvantages this generation has, and that limits their choices, especially in terms of lifestyle.
Despite financial limitations, they’re not limited elsewhere – I mean they’ve got the internet whereas Gen X never had the internet through their teens, twenties and thirties. Aren’t they over-supplied with choice?
But they have no money. And I’m sympathetic to that. In fact, I’ve been far harsher with my generation in my fiction than I have been with any other generation. I’ve taken my generation to task in Less Than Zero, and American Psycho [and in The Shards]. I’ve really criticised their shallowness and fecklessness, and their posing and materialism.
If someone in their twenties would read three of your earlier books, say ‘Less Than Zero’, ‘Rules of Attraction’ and even ‘Glamorama’, do you think they’d have less of an antagonistic attitude toward you?
Completely, because that’s what reading fiction does; it makes you more empathic; it puts you in someone else’s shoes, whether it’s Oliver Twist’s, Lily Bart’s, or Patrick Bateman’s. I think that sustained concentration on these pages and on these characters who are so different to you, that’s why fiction always thrilled me; to take you into these different worlds. I’m not sure if it fully works that way anymore in this hectic, busy world. And I don’t think video games today work like fiction novels: they last for 36 hours and you’re in control of the narrative. Sometimes I do feel very old-mannish about the novel. You know, “The novel is the greatest medium!” Many people don’t think this anymore. I think I was just raised in the right time.
Thinking about all your years of writing, would you say honesty is the best policy when putting pen to paper?
That’s what I’ve always done since Less Than Zero, and I think that’s what an artist does. I think any writer should be doing that and I pity the writer who does the opposite.
Bret Easton Ellis’ novel ‘The Shards’ is out through Swift Press / Allen and Unwin, RRP $32.99.
‘The Shards’ airs on FX. I’ve bookmarked it myself.
https://creammagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/master_george-sex-the-absolute-master-august-1.wav
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The new Oura 5 Ring is so light and unobtrusive you forget you’re wearing it: Here are 5 more positive things about this handsome smart ring
As someone who doesn’t wear a watch, nor jewellery too often, I’m so glad I’ve been introduced to the Oura Ring 5. The new model ring is not only smaller, but boasts some bonus functions and extra specs that were missing in the Oura 4.
For anyone not familiar with this stat-reading product, the Oura can best be described as an attractive, traditional-looking ring that tracks the user’s sleep, activity, stress levels, temperature, and general health monitoring.
The new petite size of the Oura Ring 5 is probably it’s greatest selling point, and here at Cream, we believe the best technology is increasingly that which we forget we’re wearing. Even in an accessory sense, you don’t want to be too conscious of the jewellery you’re wearing. That way, when someone comments on a piece (and I’ve received plenty of comments and compliments on the Oura) your response is more one of casual surprise as opposed to eye-rolling expectation. So, yes, size matters when it comes to an Oura ring, and in our view, the smaller and lighter the ring, the better.
Here are five more great things about the new Oura Ring 5.
01. It’s not only smaller but much more comfortable
This is probably the most immediately obvious upgrade. Oura reports that the Ring 5 has 40% less volume than the Ring 4, measuring 6.09mm wide and 2.28mm thick versus 7.9mm and about 2.88mm. The redesigned, flatter sensor arrangement also makes the inside feel less intrusive. Basically, it feels less like wearing a piece of technology and more like wearing an actual ring.
02. The sensors are smarter, improving accuracy
This is the big one, technically. Oura has redesigned the optical sensing system, with shorter light paths, more efficient LEDs and improved sensor positioning. There’s better accuracy in overnight heart rate variability, by 12%, and closer to 20% improvement in accuracy of heart rate during activities such as walking, running and cycling, compared with the Oura 4.03. Battery life is longer
Your Oura ring comes with a small but speedy battery charger, and most users find a full charge to last about a full week.
Energy gets a good bump up in the Oura Ring 5. In fact, one full charge sees the ring reading your stats for a solid week, sometimes even up to 9 days depending on your levels of activity and its analysing of these, whereas I found the Ring 4 often only lasted for a week. We realise that longer batter life is not surprising in progressing models of technology, but with a wearable bit of smart tech like this – whose whole purpose is continuous monitoring, particularly overnight – that extra day or two can make all the difference. You spend less time thinking about charging it and more time actually wearing it. That said, it charges fairly quickly.
