143-404: Glamorama is a 1998 novel by American writer Bret Easton Ellis . Glamorama is set in, and satirizes, the 1990s, specifically celebrity culture and consumerism . Time describes the novel as "a screed against models and celebrity". Ellis wanted to write a Stephen King -style ghost story novel, which would eventually become Lunar Park ; finding it difficult at the time, he began work on
286-458: A Details interviewer. "I think the last time I slept with a woman was five or six years ago, so the bi thing can only be played out so long", he said. "But I still use it, I still say it." Responding to Dan Savage 's It Gets Better campaign, aimed at preventing suicide among LGBT youth , Ellis tweeted , "Not to bum everyone out, but can we get a reality check here? It gets worse." In a 2012 op-ed for The Daily Beast , while apologizing for
429-519: A United States senator with ambitions to become President . Of Palakon, 'the director' says "We've been through this a hundred times ... There is no Palakon. I've never heard that name. Victor's girlfriend Chloe Byrnes is a supermodel and a recovering drug addict. Alison Poole , the main character from Jay McInerney 's 1988 novel Story of My Life , appears, having also previously appeared in American Psycho in 1992. In Glamorama , Alison
572-427: A movie soundtrack . As such, the book feels at times like a movie, and sometimes more specifically, a snuff film . New technology such as photo manipulation software (e.g. "PhotoSoap for Windows 95 ") are featured in the novel. This creates an ironic situation in which Victor, the character obsessed by appearances, is haunted by fake images that appear real which implicate him in a murder; it becomes hard to tell what
715-456: A postmodern device to examine the questionable "reality" of the situation, it also functions as a "tidy commentary" on the advent of mass surveillance in the 1990s. EW interprets the scene to mean "Modern life has become a movie (a point made more cogently by Neal Gabler 's new book, Life the Movie )." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette took the same meaning from the conceit, and described it as
858-484: A "data library" of users which includes details such as IP addresses, websites, locations, duration and frequency of use and files uploaded and downloaded. After struggling with drug trafficking and criminal groups for decades Mexico has been strengthening their military mass surveillance. Approximately half of the population in Mexico does not support democracy as a form of government, and believe an authoritarian system
1001-452: A "not-so-deep observation" that "has no real pay-off". The New York Times felt it was a "halfhearted narrative device ... suggesting that the novel's action is actually part of a film that's being made." The reviewer felt that allusions to "the director" or to the fact that this or that scene is a " flashback " was used to retroactively suggest cohesion in the novel's plot. "As much as celebrity itself, our collective celebrity worship becomes
1144-462: A 2004 report, the government of the Netherlands carries out more clandestine wire-taps and intercepts than any country, per capita, in the world. The Dutch military intelligence service MIVD operates a satellite ground station to intercept foreign satellite links and also a facility to eavesdrop on foreign high-frequency radio traffic. An example of mass surveillance carried out by corporations in
1287-591: A 2010 interview with NME . In 2023, when asked about his political views, Ellis replied, "I'm not a conservative or a liberal . At least in the US, I can't agree with either of them. I think they're both completely bonkers." Ellis's first novel, Less than Zero , is a tale of disaffected, rich teenagers of Los Angeles written and rewritten over a five-year period from Ellis's second year in high school, earlier drafts being "... more autobiographical and read like teen diaries or journal entries—lots of stuff about
1430-576: A 2013 interview with Film School Rejects , Ellis stated that he doesn't think the original American Psycho "really works as a film": American Psycho I also don't think really works as a film. The movie is fine, but I think that book is unadaptable because it's about consciousness, and you can't really shoot that sensibility. Also, you have to make a decision whether Patrick Bateman kills people or doesn't. Regardless of how [director] Mary Harron wants to shoot that ending, we've already seen him kill people; it doesn't matter if he has some crisis of memory at
1573-610: A 2014 state-surveillance operation – dubbed as Project Raven – led by the United Arab Emirates with the help of former NSA officials like Lori Stroud, an ex-NSA cyberspy. Counter-terrorism strategy was the primary motive of setting up the unit. However, soon the project began being used as a surveillance program to spy on rival leaders, critical dissidents and journalists . In December 2019, Google Play Store and Apple App Store removed an Emirati messaging application called ToTok following allegations that it
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#17327718443381716-654: A 360-degree profile of a person, calling it the Integration Information Hub. Other states are now planning to follow this model. Iran is one of the five countries on Reporters Without Borders' March 2013 list of "State Enemies of the Internet", countries whose governments are involved in naturally active efforts to news providers . The government runs or controls almost all of the country's institutions for regulating, managing or legislating on telecommunications. The Supreme Council for Cyberspace, which
1859-529: A UID from the Unique Identification Authority of India being given to every Indian from February 2011, the government would be able track people in real time. A national population registry of all citizens will be established by the 2011 census, during which fingerprints and iris scans would be taken along with GPS records of each household. As per the initial plan, access to the combined data will be given to 11 agencies, including
2002-553: A collection of essays on contemporary political culture, in 2019. In late 2020, Ellis began to serialize his latest work, a fictionalized memoir called The Shards , through his podcast. It focuses on his adolescence in Los Angeles and a serial killer called the Trawler. On December 1, 2021, he announced on Instagram that the manuscript of The Shards had just arrived for him to look over. On May 20, 2022, he announced that
2145-638: A committee at the European Parliament backed the measure, which, if it is enacted, could require American companies to seek clearance from European officials before complying with United States warrants seeking private data. The vote is part of efforts in Europe to shield citizens from online surveillance in the wake of revelations about a far-reaching spying program by the U.S. National Security Agency . European Union justice and rights commissioner Viviane Reding said "The question has arisen whether
2288-648: A country of 24 million. The SORM (and SORM-2) laws enable complete monitoring of any communication , electronic or traditional, by eight state agencies, without warrant. These laws seem to be in conflict with Article 23 of the Constitution of Russia which states: In 2015, the European Court for Human Rights ruled that the legislation violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights ( Zakharov v. Russia ). СAMERTON
2431-515: A court order. The FRA has been contested since the change in its legislation, mainly because of the public perception the change would enable mass surveillance. The FRA categorically deny this allegation, as they are not allowed to initialize any surveillance on their own, and has no direct access to communication lines. All SIGINT has to be authorized by a special court and meet a set of narrow requirements, something Minister for Defence Sten Tolgfors have been quoted as saying, "should render
2574-445: A critical and cult hit, more so after its 2000 movie adaptation . It is now regarded as Ellis's magnum opus , garnering acknowledgement from a number of academics. The Informers (1994) was offered to his publisher during Glamorama ' s long writing history. Ellis wrote a screenplay for The Rules of Attraction ' s film adaptation , which was not used. He records a fictionalized version of his life story up until this point in
