I wish Houellebecq was my psychiatrist and/or my literary mentor.

I found this picture on The writerly Physique
topless writers/naked poets! Amazing!

And what do you think of this Anglo-Saxon world?

You can tell that this is the world that invented capitalism. There are private companies competing to deliver the mail, to collect the garbage. The financial section of the newspaper is much thicker than it is in French papers.
The other thing I’ve noticed is that men and women are more separate. When you go into a restaurant, for example, you often see women eating out together. The French from that point of view are very Latin. A single-sex dinner would be considered boring. In a hotel in Ireland, I saw a group of men talking golf at the breakfast table. They left and were replaced by a group of women who were discussing something else. It’s as if they’re separate species who meet occasionally for reproduction. There was a line I really liked in a novel by Coetzee. One of the characters suspects that the only thing that really interests his lesbian daughter in life is prickly-pear jam. Lesbianism is a pretext. She and her partner don’t have sex anymore, they dedicate themselves to decoration and cooking. Maybe there’s some potential truth there about women who, in the end, have always been more interested in jam and curtains.

So what made you write your first novel, Whatever, about a computer programmer and his sexually frustrated friend?

I hadn’t seen any novel make the statement that entering the workforce was like entering the grave. That from then on, nothing happens and you have to pretend to be interested in your work. And, furthermore, that some people have a sex life and others don’t just because some are more attractive than others. I wanted to acknowledge that if people don’t have a sex life, it’s not for some moral reason, it’s just because they’re ugly. Once you’ve said it, it sounds obvious, but I wanted to say it.

What about marriage?

I think that there is a sharp contrast for most people between life at university, where they meet lots of people, and the moment when they enter the workforce, when they basically no longer meet anyone. Life becomes dull. So as a result people get married to have a personal life. I could elaborate but I think everyone understands.

What do you think is the appeal of your work, in spite of its brutality? 

There are too many answers. The first is that it’s well written. Another is that you sense obscurely that it’s the truth. Then there’s a third one, which is my favorite: because it’s intense. There is a need for intensity. From time to time, you have to forsake harmony. You even have to forsake truth. You have to, when you need to, energetically embrace excessive things. Now I sound like Saint Paul.

You have said that you are “cyclothymic.” What does that mean?

It means you go back and forth from depression to exultation. But in the end, I doubt I’m really depressive.

What are you then?

Just not very active. The truth is, when I go to bed and do nothing, I’m not badly off. I’m quite content. So it isn’t really what you would call depression.

But what stops you from succumbing to what you have said is the greatest danger for you, which is sulking in a corner while repeating over and over that everything sucks?

For the moment my desire to be loved is enough to spur me to action. I want to be loved despite my faults. It isn’t exactly true that I’m a provocateur. A real provocateur is someone who says things he doesn’t think, just to shock. I try to say what I think. And when I sense that what I think is going to cause displeasure, I rush to say it with real enthusiasm. And deep down, I want to be loved despite that.
Of course, there’s no guarantee this will last.

Love letter to Houellebecq

Houellebecq is somewhat of a literary phenomenon in France, and pretty much everywhere else. Curious to see what kind of skills got him to win the prestigious Prix Goncourt, I started 'La carte et le territoire' (the map and the territory), his latest book, earlier this year. I didn't finish it. It didn't have the scandal, and obscenity he was famous for... but mainly I was just a little bored.

But since I am in the Japanese mountains this holiday and I have nothing else to do but ski, stick to the 10 books and 40 dvds I've brought with me (there's a lot more space in my suitcase when heels are not involved)... I've given him another chance, with his first commercial success, Les particules élémentaires (the elementary particules/ or 'Atomised'). This is nothing short of a revelation to me... A sentiment of relief, I feel. Compulsive, essential reading - especially after what I've read recently (see previous posts ).

Houellebecq is a true novelist. He covers society as it is now, with all its realities and complexities - the way Balzac did so long ago, and I hadn't really found since. He uses scientific, philosophical, metaphysical, sociological and autobiographical tools to render a pessimistic portrait of the society left by our parents and grand parents, in which 30-something men are sick, depressed and impotent... ravaged by the sexual hedonism and feminism of previous generations. It's fiction as social commentary as there's almost no real 'plot' in 'Atomised'.

Ok it's also provocative and shocking. The New York Times called it a 'deeply repugnant read'. Many see it as hate-filled, sex crazed, nihilistic, disgusting book, so it's not for everyone.

But I really feel that Houellebecq is breathing new life into french literature, and this is obvz so inspiring.

I really enjoy his interviews as well (not the ones in which is racist comments land him in court). This one is great: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6040/the-art-of-fiction-no-206-michel-houellebecq. This bit reminded me that as a French teenager, obsessed with Verlaine, Baudelaire and Corneille (Le cid remains one of my favourite plays), I left prose on the side and spent most of 2003 writing in alexandrines! How ridiculous. Who did I think I was?!

And what about poetry?

I think poetry is the only domain where a writer you like can truly be said to influence you, because you read and reread a poem so many times that it simply drills itself into your head. A lot of people have read Baudelaire. I had the more unusual experience of reading virtually all of Corneille. No one reads Corneille, but I came across a little pile of classics, and for some reason, I loved it. I loved the alexandrine, the traditional twelve-syllable verse. When I was at university, I wrote quite a bit of classical verse in tetrameters, which appealed to the other poets. They said, Hey, that’s not bad. Why not write in classical verse? It can be done.

A constant refrain in your novels is that sex and money are the dominant values of this world.

It’s strange, I’m fifty years old and I still haven’t made up my mind whether sex is good or not. I have my doubts about money too. So it’s odd that I’m considered an ideological writer. It seems to me that I am mostly exposing my doubts. I do have certain convictions. For example, the fact that you can pay a girl, that I think is a good thing. Undeniably. An immense sign of progress.

You mean prostitutes?

Yes. I’m all for prostitution.

Why?

Because everybody wins. It doesn’t interest me personally, but I think it’s a good thing. A lot of British and Americans pay for it. They’re happy. The girls are happy. They make a lot of money.

How do you know that the girls are happy?

I talk to them. It’s very difficult because they don’t really speak English, but I talk to them.