04. It’s lighter and less visually ‘techy’
The combination of the slimmer profile, lower weight and redesigned sensors makes Ring 5 considerably more discreet. And of course it’s available in several finishes, including a new Deep Rose. Oura has really pushed the jewellery rather than gadget aesthetic this time. The lightness of the ring means it is unobtrusive, hence you’re much more likely to leave it on 24/7 and that of course means better data.
05. The health insights are becoming more proactive
This is slightly different from the hardware improvements. Ring 5 launches alongside newer software experiences including ‘Health Radar’, which is designed to flag potential changes in areas such as cardiovascular and respiratory health. There are also new health-oriented insights – mostly to assist users taking diabetic/weight loss medications such as Ozempic or Wegovy – and some new AI-enabled medical guidance. For those who have invested in an Oura Ring 4, don’t panic as Oura says many of these new software experiences are also coming to Gen 3 and the Ring 4, so everybody’s happy.So, with its better sensing, smaller design and more comfortable fit, plus a better battery life, this ring is definitely having more outings alongside the Cartier. Now, I know I did say I don’t wear jewellery often but I’m getting used to both rings being worn now.
The Ōura Ring 5 is available in a variety of colours and textures. To view these, and for pricing, visit ouraring.com.
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Bret Easton Ellis – author of ‘The Shards’ and co-executive producer of the new FX series – says he’s sad for Millennials: “Obviously there’s pain there; this is not the happy generation”
Bret Easton Ellis gets into much strife over the things he says. Usually the critics are a third his age (he’s 59 at the time of our chat, 62 today). Those critics are mainly speedy thumb-texters or Goggle Box-like couch analysts, who either have no idea what life was like before the internet, or don’t know how to use it properly now. What some critics fail to realise is that Ellis’ works are like diaries about the opulent 1980s – a time when things were less doom and gloom (admittedly, much of that was the result of said decadent era), but at least when vibes were more optimistic and aspirational. And perhaps, yes, sadly, ultra-competitive on the social circuit.
In retrospect, and in light of today’s woke values, Ellis’s fictional (and some part-factual) tales about excessive drug-taking, hard partying, serial killing and rampant infidelity would appear more nihilistic than the orgies and battlegrounds of ancient Rome, and he is often taken to task for taking the decadence thing too far. Heck, it’s mostly fiction, kids! And again, mostly retrospecitve.
In his recent book ‘The Shards’, Ellis continues his relaying of life in the fast lane, packing its pages with sketchy sex and unhealthy one-upmanship, material obsession and murderous rage, but there’s a catch: part of it is real.
Acting as a kind of ‘prequel’ to his first novel Less Than Zero (1985), The Shards [was] Ellis’s first novel in 13 years. While his book White of 2019 was part memoir / part podcast-put-to-paper, The Shards is what you might call autofiction (a cross between autobiography and make-believe). The story is set in his final year of high school. A murderer is wreaking havoc on the streets of Los Angeles, circa 1981, to a soundtrack of Scary Monsters and Hungry Like The Wolf. Opulence and high self-opinion were big in the early ’80s. It was a time when woke was just something you did with a hangover…
Now, as if by wish of mine come true, there is a TV series based on The Shards, just released on FX – the drugs-and-knives-connotating title intact, created by none other than my all-time favourite horror/thriller telly auteur, Ryan Murphy.
Now, while I’ve read the book, I’ve not seen The Shards yet – because the amount of entertainment online these days is overwhelming; I’m a busy bloke unless you invite me to the party; and television PR is not what it used to be. Heck, I wish I’d gotten sent every Ryan Murphy production to preview even as it was being dropped to all – I would put all other entertainment and lifestyle features on hold to go and get all thesis-paper on it. Too late now. Everybody else has seen it. Late to the game. Just kidding, the delay in watching it has only got me more excited in anticipation to see it. And that soundtrack better be killer, gentlemen.
I did, however, manage to have a nice long chat with Bret Easton Ellis a couple of years back about that very book, and it’s an interview well worth dusting the cobwebs off of, and presenting to you now, dear reader.
Ellis, who not only lent the rights for the novel to be turned into a series by Murphy but came on board as executive producer and co-writer. Even the main character’s name is Bret Ellis, so we can only guess that we’ll be getting all the sex, all the drugs, all the decadence, and all the horror – straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
Such as you get here.
Interview by Antonino Tati
Hi Brett. What did you think of the immediate negative press you received for your previous book [to ‘The Shards’] ‘White’?