2717-606: A follow-up to Less than Zero , Imperial Bedrooms . Taking place 25 years after the events of Less than Zero , it combines that book's ennui with the postmodernism of Lunar Park . It met with disappointing sales. For his original screenplay for the Paul Schrader -directed film The Canyons , Ellis won Best Screenplay at the 14th Melbourne Underground Film Festival , with the film also winning Best Foreign Film, Best Foreign Director and Best Female Actor, for Lindsay Lohan . Ellis released his first work of non-fiction, White,
2860-419: A genuine surveillance society completely alien to American values" with "the potential for a dark future where our every move, our every transaction, our every communication is recorded, compiled, and stored away, ready to be examined and used against us by the authorities whenever they want". On 12 March 2013, Reporters Without Borders published a Special report on Internet Surveillance . The report included
3003-530: A good-enough one for a short story of 15 pages, but it's unsustainable at 482." He describes the book's first 185 pages as "inanely repetitive". Entertainment Weekly opines "It's like reading Page Six of the New York Post , but for 482 pages." One reviewer found the opening scenes "funny enough" although noted that it "gets tired easily". Contrarily, the Star Tribune felt "the satiric early half
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#17327718443383146-417: A group of sexually promiscuous college students. Influenced heavily by James Joyce 's Ulysses and its stream-of-consciousness narrative technique, the book sold fairly well, though Ellis admits he felt he had "fallen off" after the novel failed to match the success of his debut effort, saying in 2012, "I was very obsessive, very protective about that book, perhaps overly so." His most controversial work
3289-419: A list of "State Enemies of the Internet", countries whose governments are involved in active, intrusive surveillance of news providers, resulting in grave violations of freedom of information and human rights. Five countries were placed on the initial list: Bahrain , China , Iran , Syria , and Vietnam . Bahrain is one of the five countries on Reporters Without Borders' March 2013 list of "State Enemies of
3432-502: A mad genius. Fans have noted similarities to the 2001 Ben Stiller comedy Zoolander . Ellis stated that he is aware of the similarities, and went on to say that he considered and attempted to take legal action. Asked about the similarities in a 2005 BBC interview, Ellis said that he was unable to discuss them under the terms of an out-of-court settlement. Much criticism of the novel noted its length. Time 's Joel Stein noted "The idea—models so solipsistic that they become terrorists—is
3575-533: A major role in shaping Ba'athist administrative decisions. Additionally, intense factional rivalries and power struggles exist among various branches of the secret police. Several academics have described the military, bureaucratic, and secret police apparatus of the Ba'athist state as constituting a pyramidal socio-political structure with an Orwellian surveillance system designed to neutralize independent civic activities and political dissent from its very onset. Syria
3718-584: A network of sensors to collect and connect data from city life (including the citizen's movement), the Singapore government rolled out 1000 sensors ranging from computer chips to surveillance cameras, to track almost everything in Singapore from air quality to public safety in 2014. In 2016, in a bid to increase security, the Singapore Police Force installed 62,000 police cameras in 10,000 Housing and Development Board (HDB) blocks covering
3861-441: A paperback later that year. Ellis's novels have become increasingly metafictional . Lunar Park (2005), a pseudo-memoir and ghost story, received positive reviews. Imperial Bedrooms (2010), marketed as a sequel to Less than Zero , continues in this vein. The Shards (2023) is a fictionalized memoir of Ellis's final year of high school in 1981 Los Angeles. Four of Ellis's works have been made into films. Less than Zero
4004-518: A poor human rights record. The software is said to infect devices, allowing its operators to get access to the target's messages, photos, record calls, and activate the microphone and camera. Yusuf al-Jamri had no idea that even after fleeing Bahrain, he won't be able to escape the government's prying eyes, even after taking asylum in the UK. After moving to the UK and getting his asylum request accepted, Al-Jamri legally filed charges against Bahrain along with
4147-934: A report detailing the experience of an Italian security researcher Simone Margaritelli, of allegedly being hired for mass surveillance operations run by United Arab Emirates . According to Margaritelli, he was called for an interview with the Abu Dhabi -based cybersecurity firm called DarkMatter . Margaritelli says he declined the offer and instead wrote a blog post titled "How the United Arab Emirates Intelligence Tried to Hire Me to Spy on Its People". In response to The Intercept inquiries, DarkMatter responded by stating: "No one from DarkMatter or its subsidiaries have ever interviewed Mr. Margaritelli." Kevin Healy, director of communications for DarkMatter, wrote in an email responding to The Intercept that
4290-432: A series of controversial tweets, Ellis came out as gay . Lunar Park was dedicated to Ellis's lover, Michael Wade Kaplan, who died shortly before he finished the book and to Ellis's father, Robert Ellis, who died in 1992. In one interview Ellis described feeling a liberation in the completion of the novel that allowed him to come to terms with unresolved issues about his father. In the "author Q&A" for Lunar Park on
4433-452: A sharper plot than those of earlier novels, a plot which kicks in about a quarter of the way into the novel." The New York Times question the choice of subject matter as well: "Ellis's satirical message is, essentially, a one-liner, and hardly an original one at that – celebrity culture is vapid, yes, and?" The reviewer furthermore suggested " Glamorama is itself just another artifact of the culture it pretends to criticize." The book's style
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4576-501: A tempestuous relationship with Blair from Zero . Imperial Bedrooms (2010) establishes the conceit that the Clay depicted in Zero is not the same Clay who narrates Bedrooms . In the world of Imperial Bedrooms , Zero was the close-to-nonfiction work of an author friend of Clay's, and its film adaptation (featuring actors Andrew McCarthy , Jami Gertz and Robert Downey Jr. ) exists within
4719-788: Is "Hampden College", although there are oblique connections between it and Ellis's The Rules of Attraction . Eisenstadt and Lethem use "Camden" in From Rockaway (1987) and The Fortress of Solitude (2003), respectively. Though his three major settings are Vermont, Los Angeles and New York, Ellis has said he does not think of these novels as about these places specifically. Camden is introduced in Less than Zero , which mentions that both protagonist Clay and minor character Daniel attend it. In The Rules of Attraction (1987), set at Camden, Clay (called "the Guy from L.A." before being properly introduced)
4862-477: Is "[Victor's] boss's girlfriend (another supermodel)", "here playing Lewinsky ". Bobby Hughes is a successful male model and the leader of his international terrorist group. Victor engages in a bisexual threesome with him and with Jamie Fields. Lauren Hynde from The Rules of Attraction also reappears, having become a successful actress with ties to Hughes' terrorist organisation; other Rules characters appear (e.g., in flashback) such as Bertrand Ripleis , who
5005-405: Is Ellis in peak form, the thriller-style second half is less successful." In fact, the humor in the novel was praised by multiple critics. The Star Tribune notes Victor's lack of depth, malapropisms , overuse of the word "baby" and the novel's "enchantingly disaffected monotone" of "a been-there-done-that Valleyspeak ". Hanson felt that the horror elements in the "labyrinthine" thriller section of
5148-401: Is a global vehicle tracking system, control and tracking, identification of probable routes and places of the most frequent appearance of a particular vehicle, integrated with a distributed network of radar complexes of photo-video fixation and road surveillance camera. Developed and implemented by the "Advanced Scientific - Research Projects" enterprise St. Petersburg. Within the framework of
