Until then, I will keep my wicked books close to my chest. I remember interviewing Dennis Cooper a few years ago and asking him about the state of transgressive literature in our current cultural climate, he told me that eventually society will become degraded again. With books like these, the point is to be pushed to your limits and examine how you feel when beyond your comfort zone. Both novels came under criticism for their graphic content. The American Psycho controversy refers to a contention upon the release of Bret Easton Ellis third novel, American Psycho. Both authors use black humour and satire as a vehicle for their critiques of American society and the loss of authentic meaning in the postmodern world. For Bataille, he used transgression as a proletarian revolutionary strategy, hoping his words would shock the bourgeoisie out of their comfortable lives. American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis’ violent black comedy about a wealthy New Yorker leading a double life as a serial killer turns twenty-five this year. on the latest electronic devices, trendy clothing, and pop music in American Psycho. Going back to American Psycho, Ellis used that excessive violence to comment on the complete vapid emptiness of ' 80s yuppy culture. Oftentimes, they use degradation and outrage to point toward something more complex. The point of transgressive literature is to shock. Is this really how transgressive literature is treated nowadays? If something as tame as Lapvona is receives this treatment, how would the Sunday Times reviewer react to Urs Allemann’s seminal Babyfucker? The reviewer for the Sunday Times really went through it, claiming that the novel left them “wishing that no one would ever write, read or review another novel ever again.” The press reaction to Lapvona left me utterly disheartened. In the press it was often compared to the works of the Marquis de Sade, which made me feel that not many people have actually read anything by the Marquis de Sade.

In reality it was very much transgression-lite, containing a couple of scenes of puerile behaviour - some light cannibalism, a stream of vomit here and there. Last year's Booker Prize list felt woefully tame, while Ottessa Moshfegh’s 2022 novel, Lapvona, was strangely crowned as the risky read of the year.

American psycho author