I think it was absurd. I think the mainstream media’s response to the book is Exhibit A in what I talk about in the very last chapter. This hysteric overreach that anyone who has an opinion that is different than theirs – than the bubble they reside in… I think White is actually a very chill book, tonally. I don’t think it’s hysterical and I don’t think I use any exclamation marks.
I don’t think my book is attacking anyone. I think what the book is calling for is a kind of calm, let’s-take-a-deep-breath, neutral attitude towards what’s happening and have a conversation. The idea that I am attacking Millennials when I’m actually quite sympathetic to them is part of the problem.
Aren’t you doing them a service by getting them to wake up and say something, rather than just Like something?
I live with a Millennial and I know that this is one of the great stressors: of being liked… His online presence and the crippling shame that occurs if you are attacked online; or if something of yours doesn’t get a lot of followers or a lot of likes. It seems to me to be a terrible way to live. I don’t know, where is this going to go?
The thing is, Bret, when we went to primary school, we were given happy stamps and stars for good work, right? But we didn’t expect to receive these in our adult life. Why is it that the new generation isn’t equipped with the armor to cope with critique?
My theory is that maybe many of these people felt they didn’t get enough attention or enough love from their mothers and fathers, who were narcissistic and wrapped up in their own lives. I certainly can say that this is true of me and many people I know of my generation. So I think Gen-X-ers overcompensated.
“I’ve talked to parents my age and they have wrung their hands and said, ‘I’ve overcompensated – I did not want my children to go through the childhood I had, and I wanted to give them everything I was lacking.’ They have ultimately said, ‘I think I’ve coddled them into helplessness.”
I talked to a parent who said, “I arrange ‘free range’ time for my child now” – who is actually a teenager. “I will actually not follow them or track them on the phone – and they can do that one day a week, like going to the mall or to a movie, or whatever.” We looked at each other and burst out laughing. Free range time? That’s all I had! I barely saw my parents. I was completely on my own, and by being completely on my own I fostered a kind of independence and it aided me to becoming an adult. Some of these parents have done the opposite to the next generation and they become so worried about them that they’ve over-medicated them, they gave in to their every whim, and also you have social media guiding them into a self-made bubble where they’ve built a world that they feel good about. Actually they’ve built a safe space for themselves. But once they go out of that safe space they encounter the often-unpleasant difficult realities of life, and you break down.
https://creammagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/bret-easton-ellis-radio-edit-what-do-you-think-.-breakdown.wavAbove: audio of Bret Easton Ellis discussing helicopter parenting and the perils of social media.
Ellis in his 1982 yearbook.
We’ll talk more about the perils of social media in a moment, but I want to go back to where you were given the freedom and an environment of ‘non-paranoia’ while growing up. We have helicopter parenting today and some parents are over-zealous in their protection of their children. Has this worry rubbed off on the next generation?
That could be well and true. I know that definitely is a narrative in my partner’s story; that was his mother what you just described. What was supposed to be something that was supposed to aid in a child’s comfort actually added to a child’s sense of stress and paranoia.
And sense of victimisation. Likes online often coincide with incidents where an individual has worn their heart on their sleeve or shown a weakness and I suppose that kind of feeds into the idea that playing victim is a likeable thing.
It does.
As opposed to when you and I were growing up, just pushing through or being the hero was what was admired. Now it seems we’re celebrated every time we show we’re weak…
That’s true. I do see that my partner is much, much more interested in people who have become victims, or who have victimised themselves; or who have terrible ailments; or who are transgender; people who are going through immense physical and emotional difficulties, rather than someone who wins an award, or someone who’s an individual. That’s what really bothers me, is this notion that the individual doesn’t matter but the group does.
“It’s an argument that my partner and I get into a lot. I grew up admiring individuals doing something amazing or creative. He cares more about the group and what the group thinks. What does the group think about this video? Or this video game? Or this victim movement?”
It’s like the ’90s meme ‘Kill your idols’ is suddenly going viral.
Yes, but around the world, people still do like soccer stars, people do respond to huge pop stars. But one-on-one, when I talk to my boyfriend or his friends, they identify with people who are injured in some way more than people who aren’t.
Is there a certain Us-versus-Them at play? When a person is liking someone’s victim situation, aren’t they kind of saying ‘there’s someone weaker than me, hence I like it’?
Yes, of course, that plays into it as well.
Isn’t that less celebratory and more sadistic and sinister?
Well I’ve never met a more passive-aggressive generation than Millennials. There’s a passive-aggressiveness there, and I think you’ve just located it. There is a very ‘Oh, I’m just a likeable victim’ mentality going on but ‘I’m very positive and I really want the best for everybody’ – but the slightest questioning of that, the slightest hint of the reality that comes in, I have never seen a group turn on you with a snarl and a snap so goddamn quickly it’ll make your head spin.
