Friday, June 09, 2006
Cthulhu Discovers Sex Tourism
Move about Lovecraft: The curious should check out H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life by Michel Houellebecq, an essay by France's latest lit bad-boy published by the precious people over at McSweeney's. Houellenbecq's got a new book out, The Possibility of an Island, and it's his most Lovecraftian. Foregoing the sex safaris of his previous work, Houellebecq takes readers into a blasted future populated by a degenerate humanity. Hi-jinx ensue.
Houellebecq opens Against the World, Against Life with this salvo: "Those who love life do not read. Nor do they go to the movies, actually. No matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world." More here. Lovecraft's works are not those of a typical novelist seeking to explore, comprehend, and celebrate the world we live in. They are a condemnation and an escape, but not necessarily an escape to anything better (there isn't anything better). Houellebecq is also fascinated by Lovecraft's complete disinterest in the two great motivating forces of the 20th century, sex and money (in Houellebecq's previous novels, characters indulge in the pursuit of both, ad nauseum--their nauseum and ours). Excellent BookForum article here (though Stephen King's intro to the book is garbage). New York magazine review here.
Move about Lovecraft: The curious should check out H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life by Michel Houellebecq, an essay by France's latest lit bad-boy published by the precious people over at McSweeney's. Houellenbecq's got a new book out, The Possibility of an Island, and it's his most Lovecraftian. Foregoing the sex safaris of his previous work, Houellebecq takes readers into a blasted future populated by a degenerate humanity. Hi-jinx ensue.
Houellebecq opens Against the World, Against Life with this salvo: "Those who love life do not read. Nor do they go to the movies, actually. No matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world." More here. Lovecraft's works are not those of a typical novelist seeking to explore, comprehend, and celebrate the world we live in. They are a condemnation and an escape, but not necessarily an escape to anything better (there isn't anything better). Houellebecq is also fascinated by Lovecraft's complete disinterest in the two great motivating forces of the 20th century, sex and money (in Houellebecq's previous novels, characters indulge in the pursuit of both, ad nauseum--their nauseum and ours). Excellent BookForum article here (though Stephen King's intro to the book is garbage). New York magazine review here.
# posted by toner_low @ 10:08 AM 
