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Like most of Houellebecq's novels, it is written in a darkly humorous style, is highly offensive and vulgar at times, and contains sharp criticisms/observations of the widespread social atomization, materialism and consumerism he implies is a result of modern Capitalism and Liberalism. Its acknowledgement of a social hierarchy as being instinctive to human sexuality makes it arguably the most [[sexual realism|sexual realist]], arguably [[blackpilled]] novels in history.<ref>https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/whatever-1994-by-michel-houellebecq-a-superb-declaration-of-hostilities-1.3919923</ref> | Like most of Houellebecq's novels, it is written in a darkly humorous style, is highly offensive and vulgar at times, and contains sharp criticisms/observations of the widespread social atomization, materialism and consumerism he implies is a result of modern Capitalism and Liberalism. Its acknowledgement of a social hierarchy as being instinctive to human sexuality makes it arguably the most [[sexual realism|sexual realist]], arguably [[blackpilled]] novels in history.<ref>https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/whatever-1994-by-michel-houellebecq-a-superb-declaration-of-hostilities-1.3919923</ref> | ||
== Synopsis == | == Synopsis == | ||
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*[...] '''Help yourselves.' No other word was uttered; each person chewed his food. Sometimes one of the inmates was overcome by a fit of trembling, or began to sob; he went back to his room, and that was that. The idea gradually dawned on me that all these people - men or women - were not in the least deranged; they were simply lacking in love. Their gestures, their attitudes, their dumb show betrayed an excruciating craving for physical contact and caresses; but that wasn't possible, of course. So they sobbed, emitted cries, lacerated themselves with their nails; during my stay we had a successful attempt at castration.'' <ref>Michel Houellebecq, ''Whatever'', 1994, translation by Paul Hammond, 1998, Part Three, Chapter 5: ''Venus and Mars''.</ref></blockquote> | *[...] '''Help yourselves.' No other word was uttered; each person chewed his food. Sometimes one of the inmates was overcome by a fit of trembling, or began to sob; he went back to his room, and that was that. The idea gradually dawned on me that all these people - men or women - were not in the least deranged; they were simply lacking in love. Their gestures, their attitudes, their dumb show betrayed an excruciating craving for physical contact and caresses; but that wasn't possible, of course. So they sobbed, emitted cries, lacerated themselves with their nails; during my stay we had a successful attempt at castration.'' <ref>Michel Houellebecq, ''Whatever'', 1994, translation by Paul Hammond, 1998, Part Three, Chapter 5: ''Venus and Mars''.</ref></blockquote> | ||
==Potential Influences== | |||
The novel has been argued to have been influenced by another French critic of sexual liberalism, [[Michel Clouscard]], who explored similar ideas, but with an ultimately different train of thought. Clouscard notably critiqued the sexual revolution as aiming to distract the working class from their economic poverty by promoting a range of romantic choice not within the reach of most of the working class.<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 indirectly criticized feminism as consumerist and a distraction through his critique of the sexual revolution. | |||
Clouscard described the liberalized sexual marketplace being chiefly the domain of what is known is classical Marxist theory as the exploiter classes, namely the bourgeois and the Capitalists, whereas Houellebecq's characters described the sexual marketplace as all-encompassing. In other words, Clouscard focuses on classical materialist Marxist economics, and sees the values pursued in the sexual revolution and the French student uprising in May 1968 as a distraction, whereas Houllebecqs characters directly blame the sexually successful and are often wealthy themselves. However, both Clouscard and and Houllebecqs characters describe sexual license as something less within the reach of the masses than it is promoted. Clouscard argued that sexual liberalism 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> | |||
==Criticism== | ==Criticism== | ||