/lit/ - Literature

>>12361414
a prophet to the people

Based and redpilled

Sam Hyde of literature tbqh

>>12361414

Though I think he's spot on most things, as a person he is just as bad as his characters are.

>>12361414

>>12361414
Not a fan of this reactionary asshole. He gives reactionaries too much literary clout.

>>12361414

I ain't no Houellebecq girl

>>12361414
The definition of middle brow.

Haven't read anything by him yet but just loaned Soumission. Starting to read it just now

>>12361966
read elementary particles ( thats it in english i think) instead, its much better

where can i dl the german translation epub of serotonine? not buying this shit

>>12361961
The Map and the Territory is closer to avant-garde than any other 21st century book /lit/ recommends

>>12361414
Honestly, one of the best contemporary writers. I'm glad hes around because if nothing else he has balls and his personality and critiques ooze through his writing.

Then I look at who we have here in the Burgerland and we instead have pussies like John Green representing our contemporary literature.

Only read whatever in anglospeak and enjoyed it. Gonna read elementary particles soon

I enjoy Houellebecq. I see his characters, and his own persona as author, as grotesque representations of the post-religious west, slipping increasingly towards nihilism and all that that entails. He doesn't make any judgment about it (overtly) or offer any solution, he just holds up a mirror to society and says this is what it is becoming. Easy to read, but deals with lots of interesting topics.

>>12361414
My brother

>>12361444
This. His last book is pretty vulgar. France has always had a hard on for decadent assholes, be it Drieu la Rochelle, Céline, Gainsbourg, him, etc.
It's always the same bullshit

>>12363258
puritanical victorian wiener

>>12363263
more like French guy tired of the same old'reactionary bullshit. Dumb enough to have read his last book though. I'm so tired with our constant new ways to make pessimism look cool and fresh

>Whereas Muslims have long been one of Houellebecq’s favorite targets, it is now women, often dismissed as “fat whores,” and gay people, referred to as “fags,” who take pride of place.

...

>Yet crane your head above this mix of misogyny and misanthropy and you might catch an unsparing and unsettling view of the social fractures widening on both sides of the Atlantic. Christened in the German magazine Der Spiegel as “our era’s poet” and the French journal Challenges as the “ethnologist of the West’s decline,” Houellebecq seems to channel the discontents not just of those relegated to our social peripheries, but also to the well-educated elites hunkered down in the metropoles.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/05/michel-houellebecq-hated-europe-before-you-did/

based

>>12361708
Unironically would read.

>>12361715
>unironically using reactionary as a pejorative

>>12363278
Someone needs to do it, otherwise we'd be all English.

>>12363278
>reactionary
He's an accelerationist

He found the escape hatch!

>>12361444
Based and redpilled

>>12363347
There is hope!

>>12363347
Absolutely based.
Now, imagine the kind of shit he will write about asia once the chink leaves him

He's ok. He's a semi-satirist who's sincere in his main points but ironic in his secondary and tertiary ones, some of his work is even sci-fi to be honest. He wasn't the first to note that the modern sexual market is an extremely aggressive form of capitalism, that was Clouscard, all Houellebecq does is take his thesis and extrapolate it, the Left's celebration of sexual "liberation" exemplifies its subsummation by liberalism (capitalism) etc..

Most people seem to think he's depressing but he's not depressing at all. If you look through the cynicism Houellebecq is actually a romantic and has quite healthy and positive views about sexuality. I remember a passage in platform where the protagonist told his gf why he'd find her so attractive and just gave the following reason: because she, Valerie, would simply like to please and be among the very few people nowadays who are able to give their body to others as gift, just for the sake of pleasure. Also he wrote that being able to be vulnerable would be essential for a good sexual relationship and that a lot of people nowadays wouldn't be able to deal with this vulnerability. Even the pornographic scenes are not misogynist or toxic at all like some people say, in fact they are pretty tame and always seem like the partners are just having fun.

People say he writes for incels but the protagonists usually get laid easily, rather they miss any real perspective in life and the will to found a family. Also Houellebecq usually portrays both men and women of today in a bad light, he is commenting on western society as a whole and not just single parts of it. For every "misogynist" part in his writings there is a weak and ridiculous male character, and in the end he is actually a romantic idealist who believes in love but can't find it in today's times.

If you read Submission do it last (Read his books in release order), Submission is 1, a satire and 2, a very honest statement that the (sexual) morals he seems to proclaim are quite similar to the ones some conservative muslims advocate, which is quite astonishing at first glance since he once said "Islam is the dumbest religion ever" when he promoted "Plateforme" (but not really astonishing if you know his works).

He has unorthodox ideas and is bold enough to voice them, but he's not amazing as a writer. I would say he's worth reading, all his books are quick reads. Young Houellebecq is better than old Houellebecq.

>>12363468
based&smugpilled

>>12363137
Is it any good? My sister gave it to me for Christmas, but I haven't started on it yet

>>12361414
He’s extremely typically French. His early work is good, despite its usual themes. As time goes on his obsession with Islam and how much he hates women has taken over and he’s lost his touch,

>>12363347
she's kinda cute in an ugly but not really way

He's a pretty good poet.
People forget this.

>>12361961
there's literally nothing wrong with middle brow, people who don't like middle brow are usually foe sophisticates

>>12363501
>Clouscard
sadly nobody has read this dude cause he's not been translated

>>12361444
who?

>>12361966
>>12362017
read both

>>12361414
I'm going to read serotonin.

>>12362017
the possibility of the island > elementary particles > shit > submission

>>12364392
Soumission is great. What are you talking about?

>>12364426
I got it for christmass and I liked it.

>>12361958
completely underrated

>>12363621

>>12361414
di original badman and chichiman assassinata

From Reddit

>The case of Houllebeq reminds a lot the case of Tarantino and many other boy-genius. They made an extraordinaire debut Extension du domaine de la lutte/Reservoir Dogs followed by a really good second work, Les Particules élémentaires/Pulp Fiction, raising a lot of hopes and expectations among the public and the critics, but unfortunately nobody knew they were at their prime by that time and downhill since... Making an attempt at repeating the same hit by means of repeating the same tricks year after year.

>They both have a great style, sure, the problem is that what was refreshing in terms of style 20 years ago is not so anymore. It’s not that bad to have a style and stick to it, but style although interesting is not a value by itself. A novel is not just good writing skills as a movie is not just good direction skills.

>Now that we are not invested in the style anymore because we all know it already, we have the time to appreciate other aspects of the work… And I at least don’t find much there. Actually I think both authors are incredibly bland, you almost can swap chapters from any book of Houllebeck or sections in Tarantino’s movies for another on a different book/movie without notice much.

>As a fact they reinforced the weakest aspects of their respective works. One got more bloody and the other more racists and misogynistic, as if that was what was attractive and interesting about then in the first place or as if literature and cinema were about gimmicks and how to impress the reader by means of insisting on the more polemic and controversial facets of their art.

>Its been a long time since I don’t read Houllebeq or I watch a Tarantino movie and I see no reason to do so anymore.

>>12361966
Loving it so far

>>12361958
london