5291-639: Is a minor character who narrates one chapter; ironically, he longs for the Californian beach, while in Ellis's previous novel he had longed to return to college. On "the guy from L.A.'s door someone wrote 'Rest in Peace Called'"; R.I.P., or Rip, is Clay's dealer in Less than Zero ; Clay also says that Blair from Less than Zero sent him a letter saying she thinks Rip was murdered. Main character Sean Bateman 's older brother Patrick narrates one chapter of
5434-467: Is also the secretary general of the Ba'ath party. The surveillance system of the Mukhabarat is pervasive, and over 65,000 full-time officers were estimated to be working in its various branches during the 2000s. In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of part-time employees and informers in various Syrian intelligence departments. According to estimates, there is one member of various branches of
5577-443: Is better if social matters are solved through it. The relevance of these political beliefs may make it easier for mass surveillance to spread within the country. "This does not necessarily mean the end of democratic institutions as a whole—such as free elections or the permanence of critical mass media—but it means strengthening the mechanisms for exercising power that exclude dialogue, transparency and social agreement." According to
5720-504: Is indicative of the author's own attraction to glamor. Ellis drops names in Glamorama so often that Entertainment Weekly describes "Nary a sentence ... escapes without a cameo from someone famous, quasi-famous, or formerly famous. In fact, in some sentences, Ellis cuts out those pesky nouns and verbs and simply lists celebrities." Namedropping and commoditization have a depersonalizing effect (a world reduced to "sheen and brands"); as
5863-420: Is inescapable". Compared to other Ellis protagonists, Victor is less "sensitive and insightful" than Less than Zero 's Clay, neither the "preening psychopath" that is American Psycho 's Patrick Bateman ", he is nevertheless an "[un]sympathetic protagonist (in his own way, he's as morally bankrupt as ... Patrick Bateman)." As narrator, "Victor's perceptions" sum up "[the glamor world's] disconnection from what
Glamorama - Misplaced Pages Continue
6006-402: Is meant to be a withering report on the soul-destroying emptiness of late-century American consumer culture, chichi downtown division; but the only lesson you're likely to take away from it is the even more depressing classic American morality tale about how premature stardom is more of a curse than a blessing for young writers." The CNN reviewer concludes that "in the end, Glamorama is less than
6149-885: Is not limited to investigation of serious crimes, nor was a warrant required for access. Protection Undertaken under the Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (FP7 - Science in Society ) some multidisciplinary and mission oriented mass surveillance activities (for example INDECT and HIDE ) were funded by the European Commission in association with industrial partners. The INDECT Project ("Intelligent information system supporting observation, searching and detection for security of citizens in urban environment") develops an intelligent urban environment observation system to register and exchange operational data for
6292-549: Is not set in the same "universe" as Ellis's other novels but contains a similar multitude of references and allusions. All of Ellis's previous works are heavily referenced, in keeping with the book-within-a-book structure. Donald Kimball from American Psycho questions Ellis on a series of American Psycho -inspired murders, Mitchell Allen from Rules lives next door to and went to college with Ellis (Ellis even recalls his affair with Paul Denton, alluded to in Rules ), and Ellis recalls
6435-429: Is now a terrorist also. In 1999, the contemporary Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero wrote a composition for chamber ensemble entitled Glamorama Spies , which was inspired by the novel. In Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis, the main character is constantly spied on and, even before his consciousness becomes aware of it, he is constantly in an anxious state. Anxiolytics and some romantic intervals are not enough to stop
6578-600: Is one of the five countries on Reporters Without Borders' March 2013 list of "State Enemies of the Internet", countries whose governments are involved in active, intrusive surveillance of news providers, resulting in grave violations of freedom of information and human rights. Syria has stepped up its web censorship and cyber-monitoring as the country's civil war has intensified. At least 13 Blue Coat proxy servers are in use, Skype calls are intercepted, and social engineering techniques , phishing , and malware attacks are all in use. In October 2016, The Intercept released
6721-663: Is part of Iranian seventh quinquennial development program bill package. In July 2018, the Malaysian police announced the creation of the Malaysian Intercept Crimes Against Children Unit (icacu) that is equipped with real-time mass internet surveillance software developed in the United States and is tasked with the monitoring of all Malaysian internet users, with a focus on pornography and child pornography. The system creates
6864-459: Is real in the 'modern' world. As such, "meaningful identity is obliterated"; this furthers the recurring joke from American Psycho wherein "characters are always getting confused by their friends with other people, with no noticeable consequences". The book prominently features a conceit wherein Victor's life is being filmed by a camera crew "introduced a third of the way into the book". As well as
7007-438: Is set in the world of high fashion, following a male model who becomes entangled in a bizarre terrorist organization composed entirely of other models. The book plays with themes of media, celebrity, and political violence, and like its predecessor American Psycho it uses surrealism to convey a sense of postmodern dread. Although reactions to the novel were mixed, Ellis holds it in high esteem among his own works: "it's probably
7150-499: Is summarized by one reviewer as "a book that reads like a movie", and another notes that Ellis' writing "can be sharp", and succeeds in creating a "creepy sense of dread about our culture". On its influence, Time felt that the novel's "contribution" to the world comes in Victor's catchphrase, which they describe as Tom Wolfean . In an otherwise damning review, the New York Times commented "[Ellis] has an uncannily keen eye for
7293-428: Is that increasing mass surveillance could potentially lead to the development of a surveillance state , an electronic police state , or a totalitarian state wherein civil liberties are infringed or political dissent is undermined by COINTELPRO -like programs. In 2013, the practice of mass surveillance by world governments was called into question after Edward Snowden 's 2013 global surveillance disclosure on
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#17327718443387436-525: Is the extreme of everything the current culture worships: he can't avoid thinking in brand names and image and speaks with lines from pop songs." Uncharacteristic for an Ellis protagonist, as the Crimson notes, Victor is "terrified by" the "coldbloodedness" he encounters when he becomes embroiled in international terrorism. As an unintelligent narrator, Victor (through his inability to comprehend his situation), underlines how "the world of celebrity in Glamorama
7579-478: Is the graphically violent American Psycho (1991), which he has said "came out of a place of severe alienation and loneliness and self-loathing. I was pursuing a life—you could call it the Gentlemen's Quarterly way of living—that I knew was bullshit, and yet I couldn't seem to help it." The book was intended to be published by Simon & Schuster , but they withdrew after external protests from groups such as
7722-528: The Lakeland Ledger , Glamorama is something of a Through the Looking-Glass allegory and a cautionary tale navigating the perils of dissolving identity. In parody of how people now think in modern terms, Ellis "annoying[ly]" lists "the songs that are playing in the background, or even quoting them, as he does with Oasis ' " Champagne Supernova "; in effect, the novel is provided with
