March 6, 1991:"American Psycho" Is Published

March 6, 1991: Bret Easton Ellis, on the day before his 27th birthday, publishes his 3rd novel, American Psycho. It is the most controversial novel of the George H.W. Bush years, due to its treatment of women. It is told from the perspective of Patrick Bateman, a New York investment banker, who spouts various opinions on the music and fashion of the 1980s, talks about his fancy lifestyle, and also kills people, especially women.

Ellis had previously published Less Than Zero in 1985, and The Rules of Attraction in 1987, and used both to go overboard in his discussions of sex, drugs and music. But American Psycho kicked it up a notch, especially in the graphic nature of what Bateman did to his female victims, and cemented his reputation as the enfant terrible of American novelists. He received a lot of flak, from literary critics and women's activists alike.

The backlash got so bad that the book was considered "unfilmable." It took until 2000 for a film of it to be released, starring Christian Bale, as the kind of guy Bale's later character, Batman, would have to put away. (That's right: He was Bateman before he was Batman.) Being directed by a woman, Mary Harron, doesn't make the film any easier to handle. In light of the later #MeToo movement, such a book could not have been published.

The character of Patrick Bateman had debuted in The Rules of Attraction, itself a semi-sequel, or a companion piece -- perhaps a "sidequel"? -- to Less Than Zero. Patrick was the brother of Sean Bateman, who, in TROA, barely acknowledges his friendship with Paul Denton. But Denton says they had a gay affair. Ellis doesn't make it clear which of them is lying, to the reader and to himself, but one of them is. In the book version of American Psycho, it's not clear whether Patrick Bateman actually commits his horrific crimes, or if he's imagining them. The film version makes it clear that he is only imagining them, so maybe mental illness and denial runs in the Bateman family.

The only thing Ellis has ever killed is his own career: From 1991 to 2022, he published 4 more novels, none of which sold well.

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March 6, 1991 was a Wednesday. Tyler Gregory Okonna, the rapper known as "Tyler, the Creator," was born.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Detroit Pistons, 102-99 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat, 126-117 at the Boston Garden.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Washington Bullets, 104-93 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. They did so despite 50 points from the Bullets' Bernard King, 6 years after his devastating knee injury with the Knicks.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 89-86 at the Orlando Arena.

* And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 97-92 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

And there were 3 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils and the Buffalo Sabres played to a tie, 3-3 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Minnesota North Stars beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.