Background

In the 1987 novel, The Rules of Attraction, Bret Easton Ellis chronicled the Fall 1985 class at Bennington College with the name changed to Camden College. The Handsome Dunce is mentioned on several pages as 'Steve' who had sex with the main character Lauren and Judy in Williamstown, and is featured on pages 234-236 in a campus pub scene. It is clear The Easton Author intended to derail the freshman year celebrity of The Handsome Dunce.

The Offending Excerpts: "Steve has a BMW. He is from Long Island. Raymond laughs at every lame conversation attempt made by this idiot Steve and asks him constantly if he wants anything and brings him things (cookies, a disgusting/funny salad, garnishes stolen from the salad bar) even if he has said no. It's so nauseating that you are about to get up and leave, sit somewhere else... You stay because Steve is hot. [He's a] blond-tan-good-body-stupid-goon... the Freshmen, represented here by Steve, look so stupid, so desperate to please, trying so hard, nothing on their minds but partying, dressed like ads for Esprit sportswear. Fact remains however: they are better looking than the Seniors.... Steve, whose eyes look permanently half-closed, a dumb grin locked on his face, nodding to no one. [Steve's] not interested in what passes for conversation at the table. "Huh?" Steve asks..."I learned a lot from that class" Steve says... "Like what the alphabet?" Steve just says "Wha?"

Upon reading these excerpts it should be clear The Handsome Dunce is not lying when he says he has suffered humiliation, resentment and a loss of celebrity and a loss of love and affection from freshman girls, as he's dealt with this nickname and fictional identity.

Now, just over twenty years since this Easton novel took him by surprise, the Handsome Dunce awakens from his literary sleep and speaks. Enraged at the characterization, and yet alright with it, too, he is prepared to prove and disprove the impression that he is a dunce in a series of books:

The Handsome Dunce of Camden College Fame: The Fall of 1985
The Handsome Dunce's Book of Wisdom
The Imperial Bedroom Within the Ratio


In the meantime this blog will offer prologues, early drafts, and pics and try to provide the facts in as many ways as is possible about the true nature of Steve who matriculated at Bennington College in the Fall of 1985 and soon found himself to be The Handsome Dunce of Camden College Fame.