7865-470: The New York Times observes "much of his prose consists of (intentionally) numbingly long lists of his characters' clothes and accouterments ... out of which his loft-dwellers somewhat hopefully attempt to assemble something like an identity". In speech, his writing demonstrates the ways in which his characters, too, have internalized the language of consumerist advertising and marketing. According to
8008-804: The European Agency for Fundamental Rights . Prior to 2009, the National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) was limited to wireless signals intelligence (SIGINT), although it was left largely unregulated. In December 2009, new legislation went into effect, allowing the FRA to monitor cable bound signals passing the Swedish border. Communications service providers are legally required, under confidentiality, to transfer cable communications crossing Swedish borders to specific "interaction points", where data may be accessed after
8151-586: The European Union passed the Data Retention Directive on 15 December 2005. It required that telecommunication operators retain metadata for telephone, Internet, and other telecommunication services for periods of not less than six months and not more than two years from the date of the communication as determined by each EU member state and, upon request, to make the data available to various governmental bodies. Access to this information
8294-596: The Information Technology Act of 2008 with no debate, giving the government fiat power to tap all communications without a court order or a warrant. Section 69 of the act states "Section 69 empowers the Central Government/State Government/ its authorized agency to intercept, monitor or decrypt any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource if it is necessary or expedient so to do in
8437-469: The National Organization for Women (NOW) and many others due to its alleged misogyny. It was later published by Vintage . Some consider this novel, whose protagonist, Patrick Bateman , is a cartoonishly materialistic yuppie and serial killer, an example of transgressive art . American Psycho has achieved considerable cult status. Ellis's collection of short stories The Informers
8580-481: The Random House website, Ellis comments on his relationship with Robert, and says he feels that his father was a "tough case" who left him damaged. Having grown older and "mellow[ed] out", Ellis describes how his opinion of his father changed since 15 years ago when writing Glamorama (in which the central conspiracy concerns the relationship of a father and son). Earlier in his career, Ellis said he based
8723-1082: The Research and Analysis Wing , the Intelligence Bureau , the Enforcement Directorate , the National Investigation Agency , the Central Bureau of Investigation , the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the Narcotics Control Bureau . Several states within India have already installed CCTV surveillance systems with face matching capabilities using biometrics in Aadhaar. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are using information linked with Aadhaar across different agencies to create
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#17327718443388866-721: The United Kingdom , then jointly by Taiwan , Thailand and the United States . The best ranking was given to Greece , which was judged to have 'adequate safeguards against abuse'. Many countries throughout the world have already been adding thousands of surveillance cameras to their urban, suburban and even rural areas. For example, in September 2007 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated that we are "in danger of tipping into
9009-491: The ethical and privacy implications of biometrics and personal detection technologies, focusing on the continuum between personal detection, authentication, identification and mass surveillance. In 2002 German citizens were tipped off about wiretapping when a software error led to a phone number allocated to the German Secret Service being listed on mobile telephone bills. The Indian parliament passed
9152-680: The political security directorates, which are supervised by the Syrian Ministry of Interior ; military intelligence and the air force intelligence directorates, which are supervised by the Syrian Ministry of Defence . The four directorates are directly controlled by the National Security Bureau of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party , and heads of the four branches report directly to the Syrian president, who
9295-700: The post-election uprising in 2009. The use of Israeli surveillance devices has also been detected in Iran. The network traffic management and surveillance device NetEnforcer was provided by Israel to Denmark and then resold to Iran. Similarly, US equipment has found its way to Iran via the Chinese company ZTE. In September 2023 The Iranian government approved a law enabling it to have instant undeniable access every single thing in digital online life of citizens including location /photos, data and other vital record tied to people's real identity, The persistent monitoring system
9438-466: The 70 hours of video footage shot for the European sequence of The Rules of Attraction . It expands upon the minimally detailed and rapidly recapped story told by Victor Ward, portrayed by Kip Pardue , upon his return to the United States after having travelled extensively around Europe. In regard to expanding upon those events, the film acts as a connecting bridge between The Rules of Attraction and
9581-600: The Ba'athist secret police for every 158 citizens, which is one of the largest ratios in the world. The general intelligence , political security , and military intelligence divisions of the Ba'athist secret police have several branches in all governorates controlled by the Assad regime, with headquarters in Damascus. With state impunity granted by the Assad government, Mukhabarat officers wield pervasive influence over local bodies, civil associations, and bureaucracy, playing
9724-615: The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast began a Patreon for instant access to new episodes. Mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizations , but it may also be carried out by corporations (either on behalf of governments or at their own initiative). Depending on each nation's laws and judicial systems ,
9867-719: The EU / US arrangement to implement International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles were struck down by the European Court of Justice, a new framework for transatlantic data flows, called the " EU-US Privacy Shield ", was adopted in July 2016. In April 2014, the European Court of Justice declared invalid the EU Data Retention Directive. The Court said it violates two basic rights – respect for private life and protection of personal data. The legislative body of
10010-554: The Internet", countries whose governments are involved in active, intrusive surveillance of news providers, resulting in grave violations of freedom of information and human rights. The level of Internet filtering and surveillance in Bahrain is one of the highest in the world. The royal family is represented in all areas of Internet management and has sophisticated tools at its disposal for spying on its subjects. The online activities of dissidents and news providers are closely monitored and
10153-511: The Netherlands is an initiative started by five Dutch banks (ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank, Triodos Bank and de Volksbank). In July 2020 these five banks have decided to establish Transaction Monitoring Netherlands (TMNL) in the collective fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The goal of TMNL-organization is to gather all transaction information provided by Dutch banks in a centralized database to enable full-scale collective transaction monitoring. Preparations have been started but
10296-539: The United Arab Emirates came under renewed questions about mass surveillance amidst the coronavirus outbreak . Experts highlighted that the country has one of the highest per capita concentrations of surveillance cameras in the world. In a statement, the Emirati government acknowledged that cameras are used to counter the threat of terrorism and have helped the country rank as one of the safest countries in