It’s like an episode of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ but real life, really.
Yes, and not with drag queens, sadly. That is a very strange dichotomy; between that upbeat positivity and this almost whiplash anger at almost anything that intrudes upon it.
Instead of the proverbial silver soon, would you say Millennials were born with a silver smartphone in their mouth?
Completely I would. Obviously there’s pain there; this is not the happy generation.
“There’s a lot of stress; a lot of anxiety about being likeable; about dealing with technology; about being distracted by technology; and I think there’s a real lack of pleasure in the amount of information they’re privy to. You’ve got so much of everything that nothing really matters in the end.”
I saw a headline some time ago that read: Bret Easton Ellis Takes On Generation Wuss…
That happened years ago on my Twitter feed where I began to notice things about my partner and his friends that were so shockingly weak. Little things that they couldn’t do or were confused by. So I decided to put some of that stuff in my book [White] and I really did not think it was going to be circled so heavily and dissected by Millennial writers – I mean the angriest, longest reviews have been from Millennials. The reviewers were, like, “The old and irrelevant white writer Bret Easton Ellis”. That is Millennial in a nutshell; Exhibit B of what I’m talking about: this over-reaching hysteria about anything that comes close to investigating the world with a critical eye. It’s depressing in a way, but I never meant to poke a stick at Millennials.“Millennials weren’t created in a vacuum; they were a reaction to many of the values of my generation and Gen X. Of course they were tired of our nihilism, our negativity, our coolness, our irony. Maybe it’s normal to react against that with an aspirational viewpoint, but it’s disturbing to hear them say “Why would I want to see that movie when it’s so negative?”
What do you think are the nihilistic aspects of today’s generation? What about your Kim Kardashian followers and people that are infatuated with Instagram; two examples less about victimisation and more about selfness.
And fakeness. You’re putting out a fake version of your life; you’re becoming an actor. I know quite a few people who are not having a great time right now – they’re kind of depressed, having problems with their relationships, have addictive issues, or are unemployed… and then I see their Instagram feeds and everything’s awesome; they’re smiling under palm trees, or holding their little baby with their husband – even though I know they’re getting a divorce in eight months. There is something nihilistic about that, compared to my generation which just said, “It’s all fucked”.
You just need to look at the popular drugs during any given generation to see that they reflect the overall attitude. Look at cocaine and how it tied into decadence and greed. Today there’s crystal meth, ketamine – harsher drugs than they were taking in the ’80s.
They’re taking cheap drugs. They’re not taking, dare I say it, the better cocaine that was available to all of us in the 1980s [For the record I only tried it first time in the early ’90s and have only done it two or three times since, AT]. Drugs are so bad now and everything is so cheap. Of course everyone is smoking or snorting crystal meth; it’s relatively inexpensive. Or they’re taking organic drugs, like Kratom, which is sweeping across America [and which works like morphine]. A lot of this is about the economic disadvantages this generation has, and that limits their choices, especially in terms of lifestyle.
Despite financial limitations, they’re not limited elsewhere – I mean they’ve got the internet whereas Gen X never had the internet through their teens, twenties and thirties. Aren’t they over-supplied with choice?
But they have no money. And I’m sympathetic to that. In fact, I’ve been far harsher with my generation in my fiction than I have been with any other generation. I’ve taken my generation to task in Less Than Zero, and American Psycho [and in The Shards]. I’ve really criticised their shallowness and fecklessness, and their posing and materialism.
If someone in their twenties would read three of your earlier books, say ‘Less Than Zero’, ‘Rules of Attraction’ and even ‘Glamorama’, do you think they’d have less of an antagonistic attitude toward you?
Completely, because that’s what reading fiction does; it makes you more empathic; it puts you in someone else’s shoes, whether it’s Oliver Twist’s, Lily Bart’s, or Patrick Bateman’s. I think that sustained concentration on these pages and on these characters who are so different to you, that’s why fiction always thrilled me; to take you into these different worlds. I’m not sure if it fully works that way anymore in this hectic, busy world. And I don’t think video games today work like fiction novels: they last for 36 hours and you’re in control of the narrative. Sometimes I do feel very old-mannish about the novel. You know, “The novel is the greatest medium!” Many people don’t think this anymore. I think I was just raised in the right time.
