Houellebecq's Anéantir
Review, Comments
Houellebecq on being a writer:
“ It is a question of “ taking upon oneself the negative, all the negative in the world, and painting it, so that the reader can be relieved by having seen this negative part expressed”.”
Translation from the piece “Avec “Anéantir”, Michel Houellebecq annonce la mort de la compassion”, January 2022, by Nathalie Crom on Télérama.
Impressions and Generalities
Some people said that the novel was poignant; others wrote that it was unsparing, that the whole story got submerged with metaphysical speeches and melancholic allures… I thought that the novel was slow, not slow as a train, but slow to digest, difficult to chew, and yet essential for intellectual nourishment.
I happened to think that it was painful and draining to read. I knew the psychology of the characters. I knew what they wanted. I had contempt for some, disdain for others. It is only gradually, going through the pages and sometimes the odd visuals, that I realized that the novel asked me something. It did not ask me to see further or to understand the torments of modern human nature, but to have some compassion and empathy for it. Houellebecq has Balzacian demands.
The pessimistic nature of the novel aims to expose the precious, something that all the characters, from the reasonable to the craziest, seek in themselves and in others, a fragile thing that mysteriously unites them: compassion. Compassion as Rousseau imagined it. A natural feeling, the most natural and fundamental feeling, the only feeling that makes any social contract possible, and yet the one we immensely today struggle to feel for others. Ideologies make it hard. As if Houellebecq was trying to predict the dissolution of our societies if we continue on this path.
One should also keep in mind that Houellebecq is an avid reader of Schopenhauer and compassion is a central theme of his philosophy on ethics and morality. “Compassion is the basis of morality,” said Schopenhauer in the Basis of Morality (1840, Ueber die Grundlage der Moral). Indeed, the society Houellebecq depicts is a hyper moralized society, with individuals devoted to virtue-signaling, but it is without compassion. Ugly would not be the right word to describe it. The proper description would be: soulless.
Whether in Serotonin or The Elementary Particles, Houellebecq is the Great writer of love and compassion of our contemporary times. He had already diagnosed how love can bring us closer to the divine in a society that denied God. This time, he explains how it brings us closer to ourselves, in a world where we no longer know how to define ourselves, where we are in a perpetual conflict with how others define us.
In a society chained to the tyranny of the future, where one needs to pursue a career, where one dreams of finding the right moments to shine, Houellebecq reminds us of the present. He highlights the prices to pay for such ambitions: the sexual misery, the stupidity of mundane conversations, the brainlessness of political discussions, and above all, the sadness. A sadness that gets incorporated into habits to inhabit the souls. A sadness often expressed, but because there are no ears, the characters often just swallow it, move to something else, and remain deeply frustrated. This is the essence of the complexity of the modern world. In its determination to make us communicate, to say everything, to reveal everything, to unpack everything, sadness becomes only a small detail, an unnecessary and annoying one.
Furthermore, one can notice the impotence of the different characters such as Bruno Juge, Paul Raison, or Prudence. By projecting us to 2027, Houellebecq shows how even if the characters are masters of their professional and personal choices, they are often slaves to them. They are always powerless, each in their way. No one can triumph over modernity.
The novel is also a novel of intrigue, especially political intrigue. The particularities of the personal devilries take on their meaning because the story is also a story of espionage. Indeed, Houellebecq used Bruno Le Maire and Carrie-Anne Moss’ Matrix persona, as inspirations. Also, he included some political figures like Eric Zemmour and the common reactions when he is mentioned:
“ “I really had a hard time with the Zemmour editorials,” she continued, as if in saying this, she was performing a meritorious act of civic courage.
"Zemmour, he's a bastard" intervened briefly Godefroy before diving back into Ragnarok Online.”
Translated from page 130, Anéantir, Houellebecq.
Concerning the themes discussed, Houellebecq tackled them smoothly. Ranging from nihilism to asexuality or sexuality. Houellebecq did not need much to do so, it was an effortless task, he only needed to make the characters speak, as if he liberated them. The challenge, was to make us feel compassion seeing them trapped in their conflicting desires.
On the Style
Houellebecq’s style for this novel is monotonous, often descriptive, sometimes vulgar, to mark the tone or reveal the ineffable. Some passages are similar to Georges Perec’s A Void (1969).
Houellebecq does not have one register. He changes it depending on the context, to guide the reader, to help him discern the true from the false, the superficial from the deep. Houellebecq also highlights the sacred, be it only symbolically, even if stripped of its substance. There are things the characters do not and cannot say. Moreover, because the novel is long, it is easier to feel comfortable with the subjects raised and the discussions held.
Examples :
“Madeleine was alone waiting for them when he parked the van in the yard, but Paul and Hervé left the house almost immediately. Paul was pushing an premium wheelchair he had bought the day before, waiting for the custom-made model to arrive.”
Translated from page 280, Anéantir, Houellebecq
“He had really been fucked by that bitch, he told himself, he had been fucked hard, down to the bones.”
Translated from page 265, Anéantir, Houellebecq
Favorite quotes
“ Our heroic or generous deeds, all that we have succeeded in accomplishing, our achievements, our works, none of this has the slightest value in the eyes of the world anymore — and, very quickly, has no value in our own eyes. We thus remove all motivation and all meaning from life; this is, precisely, what is called nihilism.”
Page 267, Anéantir, Houellebecq.
“ For Christians, the elected would wake up in the dazzling light of the new Jerusalem, but deep down, Paul did not wish to contemplate the glory of the Eternal, he especially wanted to sleep,...”
Page 440, Anéantir, Houellebecq.
“ Injecting oneself with a morphine bolus and finding oneself at peace with the world, enveloped in a halo of sweetness, it's like an artificial love shot that one can do at will.”
Page 438, Anéantir, Houellebecq.
“ A judge father in Versailles, a main residence in Ville-d'Avray, a vacation home in Brittany, schooling in Sainte-Geneviève, then Sciences Po and ENA, there was basically nothing surprising that Prudence became asexual and vegan.”
Page 314, Anéantir, Houellebecq.
“Houellebecq does not have one register. He changes it depending on the context, to guide the reader, to help him discern the true from the false, the superficial from the deep.”
Very well put. It can be jarring at times, but it’s good to think of his various “registers” as clues, or at least “content” itself.