10439-944: The accused, NSO Group and the Bahraini government. No response was received from the two on being approached for comments. Before the Digital Revolution, one of the world's biggest mass surveillance operations was carried out by the Stasi , the secret police of the former East Germany . By the time the state collapsed in 1989, the Stasi had built up an estimated civilian network of 189,000 informants, who monitored even minute hints of political dissent among other citizens. Many West Germans visiting friends and family in East Germany were also subject to Stasi spying, as well as many high-ranking West German politicians and persons in
10582-499: The actress who portrays Blair in the 1987 film adaptation of Less than Zero . Allison Poole from Jay McInerney 's 1988 novel Story of My Life appears as a torture victim of Patrick's. Patrick also briefly meets with the narrator from McInerney's 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City (who is referred to by his name in the 1988 movie adaptation). The Informers features a much younger Timothy Price, one of Patrick's co-workers in American Psycho , who narrates one chapter. One of
10725-487: The actual monitoring by TMNL can start after an amendment of the Dutch Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act. Having attained the nickname 'surveillance state', North Korea's government has complete control over all forms of telecommunications and Internet. It is routine to be sent to a prison camp for communicating with the outside world. The government enforces restrictions around
10868-653: The automatic detection, recognition and intelligent processing of all information of abnormal behaviour or violence. The main expected results of the INDECT project are: HIDE ("Homeland Security, Biometric Identification & Personal Detection Ethics") was a research project funded by the European Commission within the scope of the Seventh RTD Framework Programme (FP7). The consortium, coordinated by Emilio Mordini, explored
11011-492: The bands I liked, the beach, the Galleria, clubs, driving around, doing drugs, partying", according to Ellis. The novel was praised by critics and sold well, 50,000 copies in its first year. He moved back to New York City in 1987 for the publication of his second novel, The Rules of Attraction —described by Ellis as "an attempt to write the kind of college novel I had always wanted to read and could never find" —which follows
11154-453: The best novel I've written and the one that means the most to me. And when I say "best"—the wrong word, I suppose, but I'm not sure what else to replace it with—I mean that I'll never have that energy again, that kind of focus sustained for eight years on a single project. I'll never spend that amount of time crafting a book that means that much to me. And I think people who have read all of my work and are fans understand that about Glamorama—it's
11297-540: The book could be preordered. It was published on January 17, 2023. Ellis often uses recurring characters and settings. Major characters in one novel may become minor ones in the next, or vice versa. Camden College, a fictional New England liberal arts college, is frequently referenced. It is based on Bennington College , which Ellis attended, and where he met future novelist Jonathan Lethem and befriended fellow writers Donna Tartt and Jill Eisenstadt . In Tartt's The Secret History (1992), her version of Bennington
11440-436: The case, I'm thinking, I should get his telephone number or, better yet, his address." Camden is both Sean's college and the college a minor character named Vanden is going to. Vanden was referred to (but never appeared) in both Less than Zero and The Rules of Attraction . Passages from "Less than Zero" reappear almost verbatim here, with Patrick replacing Clay as narrator. Patrick also makes repeated references to Jami Gertz ,
11583-740: The central characters, Graham, buys concert tickets from Less than Zero ' s Julian, and his sister Susan goes on to say that Julian sells heroin and is a male prostitute (as shown in Zero ). Alana and Blair from Zero are also friends of Susan's. Letters to Sean Bateman from a Camden College girl named Anne visiting grandparents in Los Angeles comprise the eighth chapter. Bateman appears briefly in Glamorama (1998); Glamorama ' s main characters Victor Ward and Lauren Hynde were first introduced in The Rules of Attraction . As an in-joke reference to Bateman being portrayed by Christian Bale in
11726-462: The character Patrick Bateman in American Psycho on his father, but in a 2010 interview he said he had lied about this explanation. Explaining that "Patrick Bateman was about me," he said, "I didn't want to finally own up to the responsibility of being Patrick Bateman, so I laid it on my father, I laid it on Wall Street." In reality, the book was "about me at the time, and I wrote about all my rage and feelings." To James Brown, he clarified that Bateman
11869-941: The character was not in fact based on his father, but on Ellis himself, saying that all of his work came from a specific place of pain he was going through in his life during the writing of each of his books. Ellis says that while his family life growing up was somewhat difficult due to the divorce, he mostly had an "idyllic" California childhood. Ellis graduated from The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles. He then attended Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont , where he studied music and then gradually gravitated to writing, which had been one of his passions since childhood. At Bennington College, he met and befriended Donna Tartt and Jonathan Lethem , who both later became published writers. At Bennington College, he also completed his first novel, Less than Zero , which
12012-414: The countryside sacrificing farmers and performing pagan rituals." There is also an allusion to the main character from Eisenstadt's From Rockaway . In American Psycho (1991), Patrick's brother Sean appears briefly. Paul Denton and Victor Johnson from The Rules of Attraction are both mentioned; on seeing Paul, Patrick wonders if "maybe he was on that cruise a long time ago, one night last March. If that's
12155-552: The days of being able to make that movie are over." From the same interview, Ellis mentioned that an idea for a mini-series adaptation was brought forth to HBO though it was ultimately declined and further stating the movie would be left in Roger Avary's hands if one was to be made. On October 13, 2011, Bret Easton Ellis reported on Twitter the following: Just finished reading Roger Avary 's adaptation of "Glamorama" which he will direct next year. Hilarious, horrific, sad. He's
12298-560: The debate on mass surveillance invalid". Due to the architecture of Internet backbones in the Nordic area, a large portion of Norwegian and Finnish traffic will also be affected by the Swedish wiretapping. Ba'athist government of Syria has been ruling the country as a totalitarian surveillance state , policing every aspect of Syrian society for decades. Commanders of government's security forces – consisting of Syrian Arab Army , secret police , Ba'athist paramilitaries – directly implement
12441-479: The end. Fiction Non-Fiction On November 18, 2013, Ellis launched a podcast with PodcastOne Studios . The aim of the show, which comes in 1-hour segments, is to have Ellis engage in open and honest conversation with his guests about their work, inspirations, and life experiences, as well as music and movies. Ellis, who has always been averse to publicity, has been using the platform to engage in intellectual conversation and debate about his own observations on
12584-697: The executive functions of the Syrian state, with scant regard for legal processes and bureaucracy . Security services shut down civil society organizations, curtail freedom of movement within the country and bans non-Ba'athist political literature and symbols. During the Ba'athist rule , militarization of the Syrian society intensified. The number of personnel in the Syrian military and various intelligence entities expanded drastically from 65,000 in 1965 to 530,000 in 1991; and surpassed 700,000 in 2004. Ba'athist secret police consists of four wings: general intelligence and
12727-403: The eyes of the male model, Harvard Crimson notes is one "where no one has any emotions beyond the visceral response, where all the sex scenes are described in purely pornographic terms." A.J. Jacobs of Entertainment Weekly did not enjoy the book's more "meta" conceits, and gives the novel a 'C'. Daniel Mendelsohn of the New York Times opines derisively that "Like its predecessors, Glamorama
