The Shards: A Novel

In Bret’s hedonistic teen milieu, sexuality defies straightforward categories. Bret’s sexual identity mimics that of author Ellis throughout much of his public life. In an interview with the blogger Robert F. Coleman, for example, Ellis described his sexuality as “indeterminate” and stated that “any other interviewer out there will get a different answer and it just depends on the mood I’m in” (Coleman, Robert F. “Bret Easton Ellis Interview.” 11 Sept. 2010, Internet Archive). Since 2012, however, Ellis has publicly identified as gay. Like the younger Ellis, protagonist Bret resists labels for his sexuality. While he has intense sexual feelings for men, he doesn’t see himself as gay. When Terry tries to find out if Bret is gay, Bret replies, “I certainly wouldn’t kick Richard Gere out of bed” (349), choosing to name his specific desires rather than labeling his sexuality. Bret wonders what Terry has seen in him that led him to believe he might be open to sex with a man: “I’d never defined myself as gay but how did Terry know I could lean toward that?” (95). Bret doesn’t confine his sexual feelings to a word, and the word “lean” gives him mobility as he can “lean” or not “lean” in any number of directions.

Like Bret, Ryan doesn’t label himself gay. About their sex, Bret says, “The sex wasn’t based on anything except an overwhelming need” (406). What attracts Ryan and Bret is a strong, abstract “need,” not a sexual identity. In the context of their hyper-elite social milieu, this resistance to labels suggests a reluctance on the part of both boys to risk their privileged status. Bret insists on his freedom to have sex with whomever he wants, but he doesn’t want to be labeled as gay or bisexual because such a label would box him in, infringing on his total freedom. At a moment—the early 1980s—when LGBTQ+ people faced intense prejudice and stigma, this avoidance of labels suggests his unwillingness to align himself with a marginalized group.

The book suggests that sex is rarely about the people having sex. Bret and Debbie have sex, but Bret doesn’t have sexual feelings for Debbie, and to become aroused, he thinks of men. Debbie’s parents both engage in sexually inappropriate behavior with Bret and other teens, treating them as sexual objects rather than whole people with complex feelings. After having sex with Matt, Bret claims Matt “would’ve had sex with anybody” due to his remoteness (132). Unattached to the world, Matt’s sexual feelings aren’t for Bret or any specific person. Matt’s sexuality is diffuse and inclusive, like that of most other characters in the book.

The lack of sex between Robert and Bret propels their conflict. Bret admits that he has become “addicted to following Robert Mallory after school” (594). Unable to have sex with Robert, Bret expresses his desire by “following” Robert, which serves as a placeholder. Bret doesn’t care if Robert is the serial killer, he simply wants proximity. As with other sexual relationships in the book, his interest in Robert is purely superficial. He becomes addicted to the nebulous feeling—a mix of attraction and fear—that he gets in Robert’s presence. He is no more interested understanding Robert than he is in understanding Ryan or Debbie, and the monstrous version of Robert that he constructs in his mind has more to do with his own imagination than with the reality of this other person. As with most sexual relationships in the book, attraction and the pursuit of pleasure are presented as separate from identity. Sex is just sex, in Bret’s view, and has no bearing on his image of himself or of his partners.