LAST WORDS ON ‘PSYCHO’

Despite the many political and social ideas that people read into a book, publishing it is a business venture. If someone can sell something, they don’t care about what people think about it.

Not having read “American Psycho,” I can’t comment on it as a complete work, but I believe that no book should ever be banned or censored.

Frankly, I am surprised at the number of people who think it shouldn’t have been published or shouldn’t be purchased but who are willing to give the book even more press by writing letters about it. Some people just can’t dislike a book without seeing to it that the entire book-reading public hates it as much as they do, or at least knows that they hate it.

Everyone talks about “American Psycho” as if it, unlike every other book published since the beginning of time, has some magical powers that make people do bad things or think bad things. It’s naive to think that there isn’t someone somewhere who condones violence against women or people in general, and it is also naive and incredibly pompous to believe that books about such people aren’t worth writing.

My advice is to give it a rest. It’s only a book.

SHAUN MASON, LOS ANGELES