12870-471: The fictional Camden College and unravels a murder mystery by telling the same story through 12 different points of view. Children of the 1%-ers live as unhinged and wild adults in a Bret Easton Ellis world with seemingly no rules to hold these privileged few down." Titled Rules of Attraction , the series will be written by Roger Avary ( The Rules of Attraction , Beowulf ) for Lionsgate TV with Greg Shapiro ( Zero Dark Thirty ) serving as an executive producer. In
13013-548: The film met with negative reviews when it was released in 2009. Despite setbacks as a screenwriter, Ellis teamed up with director Gus Van Sant in 2009 to adapt the Vanity Fair article "The Golden Suicides" into a film of the same name, depicting the paranoid final days and suicides of celebrity artists Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake . The film, as of 2024, had not been made. When Van Sant appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast on February 12, 2014, he stated that he
13156-485: The film's producers, as well as noting he felt it went well. The job eventually went to Kelly Marcel , Patrick Marber and Mark Bomback . In 2012 Ellis wrote the screenplay for the independent film The Canyons and helped raise money for its production. The film was released in 2013 and critically panned, but was a modest financial success, with Lindsay Lohan 's performance in the lead role earning some positive reviews. When asked in an interview in 2002 whether he
13299-438: The first chapter of Lunar Park (2005). After the death of his lover Michael Wade Kaplan, Ellis was spurred to finish Lunar Park and inflected it with a new tone of wistfulness. Ellis was approached by young screenwriter Nicholas Jarecki to adapt The Informers into a film; the script they co-wrote was cut from 150 to 94 pages and taken from Jarecki to give to Australian director Gregor Jordan , whose light-on-humor vision of
13442-447: The general public globally in real time. Privacy International 's 2007 survey, covering 47 countries, indicated that there had been an increase in surveillance and a decline in the performance of privacy safeguards, compared to the previous year. Balancing these factors, eight countries were rated as being 'endemic surveillance societies'. Of these eight, China , Malaysia and Russia scored lowest, followed jointly by Singapore and
13585-422: The government to obtain sensitive data such as text-messages, email, call logs, and web surfing history from its people without the need for court permission. The installation of mass surveillance cameras in Singapore is an effort to act as a deterrence not only for terror attacks but also for public security such as loan sharks, illegal parking, and more. As part of Singapore's Smart Nation initiative to build
13728-670: The interest of the sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence or for investigation of any offence." India is setting up a national intelligence grid called NATGRID , which would be fully set up by May 2011 where each individual's data ranging from land records, Internet logs, air and rail PNR, phone records, gun records, driving license, property records, insurance, and income tax records would be available in real time and with no oversight. With
13871-489: The large-scale collection and processing of personal information under US surveillance programmes is necessary and proportionate to meet the interests of national security." The EU is also asking the US for changes to US legislation to match the legal redress offered in Europe; American citizens in Europe can go to the courts if they feel their rights are infringed but Europeans without right of residence in America cannot. When
14014-764: The leading national provider of mobile broadband, can be used to analyze email content, track browsing history and block access to sites. The products that ZTA sold to the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) offer similar services plus the possibility of monitoring the mobile network. European companies are the source of other spying and data analysis tools. Products designed by Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks (later Trovicor) are in use. These companies sold SMS interception and user location products to Mobile Communication Company of Iran and Irancell , Iran's two biggest mobile phone companies, in 2009 and they were used to identify Iranian citizens during
14157-625: The legality of and the permission required to engage in mass surveillance varies. It is the single most indicative distinguishing trait of totalitarian regimes . It is often distinguished from targeted surveillance . Mass surveillance has often been cited as necessary to fight terrorism , prevent crime and social unrest , protect national security , and control the population. At the same time, mass surveillance has equally often been criticized for violating privacy rights, limiting civil and political rights and freedoms , and being illegal under some legal or constitutional systems. Another criticism
14300-425: The lifts and multi-storey car parks. With rising security concerns, the number of CCTV cameras in public areas such as monitoring of the public transport system and commercial/ government buildings in Singapore is set to increase. In 2018, the Singapore government rolled out new and more advanced surveillance systems. Starting with Singapore's maritime borders, new panoramic electro-optic sensors were put in place on
14443-404: The man Margaritelli says interviewed him was previously only an advisory consultant to DarkMatter and is currently no longer an advisor to the company. Dark Matter responded by saying "While we respect an author's right to express a personal opinion, we do not view the content in question as credible, and therefore have no further comment." In January 2019, Reuters released a detailed account of
14586-533: The media, the film industry, the music scene and the analog vs. digital age in a generational context. Guests have included Kanye West , Marilyn Manson , Judd Apatow , Chuck Klosterman , Kevin Smith , Michael Ian Black , Matt Berninger , Brandon Boyd , B. J. Novak , Gus Van Sant , Joe Swanberg , Ezra Koenig , Ryan Leone , Stephen Malkmus , John Densmore , Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein , Matty Healy , Ivan Reitman , and Adam Carolla . In April 2018
14729-400: The neighbourhood, internet monitoring/traffic monitoring and to the use of surveillance metadata for government initiatives. In Singapore, SIM card registration is mandatory even for prepaid card. Singapore's government have the rights to access communication data. Singapore's largest telecompany, Singtel , has close relations to the government and Singapore's laws are broadly phrased to allow
14872-640: The north and south coasts, monitoring a 360-degree view of the area. A tethered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was unveiled by the Singapore Police Force to be used during search and rescue operations including hostage situations and public order incidents. According to a 2017 report by Privacy International , Spain may be part of a group of 21 European countries that is withholding information, also known as data retention. In 2014, many defense lawyers tried to overturn multiple cases that used mass storage as their evidence to convict, according to
15015-453: The notorious spyware firm, NSO Group for infecting his phone with a malware, built with military-grade technology in August 2019. The hacking was verified by the researchers at Toronto based CitizenLab. As a result of which Yusuf complained of being subjected to personal injury, loss of privacy, distress and anxiety. Al-Jamri's lawyers made claims about the same in a pre-claim letter sent to both
15158-595: The novel seemed "recycled from American Psycho ." Entertainment Weekly also state their preference for the "first 189 pages". Contrarily, the New York Times felt that the book was devoid of fun, where even the blackest satire (e.g. Evelyn Waugh 's The Loved One ) are more humorous. EW places Glamorama within an emerging tradition of celebrity satire, noting "the glitterati are the satirical target du jour, what with Woody Allen 's limp, oral-sex-filled film Celebrity , and Jay McInerney 's clever novel Model Behavior " (both 1998). McInerney (a friend of Ellis) noted
