So how is Houellebecq? My university adviser loves and said If I liked pessimistic stuff I should check him out. What do you guys think? What books of his did you like or dislike?
he's extremely easy/quick reading, just have a go at it.
>>7673003
DUDE MUSLIMS LMAO
>>7673039
Don't really care about that either way.
>>7673003
Whatever is his best work
Atomised/Elementary Particles is the most personal
Submission is the funniest
>>7673003
Atomised is pretty good I think. It's a very frank novel, not so much about prose, more about him speaking directly to you; he's very good at emptying your mind as you read and having his own ideas just come straight through. I think it can get a little routine, his message is basically that his characters are bitter due to love's meaning being lost in sexual liberation but I like how he shows that people who do well in the sexual liberation aren't always worse off, there's winners and losers in everything and he knows that.
>>7673061
>not so much about prose
that's quite an understatement. houllebecq has no aesthetic at all. it's dead writing.
>>7673054
Me neither but he's obsessed with them.
>>7673061
Yes, Atomised does drag for a bit
Thankfully his other books are shorter
Houellbecq isn't a particularly good writer, just a very interesting one
>>7673068
>he reads translations
>>7673068
The fuck are you on. Is prose is absolutely unreal. He has shown great virtuosity in all his writings
whatever is a good novel
>>7673485
Most people on /lit/ have read him in english, or struggled through with inadequate French just so they can post memes about others reading translations
>>7673003
Platform has the best sex.
>>7673554
Oh my god.
Oh my god
>>7673003
>>7673668
>>7673673
>>7673554
I have a boner now.
As you can probably tell, he is a very divisive man.
Might as well read one and figure out what side you are on.
Elementary Particles and The Possibility of an Island are his best works. Map and Territory and Platform are good as well, I enjoyed them too. Submission is his weakest novel imo, yet that was quite all right, too.
>>7673554
>tracksuit pants
>smelled good
this is the most vanilla sex I have ever read. it disgusts me.
>entered her
>not thrust my rigid tally-whacker into her quivering quim of delight
>undressed quickly
>not, I cast my belt to the side, my demin pasties soon following
>I'm not going to be able to hold out for long
>not your cunt is too good, I'm going to flood you with baby batter and claim your cunt forever
this is just so completely unimaginative. I've seen his name thrown around quite a bit here but just reading what has been recommended as the absolute best sex scene, something that's meant to make me erect yet i am completely flaccid still, I can't imagine that any of his work is even remotely stimulating in any way if the climax of the story is as arousing as filling out a form at the DMV
>>7674162
I thought Submission was his second best, after The Elementary Particles and followed by Whatever.
>>7674152
I agree with this, the French original is very mediocre, the English translators really put some work in to improve it
Anyway, boring writer, it's essentially the same book over and over again. Really not worth the hype.
>>7674196
Some of the youngsters here are confused. Houellebecq is not at all known as an impressive stylist, but rather an ideas man. Don't look to Houllebecq for beautiful descriptions. Look to him for grand and provocative ideas about society - the direction it has gone, the direction it's going, and man's place within it.
>>7674222
a state must be both a good state and have good propaganda though.
if you can't express anything of interest and cant even do it in an interesting way, what good is it?
>no entertainment value
>no intellectual value
>no value
tell me of his grand ideas?
>>7674162
Pretty much this
>>7674222
based on the blurb I just read on wikipedia, platform is about a guy who needs to pay extra at home in order to get a hookup with a prostitute in thailand.
like finding a prostitute in thailand would be hard
as if this isnt something people dont already do
as if I dont live in australia and get to listen to people constantly talking about trannies in thailand.(60$ flights from perth)
literally I already vicariously experienced everything in this book from listening to train conversations.
>>7674203
I haven't read Whatever, there's no Hungarian translation and my French isn't good enough.maybe I should read it in English
The idea and the method for achieving immortality described in The Possibility of an Island is in fact the same that the result of Michel's research in Elementary Particles. Therefore, the two books should not be considered separate things, Possibility of an Island is just a consequence or follow-up of Elementary Particles.
