Whatever (novel): Difference between revisions

Like most of Houellebecq's novels, it is written in a darkly humorous style, and contains sharp criticisms/observations of the widespread social atomization, materialism and consumerism he implies is a result of modern Capitalism and Liberalism.  The novel was likely influenced by the writings of the French Marxist Sociologist [[Michel Clouscard]], who has proposed similar arguments, and who has notably critiqued the sexual revolution from a leftist perspective, by portraying it as the product of a late-stage "seductive capitalism", that aims to promote consumption and distract the exploited class from their economic oppression by promoting hedonism and sexual license.<ref> https://philitt.fr/2019/02/28/le-capitalisme-selon-houellebecq-une-lutte-perpetuelle-qui-ne-peut-jamais-avoir-de-fin-1-3/ In French.</ref> Clouscard has also criticized modern Feminism as functionally being a Capitalist tool that facilitates the economic exploitation of men by women.  He argues that it has served to divide the working class against itself (by agitating women against men, through labeling all men as oppressive "Phallocrats") in what he has dubbed "The prostitution economy."<ref> http://www.marxisme.wikibis.com/michel_clouscard.php  In French.</ref>

Its acknowledgement of a social hierarchy as being instinctive to human sexuality makes it arguably the most [[Blackpill|blackpilled]] novel in history.<ref>https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/whatever-1994-by-michel-houellebecq-a-superb-declaration-of-hostilities-1.3919923</ref>