Michel Houellebecq: “the horror of the world without God”
While I was out of commission, my review of Michel Houellebecq’s new collection of journalism was published at the Telegraph. I’m not a particular fan of Houellebecq, but it was interesting to spend some time with his work. There’s no denying he has a good line in dark apothegms.
“Sexual desire came to him aged 13 ‘like a natural biological disaster’. Partying is a way to ‘forget that we are lonely, miserable and doomed to death’. The logical consequences of individualism are ‘murder and unhappiness’.”
Houellebecq’s political incorrectness makes him a figure of admiration for some, but his personal abyss is one I’m very glad not to journey down.
“‘I don’t know if I’m a conservative,’ he admits at another point, and it’s hard to disagree. Conservatism contains a spirit of moderation and respect for the past out of kilter with Houellebecq’s coarse style and his rejection of our inherited world. His equal opportunity contempt includes the modern West as one more evil and unsustainable mistake. Where conservatives look back to a rose-tinted past, Houellebecq hankers after an impossible future, in which human connection, which he finds so elusive, is somehow finally made real.“
While I was out of commission, my review of Michel Houellebecq’s new collection of journalism was published at the Telegraph. I’m not a particular fan of Houellebecq, but it was interesting to spend some time with his work. There’s no denying he has a good line in dark apothegms.
“Sexual desire came to him aged 13 ‘like a natural biological disaster’. Partying is a way to ‘forget that we are lonely, miserable and doomed to death’. The logical consequences of individualism are ‘murder and unhappiness’.”
Houellebecq’s political incorrectness makes him a figure of admiration for some, but his personal abyss is one I’m very glad not to journey down.
“‘I don’t know if I’m a conservative,’ he admits at another point, and it’s hard to disagree. Conservatism contains a spirit of moderation and respect for the past out of kilter with Houellebecq’s coarse style and his rejection of our inherited world. His equal opportunity contempt includes the modern West as one more evil and unsustainable mistake. Where conservatives look back to a rose-tinted past, Houellebecq hankers after an impossible future, in which human connection, which he finds so elusive, is somehow finally made real.“