Thinking about all your years of writing, would you say honesty is the best policy when putting pen to paper?
That’s what I’ve always done since Less Than Zero, and I think that’s what an artist does. I think any writer should be doing that and I pity the writer who does the opposite.
Bret Easton Ellis’ novel ‘The Shards’ is out through Swift Press / Allen and Unwin, RRP $32.99.
‘The Shards’ airs on FX. I’ve bookmarked it myself.
https://creammagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/master_george-sex-the-absolute-master-august-1.wav
Hands in the air for a ‘Romy and Michele’ movie sequel is finally in production
How to Shop for Cannabis Responsibly in New York City in 2026
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#americanPsycho #andrewHornery #ANTONINOTATI #authorInterviews #bretEastonEllis #bretEastonEllisInterview #bretEastonEllisWhite #conversationsWithCultureIcons #CREAMMAGAZINE #lessThanZero #literature #modernLiterature #POPCULTURE #rosReines #rupaul #rupaulSDragRace #ryanMurphy #theShards #theShardsSoundtrack #theShardsTv #theShardsTvSeries #thereSYourQuoteMate2 #whiteTheBook -
Thomas Dolby – She Blinded Me With Science (Blinded By The Magic Of Science Mix) FREE DOWNLOAD
Found Objects is a music compilation series that celebrates the return of the remix and the art of sampling (as in found audio). Australian audio artist (and Cream magazine editor) Antonino Tati trawls the internet to discover the campest of documentaries, some mad retro advertisements, and cool-as film quotes, layering words of wit (and occasional dimwittedness) over alternative, preloved mixes of songs.
Each track is a pretty awesome head trip. Good to show off on the playlist! And the music featured is varied, with Volume 01 containing remixes of songs by Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Darren Hayes, Eurythmics, Suede, EMF, Thomas Dolby, George Michael, and Pet Shop Boys.
Here’s a pop classic from the early ’80s, Thomas Dolby’s She Blinded Me With Science, thrown onto the bunsen burner and coming out sounding hot.
Thomas Dolby She Blinded Me With Science (Blinded By The Magic Of Science Mix)
Access your free downloads from the Found Objects: Volume 1 page, and tell your friends.
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#alternativeMixes #ANTONINOTATI #blindedByTheMagicOfScienceMix #candyPerfumeGirl #clubDjs #clubMusic #danceMusic #edm #electronica #foundObjects #MUSIC #remixes #sampling #sheBlindedMeWithScience #thomasDolby #volume1 -
Madonna – Candy Perfume Girl (Lessons In Fragrance Application) FREE DOWNLOAD
Found Objects is a music compilation series that celebrates the return of the remix and the art of sampling (as in found audio). Australian audio artist (and Cream magazine editor) Antonino Tati trawls the internet to discover the campest of documentaries, some mad retro advertisements, and cool-as film quotes, layering words of wit (and occasional dimwittedness) over alternative, preloved mixes of songs.
Each track is a pretty awesome head trip. Good to show off on the playlist. And the music featured is varied, with Volume 01 containing remixes of songs by Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Darren Hayes, Eurythmics, Suede, Thomas Dolby, George Michael, and Pet Shop Boys.
Here’s one of our favourites from Madonna, Candy Perfume Girl off of her Ray Of Light album, but remixed into a trance-like instruction manual on how to apply perfume. It’s camp, it’s kitsch, it’s catchy. Full lyrics below, and remember, earbuds in is always better!
https://creammagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/02.-side-a-02-mad-final-master-1.wavMadonna Candy Perfume Girl (Lessons In Fragrance Application)
Access your free downloads from the Found Objects: Volume 1 page, and tell your friends.
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#alternativeMixes #ANTONINOTATI #candyPerfumeGirl #clubDjs #clubMusic #danceMusic #edm #electronica #foundObjects #LessonsInFragranceApplication #madonna #MUSIC #remixes #sampling #volume1 -
Design a cool new cup for Yo-Chi frozen yogurt for a chance to win big coin
Yo-Chi frozen yogurt is about to get a design-forward upgrade. The Australian cult favourite fro-yo is tapping into the country’s creative streak with a campaign that’s less snack run, more art-school flex. The brief? Reimagine the brand’s iconic takeaway cup. The hook? A global prize pool worth $60,000. Suddenly, your post-dessert doodle could be worth serious coin.
Entrants are invited to redesign the iconic Yo-Chi cup and we encourage them to go big! Think bold graphics, playful typography, chaotic maximalism or clean-cut minimalism. The only rule is that it has to feel like Yo-Chi: joyful, a little indulgent, and impossible to ignore.
