What did you guys think of this one by ourguy? I'm about to finish it. It's got all the Houellbeck staples: lonely depressed horny intellectual French artist guy, sex, social commentary about sex and the decline of the west, stuff about ageing.
This one seems like a departure somewhat form his usually stuff with the sci-fi elements. Any1 want to talk about it?
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No Zionist boomer is my guy. I prefer PKD for sci-fi.
I was reading some dick last night, I'm quite the Dickhead myself. it was called "Human Is"
Maybe I ws in the mode b/c of this houllebcw book
the french, as far as i know, are fans of Dick. Baudrillard brings him up in simulation and simuclacum
i'm only halfway through (Daniel1, 20), but it's my least favorite Houellebecq so far. the parts about the sect are nice, but the main character is so full of himself in my opinion, really unlikeable. also the whole first part felt completely useless so far, what was the point of Isabelle and the german couple? hope The Map and the Territory is better. And i hope The Possibility of an Island gets better
How much of Houelly's stuff have you read? I remember struggling a bit through the middle section of TPOAI until I finally arrived at the end and found myself emotionally devasted almost out of left field. If I remember correctly, the German couple is how Daniel1 gets introduced to the sect. As for Isabelle, I venture to say she's the vehicle for exploring aging specifically in women, especially after Daniel1 has met Esther. TMATT is better but the 2nd half of Island is still faithfully Houellbecqian, so long as you know what that entails.
Whatever, Elementary Particles and Platform, currently reading all his novels in release order.
Yeah you're right with the German couple and Isabelle, but all of that and the Esther stuff seems to be way longer than it needs to be, i feel like in Elementary Particles everything had a purpose and the book had exactly the right length (the sci fi at the end was a bit heavy handed but whatever) and Island so far seems like it could have been shorter, some chapters were really boring to me.
Anyways, going to read the rest of the book now and will come back to this thread later if it is still on the catalog
>Whatever, Elementary Particles and Platform, currently reading all his novels in release order.
We talked about Elementary Particles/Atomised a few days ago in a different thread. I finished it. Fairly decent. About to start Platform now.
i found Platform enjoyable to read even though it was basically erotica. Not much food for thought though in my opinion, i didn't really get what the novel was about or if it even had some "deeper" meaning
>I venture to say she's the vehicle for exploring aging specifically in women, especially after Daniel1 has met Esther
I think you almost have it, but there's a quote from Daniel 1 in the book that explains it better. Paraphrasing aggressively because I don't remember
>Isabelle knew how to love but wasn't desirable. Esther was desirable but didn't know how to love
>Great writers in history write epics about antiquity and whatnot, this homie writes about how he can't get his dick wet over and over again
He's a child of the sexual revolution. Culture and human relationships are decaying and being replaced by markets. What other than sex is there to write about in 21st century novels?
well said fellas, my thoughts exactly
it's a rewriting of Atomised, or Atomised if it wasn't a Thesenroman, IMO far superior to the 1st attempt though not entirely successful
so i finished the book. what do you guys think the ending was about? what was the highest sisters goal?
Ill prob finish it tomorrow bruh (weird we were reading at the same time) ill be back to share my thoughts
it's typical for Houellebecq, same ending as Whatever, MC surrenders & quietly awaits death, what's beautiful & around him mere life preferable to a killing himself immediately, but not by far just enough
That is some truly atrocious type design and layout work
this one was the first of his that i read and it's still my favorite. the professional ennui seems pretty accurate to how crushingly mediocre all the very successful europeans i've ever met are
You'd prop like his other novels a lot. I'm not fond of 'ranking' art, and I do like this novel, but I've liked all his other more.
i've actually liked each subsequent one i've read less. elementary particles was my least favorite. it's probably because he basically writes the same book over and over again
>he basically writes the same book over and over again
That's basically the correct take about him. I really like Serotonin, it's one of his best, but his books are selfish and exclusively about the lonely male condition. Great writers in history write epics about antiquity and whatnot, this homie writes about how he can't get his dick wet over and over again.
easier to charge to your death than to be a lonely male today
Too difficult for my taste, I'm only into beginner kaizo.
I'm not familiar with this author, but the cover and title intrigue me. What's it about?
how can you be on lit and nit know who houellebecq is?
To be fair, I haven't regularly been on /lit for a few years. Read the synopsis, sounds interesting enough. As long as it's hot.
I would read Whatever first, then Atomised.
>Whatever
>read synopsis
Damn that sounds like some incel shit.
way ahead of it's time, it's basically My Twisted World written as fiction in 1994. it's a short and simple read and will introduce you to Houellebecq's Style of writing and some of the themes he regularly comes back to. if you are interested in reading him you should start with that one, but even If you don't like it i would suggest reading The Elementary Particles as well after Whatever as it is far superior and probably his masterpiece
Looking through his bibliography, I recognize the cover of Atomized now. Might check some of these out. I'll take your suggestion of Whatever.
Actually Lanzarote is shorter and catches my interest more.
Whatever is largely about how he can't get pussy and he's suicidal because of it then the rest of his books he's getting pussy and he's still suicidal, he's basically just a whiny misanthropic gay. If none of that sounds appealing to you just don't read him
The only major novel of his I haven't read, got a paperback knocking around somewhere upstairs, will I be disappointed?
It's one of his better books, spiritual successor to Elementary Particles. The humans becoming androids and the androids wanting to become human is a classic trope but still kino
A thing I liked about it was how his character was a Jon Stewart/Bill Maher type "comedian" who exists to destroy the social fabric of society and if he views himself that way, and if he's so cognizant of it why he still does it. I made a thread about this book a few weeks ago and got zero (You)s so I'm still salty about it
>sex is ... le good
>not having sex is ... le bad
wow mr. houlebelebeueqeuec, you did it again!
Houellebecq is obsessed with the rationalization of sexual selection, or the "sexual market", and how it leads to feelings of loneliness and alienation. The sexual revolution didn't work, free love doesn't actually exist, and so on. In the story, Michel's "platform" is the proposal to use sex tourism in third world countries to solve the problem of sexual gratification for lonely Western men and women. We get sex and they get a needed economic boost. Everyone is happy until the appalling climax when Michel is punished for his sins, as is the reader (the sex scenes are downright gloomy after the first read). To me, the major theme is the consequences of imposing liberalism or moral relativism on strict societies, or more generally of the collision of moral frameworks. He was called prophetic because the novel was published before the Bali Bombings of 2002 and the 9/11 attacks which, while they didn't have to do with sex tourism, they fit the theme; I disagree with the "prophet" label and I think he would too, but the timing is interesting and gives the theme gravity. Also, I agree that it bordered on erotica or pornography; it was a cheap way to intensify the climax.
I'm moronic, reply to
yeah i get that, but the "sex as a product" thing as a result of a failed sexual revolution was already explored in Whatever and The Elementary Particles in a more nuanced way, in my opinion. What i found interesting was what was going on with the increase of violence in france, sadly he didn't really explore that more thorougly.
To me Hoellebecq was just repeating what he already implied in his earlier books, although now he was more on the nose about it and it wasn't really memorable. I still think about The Elementary Particles and i felt that what happened to the characters in it was quite touching. While reading the bombing part in Platform i didn't feel anything, made me smirk.
Still, like i wrote earlier a fun read and i'm glad i read it inbetween The Elementary Particles and The Possibility of an Island, those two back to back seems unhealthy
Is it about Epstein?
If I didn’t enjoy Serotonin is there any reason to read more by this guy? Or is that book indicative of his style enough to know I won’t like him
just finished it. I don't want to talk about it. I'm going to take a nap.