Bangs vs. Ellis shockah!

All of Ellis’ work could be seen as playing out this particular question, yet nowhere have I ever been able to find reference to any influence of Bangs upon the young Ellis, who would have been 17 when this article first appeared. Yet the similarities are remarkable. In Hell we get the template for all the nihilistic, disaffected antiheroes,[52] in Bangs we get the riffing style, the epigrams, the high-low culture mix, the central question and ultimately, the rejection of that which is used to serve as critique on contemporary existence. For Bangs’ rejection of Hell’s ethic, even as he remains a solid fan of his work, echoes Ellis’ love-hate relationship with that he writes about.

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