Michel Houellebecq - Enfant Terrible of French Literature

by Songül Arslan

The French author Michel Houellebecq has been referred to as an enfant terrible because of the controversial books he writes. His writing has been referred to as "the book of evil" and he is widely regarded as a reactionary.

Houellebecq was born on February 26, 1958, on the French island of Reunion, into a life full of setbacks. From the moment he was born, his parents didn't care about him at all. When he was about six they dumped him at his grandmother's, where he spent most of his youth. He studied engineering at school, never considering writing as a profession. After his graduation he married, but eventually his wife divorced him. This was so traumatic for him that he was admitted to a psychiatric institution.

He later took his grandmother's name as a pseudonym, a sign that he saw her as a righteous person--probably the only person--who cared about him. He started his writing career by writing poems and a biography about Howard P. Lovecraft, the 20th-century creator of the horror genre. He later wrote two books, Lanzarote, Platform and Atomised (also known as Elementary Particles).

It was with Atomised (1998) that Houellebecq caused a great uproar in the literary field. There is a strong autobiographical element in the book, and the author's own voice and experiences shine through the narratie. Atomised is the story of two half-brothers, Bruno and Michel, who are abandoned by their parents and grow up apart from each other. Bruno is a hedonistic lustseeker and Michel is a very structured, systematic scientist in the field of molecular biology. Despite their obvious differences, the men share an inability to form relationships with others. Both are a bit socially inadequate and screw up the few chances for relationships that come their way.

The parents in Atomised are from the so-called "hippie generation," and through these characters, Houellebecq demonstrates how fake and empty--and even vicious--he believes the "let's all join hands" movement to have been. He characterizes the movement as self- and sex-obsessed. When I read the passages about the hippies I could not help but laugh out loud. His criticism is disguised in pornographic satirism, which works out to be very funny, but he is dead serious about it. I must admit I have found it one of the most original ways to describe this era, not the usual crusty envy of people who would have loved to enjoy all the available free love.

It is for this criticism of the "hippie" movement that Houellebecq is called a reactionary. He maintains that no good has ever come from this movement, and he uses the lives of the two half-brothers to demonstrate his beliefs. The men are filled with voids and the reader feels sorry for the lack of parental love in the brothers' lives. According to Houellebecq, the world we are living in as a result of this movement is an empty one lacking in morality, honest human nature and compassion. Houellebecq sketches for us the inevitable doom that is to become of our society. This doom can be lifted only by a new breed of humans created by cloning. Hellebecq makes clear that he is pro-genetic engineering, something that caused even more controversy in literary and intellectual circles. Yet this is contrary to what one might expect from a reactionary, and illustrates the difficulty in categorizing Houellebecq and his work.

Atomised is filled with interesting views and opinions but is not a book for the easily offended or insulted because of its explicit themes.

I do find Houellebecq's books controversial, but we live in a controversial era where unheard-of things happen. The themes he writes about influence us all and he sends us a message that in fact we live in a time where there is little honest love and hardly any compassion left at all. Sometimes a message has to be loud and clear to be received, and I am beginning to hear it. Enfant terrible? Yes, no, maybe a little, but worthwhile reading in any case.