15301-611: The novel's comparative darkness to his own Model Behaviour (also about 90s nightlife and supermodels), published the same year, saying "I deliberately wrote a comic novel because you don't go chasing butterflies with sledgehammers". (Regarding McInerney's novel, Stein had felt that the novelist's attempt at a zeitgeist novel was one "looking at the '90s through an '80s lens".) Harvard Crimson noted, similar to McInerney, that "Celebrity by itself teeters so often into self-parody that it seems too easy to bash it" but remarks that "Fortunately, Ellis does more than that injecting Glamorama with
15444-581: The novel; he is the infamous central character of Ellis's next novel, American Psycho . Bateman is a 27-year-old successful specialist in mergers and acquisitions with the fictitious Wall Street investment firm of Pierce & Pierce (also Sherman McCoy's firm in The Bonfire of the Vanities ). Ellis also includes a reference to Tartt's forthcoming Secret History in the form of a passing mention of "that weird Classics group ... probably roaming
15587-414: The one book out of the seven I've published that matters the most." Ellis's novel Lunar Park (2005) uses the form of a celebrity memoir to tell a ghost story about the novelist "Bret Easton Ellis" and his chilling experiences in the apparently haunted home he shares with his wife and son. In keeping with his usual style, Ellis mixes absurd comedy with a bleak and violent vision. In 2010, Ellis released
15730-411: The other novel which he had in mind. This was a Robert Ludlum -style thriller, with the intention of using one of his own vapid characters who lack insight as the narrator. Ellis composed the book between December 1989 and December 1997. The novel is a satire of modern celebrity culture; this is reflected in its premise, which features models-turned-terrorists. A character remarks, "basically, everyone
15873-524: The past", he retorts that he did "the whole hip bi thing for about three hours back in college". The mysterious F. Fred Palakon first appears a quarter of the way into the novel, when he offers to pay Victor $ 300,000 to track down his former Camden classmate Jamie Fields , a double-agent working in the terrorist organisation with which Victor becomes involved. It is never clarified exactly which political organisation Palakon appears to be working for; he even appears alongside Senator Johnson , Victor's father,
16016-515: The perspective of Clay. Publishers Weekly gave the book a positive review, saying, "Ellis fans will delight in the characters and Ellis's easy hand in manipulating their fates, and though the novel's synchronicity with Zero is sublime, this also works as a stellar stand-alone." Ellis expressed interest in writing the screenplay for the Fifty Shades of Grey film adaptation. He discussed casting with his followers, and even mentioned meeting with
16159-501: The places he was seen were always hot spots he should have frequented." Victor Ward is the novel's lead character, who had previously appeared as Victor Johnson in The Rules of Attraction (1987). In Glamorama , now an "A-list model, would-be-actor and current " It boy ", "an uberstereotype of the male model", Victor lives by his catchphrase mantra "the better you look, the more you see". As Harvard Crimson observes, "His lifestyle
16302-532: The practical use of the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, it has made it possible to identify and solve grave and especially grave crimes, the system is also operated by other state services and departments; Singapore is known as a city of sensors. Singapore's surveillance structure spreads widely from closed-circuit television (CCTV) in public areas even around
16445-749: The practices by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. Reporting based on documents Snowden leaked to various media outlets triggered a debate about civil liberties and the right to privacy in the Digital Age . Mass surveillance is considered a global issue. The Aerospace Corporation of the United States describes a near-future event, the GEOINT Singularity , in which everything on Earth will be monitored at all times, analyzed by artificial intelligence systems, and then redistributed and made available to
16588-639: The processing of personal data within the European Union , before it was replaced by the GDPR . For comparison, the US has no data protection law that is comparable to this; instead, the US regulates data protection on a sectoral basis. Since early 2012, the European Union has been working on a General Data Protection Regulation to replace the Data Protection Directive and harmonise data protection and privacy law. On 20 October 2013,
16731-472: The public eye. Most East German citizens were well aware that their government was spying on them, which led to a culture of mistrust: touchy political issues were only discussed in the comfort of their own four walls and only with the closest of friends and family members, while widely maintaining a façade of unquestioning followership in public. The right to privacy is a highly developed area of law in Europe. The Data Protection Directive used to regulate
16874-456: The real target of Ellis' satire", writes the Star Tribune . Models in the novel act as a synecdoche of the larger culture. Reviewer Eric Hanson writes, "Their [models'] selfishness and brutality, he implies, are simply an extreme manifestation of what consumer culture encourages in everyone." Victor's own pursuit of being cool or too hip "destroys him". A CNN reviewer gives the example of Victor not wanting to explain his impersonator, "because
17017-419: The rest of us consider "real life"... [where] Everything he sees is a brand name". CNN speculates when Victor begins speaking to the novel's "film crew" (one of its literary devices), that this could mean that the character is schizophrenic . Victor comes across "oddly homophobic for a member of the pansexual New York fashion scene"; when his gay assistant accuses "I know for a fact you've had sex with guys in
17160-420: The reviewer for The Harvard Crimson observes, "When Victor undergoes a transformation to a law student, we know he is different because he now wears a Brooks Brothers suit and drinks Diet Coke . London and Paris become nothing more than a different collection of recognizable proper nouns ( Notting Hill and Irvine Welsh in the first case; Chez Georges and Yves Saint Laurent in the second)." A writer for
17303-414: The screenplay from time to time. As of April 2014, radical filmmaker Gaspar Noé was officially attached to direct if the film went into production, but he proved troublesome to work with due to his erratic behavior. In 2010, Ellis released Imperial Bedrooms , the sequel to his début novel. Ellis wrote it following his return to LA. It fictionalizes his work on the film adaptation of The Informers , from
17446-442: The sensation that he's always late for something and that he's progressively losing his sense of reality. I was reading the book when Sentieri Selvaggi asked me for this piece and going from reading to writing seemed almost inevitable. Therefore, if at times you feel some hints at emotion, think about the second to last sentence of the book: "The stars are real." Glitterati is a 2004 film directed by Roger Avary assembled from
17589-497: The sum of its parts". Ellis himself has claimed that, as of 2018, the novel has failed to break even for its US publisher, Knopf. Bret Easton Ellis Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author and screenwriter. Ellis was one of the literary Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique, as a writer, is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style. His novels commonly share recurring characters. When Ellis
17732-459: The surveillance is increasing. Media reports published in July 2021 exposed the use of NSO Group 's phone malware software, Pegasus , for spying on rights activists, lawyers, and journalists, globally, by authoritarian governments. Bahrain was among the many countries listed as the Israeli firm's clients accused of hacking and conducting unauthorized mass surveillance using phone malware despite
17875-652: The then-in-production 2000 film adaptation, Bale briefly appears as a background character. The book also includes a spy named Russell who is physically identical to Bale, and at one point in the novel impersonates him. Jaime Fields, who has a major role in the book, was first briefly mentioned by Victor in The Rules of Attraction . Bertrand, Sean and Mitchell, all from The Rules of Attraction , appear in Camden flashbacks and several other Rules characters are referenced. McInerney's Alison Poole makes her second appearance in an Ellis novel as Victor's mistress. Lunar Park (2005)