>>7673554
>I was disappearing into space, only my penis was alive.
Wow, just amazing, Houllebecq what a visionary!
>Her cunt became the world
GRRM WHAT A FUCKING HACK!
>>7674246
how's bubbledogs?
>>7674228
>somehow contorts everything he has read into this thread into some bullshit about Hollaback being a part of a state propaganda machine
>>7674246
6/10 Almost got rustled
Whoa, you just vaguely reminded of a dream I had last night, and since this is my blog...
I had never read Houellebecq before, but as I was reading it in the dream I felt sickened, it seemed I was reading the diary of a demented cuckold who had given up any pretenses of living a worthwhile life, and instead was bent on bending the minds of others to his sinful wont.
What are his books actually like?
>>7674264
You're an idiot if you cannot tell the difference between those two sentences.
>>7675822
houellebecq is the anticuck
submission is a massive screed against the gutless and pathetic being that is the average 21st century western european male
that a lot of the critics of the book reacted to it by going "phew, at least it's not too racist" instead of reacting to the fact that houellebecq spent the entirety of the book spitting in their faces just goes to show how right he is in his assessment of the situation
>>7673104
The prose in French isn't much better though.
>>7675933
Guess Im an idiot then! Fucking retard.
>>7676005
Yes, you are.
>>7674228
Houellebecq does it in an interesting way, just not an extraordinary pretty one.
>>7673602
I said
*sniff*
I thought Submission was great, a brilliant modern satire. I'm reading Whatever now and I'm less impressed, there are some good passages but so far I'm finding it pretty boring, and I'm already beginning to tire of Houellebecq's worldview. I'll probably give another one of his novels a go afterwards thogh.
>>7674580
>he doesnt even know goebels
>doesnt understand the analogy to doing something well and making it look good as well.
ever been to a restaurant where the presentation is good but the food tastes absolutely terrible? you need both in art. you need the product to be both appealing and filling. if you simply serve a spoonful of gruel, as the artistic value of his writing can be compared to cooking, it is neither.
and his work, as you pointed out, does serve as a part of the french propaganda machine. france is desperately trying to hold on to their culture and resist anglo domination. they just stopped producing anything though. so along comes holocuck and the french start going on about their exclusive francophone shit and why its so great.
>2015
>france
>still relevant
>>7678242
The US literary world cares much more about hollabeck than the french FYI
>sex is too libertine!
>Muslims are evil for agreeing
>>7678380
Woolbuck in a nutshell.
>>7675945
Hollaback is the ultimate cuck. Have you actually read his books?
>>7678411
have you?
houellebecq is not denying his culpability in the prevalent culture, but that doesn't make his statements on it any less scathing nor disgusted
>>7675933
What's the difference? One's acceptable according to the meme standards of lit and one's not; anything against the status quo means you're, as you say, an idiot.
>>7674211
The protagonist has a girlfriend
Or rather, had. Several, in fact, he wasn't the virgin in the story
>>7673668
>>7673673
>>7673678
>>7678610
Being a self-aware cuckold does not make him any less of a cuckold.
>>7673554
Sex is disgusting.
I love how you can observe right now how public opinion on him is shifting from a knee-jerk "omg muhsoggynee / racism" to treating him as this trickster / sage speaking forbidden truths now that he's written a book on a topic that's inflammatory enough to create a dedicated hard-core redpill readerbase that will shill for him like their life depends on it and make sure enough people get enough exposure to it over a long time to give him this odd bukowski-ish aura of fame and infamy
For the record, I like his writing.
>>7679222
>JUSTE
Giggled.
>>7679222
>JUSTE
hehe
I thought guys like Houellebecq were banned from modern academia for being shitlords.
>>7682630
They are, thats why he's unpopular in France.
