On Michel Houllebecq

Every time I re-read Houllebecq I'm struck by something different. Of course the underlying themes of dissipation, sexual malaise and millenial exhaustion are still there, but I notice different things about the execution of these themes.

Upon re-reading The Elementary Particles recently I was surprised at how lyrical it is in places. There seems to be a general critical notion that Houllebecq isn't much of a writer, more of an "ideas man," (to borrow a phrase from Platform), but check out this passage:

There's something very special about this country. Everything seems constantly trembling; the grass in the fields or the water on the lake, everything signals its presence. The light is soft, shifting, like a mutable substance. You'll see. The sky itself is alive. (The Elementary Particles)

There's even a kind of eloquence to the descriptions of drab consumerism in Platform:

My backpack was cutting into my shoulders; it was a Lowe Pro Himalaya Trekking, the most expensive one I could find at Vieux Campeur, and it was guaranteed for life. It was an impressive object, steel gray with snap clasps, special Velcro fastenings - the company had a patent pending - and zippers that would work at temperatures of -65 Celsius. (Platform)

These examples belie the myth that all Houllebecq's novels are the same. Read back-to-back, (which is admittedly a near-dangerous intake of misanthropy), The Elementary Particles and Platform plainly attack the same problem - sexual entropy - from completely different standpoints. The former carefully locates its protagonist outside of mainstream society (ie. in the field of theoretical molecular biology), while the later places him resolutely in the center of the mainstream (a white collar worker whose life centers around the office and the supermarket). In the Isaiah Berlin formulation, Houllebecq is a hedgehog, rather than a fox - he does onen thing very well. I've always felt a bizarre affinity between Houllebecq and Haruki Murakami in this regard, though their approaches couldn't be more divergent.

By the way have you heard that Iggy Pop's next album is inspired by Houllebecq's The Possibility of an Island? Strange, but true.