18018-441: The tiny details of the lives of the abel-obsessed yuppies and would-be celebs he's sending up". A CNN reviewer felt, upon reading the book, that "Bret Easton Ellis is a gifted writer"; he praised his "unflinching eye" in capturing the details of "the ensemble worn by a notorious clothes horse, or the grisly aftermath of a hotel bombing, or the graphic details of a menage a trois [ sic ]." The world Ellis evokes, through
18161-555: The types of appliances North Koreans may own in their home, in case radio or TV sets pick up signals from nearby South Korea, China and Russia. There is no attempt to mask the way this government actively spies on their citizens. In North Korea, an increasing number of citizens do have smartphones. However, these devices are heavily controlled and are being used to censor and observe everything North Koreans do on their phones. Reuters reported in 2015 that Koryolink, North Korea's official mobile phone network, has around 3 million subscribers in
18304-452: The upcoming film adaptation set to be directed by Avary. Avary has called Glitterati a "pencil sketch of what will ultimately be the oil painting of Glamorama ". In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of Glamorama , narrated by Jonathan Davis , as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks. In 2010, when a film adaptation of Glamorama was mentioned in an interview with Movieline.com, Bret Easton Ellis commented, "I think
18447-426: The world of the novel, too. In May 2014 Bravo announced that it had teamed up with The Rules of Attraction feature film adaptation writer/director Roger Avary and producer Greg Shapiro to develop a limited-run series based on the novel. The plot will stray from the source material and is described as follows: "Inspired by the book and film of the same name, the high-concept series takes the students and faculty at
18590-513: The world. State surveillance in the United Kingdom has formed part of the public consciousness since the 19th century. The postal espionage crisis of 1844 sparked the first panic over the privacy of citizens. However, in the 20th century, electronic surveillance capabilities grew out of wartime signal intelligence and pioneering code breaking . In 1946, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
18733-450: Was 21, his first novel, the controversial bestseller Less than Zero (1985), was published by Simon & Schuster . His third novel, American Psycho (1991), was his most successful. Upon its release the literary establishment widely condemned it as overly violent and misogynistic . Though many petitions to ban the book saw Ellis dropped by Simon & Schuster, the resounding controversy convinced Alfred A. Knopf to release it as
18876-427: Was a sociopath ... and all the girls' hair was chignoned ." The novel plays upon the conspiracy thriller conceit of someone "behind all the awful events", to dramatize the revelation of a world of random horror . The lack of resolution contributes to Ellis' artistic effect. The obsession with beauty is reflected in consistent namedropping; this satirizes (the main character) Victor's obsession with looks, and perhaps
19019-432: Was a state surveillance application, according to The New York Times report. The application's privacy policy clearly stated that it may share personal data of the users with "regulatory agencies, law enforcement, and other lawful access requests". The allegations were denied by the co-founders of ToTok, Giacomo Ziani and Long Ruan, respectively. The application was restored on Google Play Store later on. In July 2020,
19162-434: Was adapted in 1987 as a film of the same name , but the film bore little resemblance to the novel. Mary Harron 's adaptation of American Psycho was released in 2000. Roger Avary 's adaptation of The Rules of Attraction was released in 2002. The Informers , co-written by Ellis and based on his collection of short stories, was released in 2008. Ellis also wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film The Canyons . Ellis
19305-480: Was based on "my father a little bit but I was living that lifestyle; my father wasn't in New York the same age as Patrick Bateman, living in the same building, going to the same places that Patrick Bateman was going to." Ellis named his first novel and his 2010 novel after two Elvis Costello references: " Less than Zero " and Imperial Bedroom , respectively. Ellis called Bruce Springsteen his "musical hero" in
19448-499: Was born in Los Angeles in 1964, and raised in Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley . His father, Robert Martin Ellis, was a property developer, and his mother, Dale Ellis (née Dennis), was a homemaker. They divorced in 1982. During the initial release of his third novel, American Psycho , Ellis said that his father was abusive and was the basis of the book's best-known character, Patrick Bateman . Later Ellis said
19591-405: Was formed. The United Kingdom and the United States signed the bilateral UKUSA Agreement in 1948. It was later broadened to include Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as cooperation with several "third-party" nations. This became the cornerstone of Western intelligence gathering and the " Special Relationship " between the UK and the US. After the growth of the Internet and development of
19734-428: Was gay, Ellis explained that he did not identify as gay or straight, but was comfortable being thought of as homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual and enjoyed playing with his persona, identifying variously as gay, straight, and bisexual to different people over the years. In a February 1999 interview, Ellis suggested that his reluctance to definitively label his sexuality was for "artistic reasons". "If people knew that I
19877-683: Was headed by President Ahmadinejad , was established in March 2012 and now determines digital policy. The construction of a parallel "Iranian Internet", with a high connection speed but fully monitored and censored, is almost complete. The tools used by the Iranian authorities to monitor and control the Internet include data interception tools capable of Deep Packet Inspection . Interception products from leading Chinese companies such as ZTE and Huawei are in use. The products provided by Huawei to Mobin Net ,
20020-416: Was never attached to the project as a screenwriter or a director, merely a consultant, saying that the material seemed too tricky for him to properly render on screen. Ellis and Van Sant mentioned that Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling were approached to star as Duncan and Blake, respectively. Ellis confirmed that he and his producing partner Braxton Pope were still working on the project, with Ellis revisiting
20163-597: Was published in 1994. It contains vignettes of wayward Los Angeles characters ranging from rock stars to vampires, mostly written while Ellis was in college, and so has more in common with the style of Less than Zero. Ellis has said that the stories in The Informers were collected and released only to fulfill a contractual obligation after discovering that it would take far longer to complete his next novel than he'd intended. After years of struggling with it, he released his fourth novel, Glamorama , in 1998. Glamorama
20306-412: Was published while Ellis was 21 and still in college. After the success and controversy of Less than Zero in 1985, Ellis became closely associated and good friends with fellow Brat Pack writer Jay McInerney : the two became known as the "toxic twins" for their highly publicized late-night debauchery. Ellis became a pariah for a time following the release of American Psycho (1991), which later became
20449-584: Was straight, they'd read [my books] in a different way. If they knew I was gay, Psycho would be read as a different book," he told the Los Angeles Times . In an interview with Robert F. Coleman , Ellis said he had an "indeterminate sexuality", that "any other interviewer out there will get a different answer and it just depends on the mood I am in". In a 2011 interview with James Brown , Ellis again said that his answers to questions about his sexuality have varied and discussed being labelled "bi" by
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