Michel Houellebecq

luka

Well-known member
they certainly do read Frankenstein, particularly nowadays as it is written by a woman so they get forced to read it.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Arguably the essence of magical thinking.
If it's magic it's a very poor, mean and conservative kind of magic that kills curiosity, narrows the possible and ultimately shrinks the world. Perhaps it does create a more basic, safer place to live in but I'd want magic to do the opposite personally.
 

sus

Well-known member
Houellebecq's outlook in The Elementary Particles is eerily similar to the Adam Curtis line.

Hippiedom as origin/cover for cult of self, narcissism of identity, materialism, neoliberalism.
 

version

Well-known member
Houellebecq's outlook in The Elementary Particles is eerily similar to the Adam Curtis line.

Hippiedom as origin/cover for cult of self, narcissism of identity, materialism, neoliberalism.
Unsurprising when you learn his parents abandoned him as a baby and his mother ran off to be a hippy and left him with his grandmother.

There's a similar dynamic explored in Vineland where one of the hippy characters has a child, eventually can't stand to be in the same room as her and leaves.
 
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luka

Well-known member
its like the children of drug dealers. they have this disconcerting maturity plus scorn both for you and for their parents.
 

luka

Well-known member
children who have had to assume responsibility and take on the roles adults are supposed to play. we've all seen it.
 

sus

Well-known member
Unsurprising when you learn his parents abandoned him as a baby and his mother ran off to be a hippy and left him with his grandmother.

There's a similar dynamic explored in Vineland where one of the hippy characters has a child, eventually can't stand to be in the same room as her and leaves.
Wait is Particles supposed to be autofictional/autobiographical??
 

sus

Well-known member
I just wish Houllebecq's writing was more interesting. It never really surprises or shines, syntactically or linguistically, does it? A bit like Tao Lin, the same misanthropic matter-of-factness interspersed with didacticism, but a bit more flowery a bit less deadpan.
 

woops

is not like other people
I just wish Houllebecq's writing was more interesting. It never really surprises or shines, syntactically or linguistically, does it? A bit like Tao Lin, the same misanthropic matter-of-factness interspersed with didacticism, but a bit more flowery a bit less deadpan.
he's not been well translated
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich
Houellebecq's outlook in The Elementary Particles is eerily similar to the Adam Curtis line.

Hippiedom as origin/cover for cult of self, narcissism of identity, materialism, neoliberalism.
It's a recurring theme with him in fact. New age cults with something dark inside them.
 

sus

Well-known member
It's a recurring theme with him in fact. New age cults with something dark inside them.
Midsomar. True Blood. True Detective. We're obsessed with cults. Mafias too. Hierarchies built atop pure personality. The figureheads charismatic enough to exert gravitational force, pull a whole solar system into orbit.
 

woops

is not like other people
Midsomar. True Blood. True Detective. We're obsessed with cults. Mafias too. Hierarchies built atop pure personality. The figureheads charismatic enough to exert gravitational force, pull a whole solar system into orbit.
there are a lot of cults about. if you're religious in any way you're one step from a cult. i can remember as a first year university student there were loads of cult recruiters about. erm no one had to tell me that's what they were, i could just tell. preying on the innocent first time away from home.
 
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