Whatever (novel): Difference between revisions

The novel was likely (somewhat) influenced by the writings of the French Marxist Sociologist [[Michel Clouscard]], who at least explored similar ideas, but with a different train of thought.  Clouscard notably critiqued the sexual revolution as aiming to distract the working class from their economic poverty by promoting an inaccessible market of desire.<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> There exists (shallow) debate over whether Houellebecq thinks that sexual relations can even have a positive effect on society at all because of mixed signals on his attitudes toward romance and sex in his books.  Clouscard indirectly criticized feminism as transactional and consumerist.  Cloudcard described the sexual marketplace being entirely the domian of rich people, whereas Houellebecq's characters described the sexual marketplace as all-encompassing.  Feminism was simply another example of things being allowed, but not possible.  Clouscard argued 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>