The competition is giving one creative entrant the chance to have their artwork printed on Yo-Chi cups across the country and is offering a shared $60,000 prize pool. Oh, and the comp has also been expanded Singapore, so good luck to our readers there, too.
Winning designs won’t just live online either; they’ll hit the real world, turning takeaway cups into collectible mini canvases.
It’s a smart pivot for a brand already fluent in aesthetic pleasure — because let’s be honest, Yo-Chi has always been as much about the vibe as it has been about the swirl. Now, they’re handing that visual identity over to the people who know it best: the late-night treat crowd, the TikTok creatives, the colour-obsessed. Heck, I might throw my designer hat into the ring!
In an era where brand loyalty is built on participation, not just consumption, Yo-Chi’s competition feels bang on. It’s not just about frozen yogurt — it’s about ownership, creativity, and maybe, just maybe, your design becoming the next thing everyone’s holding.
Out 07/07.
Hands in the air for a ‘Romy and Michele’ movie sequel is finally in production
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#ANTONINOTATI #art #COMPETITIONS #CREAMMAGAZINE #design #food #foodAndBeverage #frozenYogurt #POPCULTURE #yoChi -
Some sweet words on World Chocolate Day because good chocolate deserves some attention
Chocolate is a part of everyday life. My everyday life, that’s for sure. In fact, whenever I nick down to the shops to buy a carton of milk and loaf of bread, rarely do I walk away without also having purchased chocolate in some form: a pack of coconut-encrusted cocoa protein balls; a hazelnut and choccy bar, or even a carton of chocolate milk.
I’ve always thought chocolate should have its own day marked on the festive calendar, especially since it is so widely appreciated, has infiltrated so many cultural diets, often creeps into popular culture, and is now deemed fairly good for you. Now indeedy it does – today in fact, July 7.
The first celebration of World Chocolate Day dates back to 2009 (and is not to be confused with International Chocolate Day). Chocolate itself has a far further-back history, having derived from the cacao bean, and enjoyed as far back as ancient Mesoamerican times. During that period, the delicious flesh of the cacao fruit was fermented into an alcoholic beverage. Good to see it in some of our bevvies today, too, like in the new Chocolate in a Bottle blanc de blanc.
But chocolate isn’t just a decadent indulgence. In fact, studies have shown that the good stuff helps prevent liver damage, boosts beneficial cholesterol, offers better brain power, and lowers blood pressure.
I remember my first encounter with Lindt Chocolate – still one of my favourite brands. Not at a sample stand at the supermarket, but seen on the 12” artwork of Scritti Politti’s slice of audio confection, Hypnotize from their album Cupid & Psyche ”85. The extended version’s artwork stood out as gloriously as the band’s syncopated electronica and acoustics do on the song. I’d listen to this record relentlessly and actually be hypnotised by the chocolate bar, wondering if the photographer ate it after photographing it. Actually, in Australia, as in the UK, we spell it ‘hypnotised’ so I’m guessing Scritti’s record management urged the US spelling. I like the ‘Z’. It goes well with the crazy chocolate thing.
Anyway, back in 1985, you couldn’t find Lindt easily in Perth shops, so this was definitely my fantasy outlet. Nowadays, of course, there are hundreds of forms of Lindt that line the aisles of Woolworths and Coles, available for a fraction of the price the luxury brand used to cost. And Aldi have their own favoured range of choccy – the Peanuts & Cornflakes bar from their Choceur range being a favourite.
Now, too, local chocolate brands are offering hundreds of diversions to the norm. Once where you used to only be able to get three types of chocolate – milk, dark or white – chocolate bars today are packed with just about anything you can imagine. Cadbury’s, as one example, comes out with a limited edition bar every other week.
With recent scientific studies showing chocolate is more good for you than bad (some chocolate helps prevent liver damage, boosts beneficial cholesterol, offers better brain power, and lowers blood pressure), there’s no reason not to celebrate the good stuff this week.
All. Without. The. Guilt.
Out 07/07.
Hands in the air for a ‘Romy and Michele’ movie sequel is finally in production
Forget the Prosecco per un momento… try new Chocolate in a Bottle blanc de blanc!
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#ANTONINOTATI #BREATHE #breatheAntonino #breatheKylie #chocolate #food #foodAndBeverage #hypnotized #LIFESTYLE #madonna #POPCULTURE #scrittiPolitti #summer #winter #worldChocolateDay