Merci, M. Houellebecq

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Wed, 2005-12-21 20:56

Anonymous

Merci, M. Houellebecq

Houellebecq's ability to observe both himself and the world around him, to interpret it, and to deliver it to his reader is unrivalled for me in fiction from recent years. I don't agree with all his views - particularly those that got him in so much trouble in France and led to his 'excile' to Ireland - but his placement of sexuality in life; his attitude towards love and its distinction from lust; his romanticism of the perfect woman underpinning an incessant disapointment at the reality of actual women (it is this that for me distinuguishes Houellebecq from a mysogynist); his antipithy for the drearyness of working life (I have dabbled in the civil service and sypathise with his plight, both in his life and his fiction) and his appreciation of the emptiness of social living and the acute sense of lonliness that people deny themselves from feeling, by constructing for themselves an imaginary 'place' in the world.

I will never be half the writer he is, but I will never be as "black and withered inside" (although that is exactly what I was called by someone not long ago) as Houellebecq is reported to be, and, I suppose, that is a blessing.

Ben..
www.thedevilbetweenus.com

Wed, 2005-12-21 22:52

justyn_thyme

Yeah, he's one of my favorites as well. I'm reading Possibiliy of an Island now.

Wed, 2005-12-21 23:02

Enzo

Good, innit? Slaughtered by the press, as always. Idiots. Enzo.. www.thedevilbetweenus.com

Thu, 2005-12-22 02:19

maddan

I read 'whatever' which is about a disgruntled software engineer so should have been right up my street but I found it's relentless dreariness a bit wearing (but very well written, yes) I really like his essay on lovecraft though.

Thu, 2005-12-22 05:35

justyn_thyme

I loved 'Whatever,' but the real title is much better. Of course, Extension of the Domain of Battle would not sell in English, so I see why they changed it. Oddly, I did not fnd it dreary to read, though the lives depicted were certainly dreary. The real problem with his first three novels was the translation. This has been remarked upon by nearly every reviewer. 'Island' has so far been fine. I guess now that he is the best selling novelist in Europe, the publisher decided to hire a better translator. Something else I find appealing in Atomised, for example, is the relentless skewering of the humourless loser-lefty class in France--dregs of the 68er generation. Those folks ARE the establishment in the French literary and political worlds, and it was so refreshing to see someone savage the pompous twits of that era--who still exist in large number elsewhere as well, of course. I felt like I was witnessing a protest against the Church for selling indulgences in the Middle Ages.

Thu, 2005-12-22 06:07

mikepyro

Can someone tell me who these people are? Did they publish in America, because I read like crazy and have never heard of that man. In fact most people u speak of I've never read. At globo gym, we're better than you, and we know it!

Give me the beat boys and free my soul! I wanna getta lost in ya rock n' roll and drift away. Drift away...

Thu, 2005-12-22 08:24

Brooklands

Michael Houellebecq's Atomised - Vince Vaugh in Dodgeball. Mike, it is likely that most people will only know one or the other of these cultural reference points - never both. Joe

Thu, 2005-12-22 09:41

justyn_thyme

Michel Houellebecq is French. He has published four novels, all of which are translated into English but they primarily appear in Britain. Still, you can find his books in the US if you check out Amazon. He has been reviewed in the New Republic, New York Times, and elsewhere. A review of Platform famously appeared in the New York Times on Sept 11, 2001, appropriately enough as an Islamic terrorist attack on a resort in Thailand plays a prominent role in the novel. Houllebecq is by far the best-selling author in France, and if he achieved the same volume of sales in the US (300,000 copies and counting for Island), he would be at or near the top of the heap in America as well--and all this without being Harry Potter or Dan DaVinci Brown.

Thu, 2005-12-22 09:54

Enzo

Ineteresting point about the translation, I agree his recent feels as if it is translated the best, but it still doesn't always feel quite right; as if a literal translation has been used over a common-sense one. J_T: Actually Michel Houellebecq has five novels, did you read 'Lanzarote'? I didn't like it at the first read, but found it much more enjoyable second time round. I read in a recent article that he changed publishing houses from Random House (or some subsidiary thereof) because they refused to give him directorial rights on any film that gets made out of his books. The new lot will, apparantly. I hear there's a film of Whatever. Anyone seen it? Enzo.. www.thedevilbetweenus.com

Thu, 2005-12-22 22:05

#10

justyn_thyme

My mistake. You are right about Lanzarote, and yes I've read it. Actually, it's quite good. Very short, perhaps that's why I'd forgotten it. The problem with the earlier translations, in part, is that the translator used British slang sometimes and American slang others, when in fact the whole feel of Atomized in particular is American. In either case, mixing the slang was a mistake. However, that was a bigger problem with Whatever and Atomized than the others.

Mon, 2005-12-26 06:43

#11

simplestupid

The first part of the novel is entertaining (reads like a short story; perhaps he should have left it at that) and the rest (using the hotel industry, symbolically) is just about indulging in sexual fantasy.... and then the big finale is... predictably ...? Ohh yes, gotta kill off the heroine!

Mon, 2005-12-26 21:37

#12

justyn_thyme

Oh no, I can't agree with that. Plaform is about the search for intimacy in a world where intimacy has been commercialized, either directly through the sex industry or indirectly through the 'meat marketplace.' Its portrayal of Islam as an arid ideological poison is, in my view, largely accurate, certainly the radical elements. It's very much like Christianity in previous centuries--a life-denying death cult. Death through bombs or death through tiny soul murders--take your pick.

Sat, 2005-12-31 10:36

#13

simplestupid

Islam is a pluralist religion, just like Christianity: all Houll' does is prey on, and so perpetuate this incorrect, hugely propaganda-ish (Amercian / European) midia-ized version of 'Islam'. He offers nothing, unless he is attempting to protray the ignorance the plods around the mind's of Americans and Europeans on the subject, namely, our belief that Islam is "an arid ideological poison." Also, he needs to check his map of Thailand, because many of his references are incorrect.

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