 Imperial Bedrooms also breaches several new territories . When compared to Less Than Zero , its " huge shift " is a technological one . The novel picks up on many aspects of the early 21st century culture , such as Internet viral videos which depict executions . The novel reflects how technology changes the nature of interpersonal relationships . Additionally , Clay is text @-@ stalked throughout the book ; Ellis himself had been " text @-@ stalked " before in real life . Ellis feels this was an unconscious exploration of the dynamics brought on by the new technology . The author also predicts that " fans of Less Than Zero " may " feel betrayed " ; Imperial Bedrooms ' thrust is its " narrative ... of exploitation " . One reviewer describes the novel 's " central theme " as " Hollywood is an industry town running on exploitation " , and criticizes this theme for being unoriginal in 2010 . An Irish Times review notes positively however that Ellis ' " vision of society is bleak ; his dark studies of the human animal as shocking as ever . " The new setting poses questions , such as " Is Hollywood intended as a variation of ancient Rome ? Is the movie industry a coliseum ? " Another review found that the celebrity setting , as visited before in his novel Glamorama ( 1998 ) , allows Ellis to make a number of observations about contemporary pop culture via Clay , such as when he asserts " that exposure can ensure fame " . Ellis comments how in Less Than Zero , Clay 's passivity worked to protect him from the " bleak moral landscape he was a part of " , which he views as Clay 's major flaw . Ellis developed this into the more unabashedly ' guilty ' Clay of the new novel . Ellis says that " a portrait of narcissism was the big nut that I had . Of entitlement . This imperial idea . " The difference he notes between this " portrait of a narcissist " and his earlier ones , such as American Psycho and Lunar Park , come in the form of its more moral bent : " This time " , Ellis comments , " the narcissist reaches a dead end . " To one reviewer , Clay 's world at its most exaggerated , in the scenes of torture , reach <unk> heights of dystopian fantasy , comparing Imperial Bedrooms to Brave New World ( 1932 ) , " where the " command economy " now manifests as rampant , late @-@ capitalist consumerism , where <unk> is the new soma and humans are zombies : one character 's face is " unnaturally smooth , redone in such a way that the eyes are shocked open with perpetual surprise ; it 's a face mimicking a face , and it looks agonized . " 
