I’m a perv. If I use lots of complicated sentences to describe my vacuity, I can make my shallowness a source of status within my “intellectual” circles.
Unfortunately these d I c k s are, increasingly, now setting the zeitgeist..
Highly graphic article, but somehow I have no idea what the message is.
By the way, if Bartle was in a corner office discussing banking issues, how did he recognise the face of the railee in a cubicle ?
wink, wink nudge nudge x
Besides, I happen to know that the volume of moaning is inversely proportional to the activity. It is compensatory. So the look on the railee was most likely disappointment.
A fine article about a subject I didn’t expect to enjoy.
I was particularly interested in the author’s discussion of transgressive fiction. Like many people, I’ve read some of Burroughs’ work. It’s dated but at least there is an element of authenticity. Much of what passes as transgressive fiction today seems contrived; it’s written by people living safe lives who’re trying to shock or perhaps establish their credentials as the next enfant terrible in the making. And of course it’s hard to be transgressive in an age where you can readily find some quite disturbing content on Netflix or other streaming services.
For me, transgression in the modern age lies in the precarity of middle class life here in America; the frightening ability for fortunes to turn almost overnight and tip individuals or families onto the street and a downward path they can’t escape.
I once paused next to an alleyway one evening next to a bar only to see a bloated woman, who might have been anywhere from thirty to sixty years old, her skirt hiked above her waist. She looked blearily at me and asked, “Is he done yet?” I wondered who could possibly find her sexually attractive? What did the person who paid for her services see in her? How and why did it make sense? Write honestly about that life from the perspective of someone who can’t escape that life, who has nothing more to look forward to. That seems transgressive enough to me, and I doubt Houellebecq would find much romance there, although Burroughs might.
I think we agree on the main point. Endlessly pushing the boundaries of sexual ethics is no longer transgressive. Trying to live a moderately moral life, in the cesspit our society is becoming, is to swim against the tide.
I didn’t find the article interesting. The authors and their output are part of the degeneration. They have little original to offer.
Houellebecq, unlike Bataille or Burroughs, is trying to see beyond the degradation and find hope and redemption.
Russell Hamilton
2 years ago
I thought Submission was a well written novel, but Serotonin was a bleak, tedious book – I’m not keen to read any more Houellebecq after that one!
‘Transgressive’ authors needn’t try so hard to be so serious and heavy: think of Lolita – an absolutely delightful book to read, which makes it all the more transgressive!
“He [Houellebecq] is a hopeless romantic in a world of excess, a sentimentalist in a time of tech-mediated spectacle.” Sort of like Barbara Cartland then?
So believing in genuine love is to be a sentimentalist (and snob) like Barbara Cartland ?
That’s the attitude Houellebecq is trying to demolish.
Diana Durham
2 years ago
I sometimes think that French writers. philosophers just need to cultivate cheerfulness.
Jonathan Nash
2 years ago
This kind of thing was done a long time ago by Lautréamont.
Martin Smith
2 years ago
What began with Homer, Theocritus, Virgil, Ovid and Horace ends here, with only the buggery and bestiality remaining.
Craig Verdi
2 years ago
Well, I would just as soon not hear any of. Continue as they may, I don’t need to hear about sodomy. It will always be here as in Sodom. But let’s move on to better topics.
Dermot O'Sullivan
2 years ago
Atomized is very good. Deep and ultimately, sad. His other books have been a slight disappointment for me.
Yawn
I’m a perv. If I use lots of complicated sentences to describe my vacuity, I can make my shallowness a source of status within my “intellectual” circles.
Unfortunately these d I c k s are, increasingly, now setting the zeitgeist..
It’s over your head Martin
Highly graphic article, but somehow I have no idea what the message is.
By the way, if Bartle was in a corner office discussing banking issues, how did he recognise the face of the railee in a cubicle ?
wink, wink nudge nudge x
Besides, I happen to know that the volume of moaning is inversely proportional to the activity. It is compensatory. So the look on the railee was most likely disappointment.
Ha ha I love the way you’ve decided your own fake orgasms are the measure of all sexual ‘pleasure’
Oh pleeeze.
Everybody knows that the best sessions take place in a frenzied silence
Only if the husband is within earshot.
With advancing years, loud wheezing also becomes a feature.
… followed by fulsome apologies.
How do your lovers know when your silence is the ‘frenzied’ kind and not because you’re too bored even to fake it?
Give me a glimmer. Has it somethimg to do with being bound over to keep the peace ?
“Railee” ha ha! My comment using the b word is still awaiting approval.
Your’e welcome. x
A fine article about a subject I didn’t expect to enjoy.
I was particularly interested in the author’s discussion of transgressive fiction. Like many people, I’ve read some of Burroughs’ work. It’s dated but at least there is an element of authenticity. Much of what passes as transgressive fiction today seems contrived; it’s written by people living safe lives who’re trying to shock or perhaps establish their credentials as the next enfant terrible in the making. And of course it’s hard to be transgressive in an age where you can readily find some quite disturbing content on Netflix or other streaming services.
For me, transgression in the modern age lies in the precarity of middle class life here in America; the frightening ability for fortunes to turn almost overnight and tip individuals or families onto the street and a downward path they can’t escape.
I once paused next to an alleyway one evening next to a bar only to see a bloated woman, who might have been anywhere from thirty to sixty years old, her skirt hiked above her waist. She looked blearily at me and asked, “Is he done yet?” I wondered who could possibly find her sexually attractive? What did the person who paid for her services see in her? How and why did it make sense? Write honestly about that life from the perspective of someone who can’t escape that life, who has nothing more to look forward to. That seems transgressive enough to me, and I doubt Houellebecq would find much romance there, although Burroughs might.
I think we agree on the main point. Endlessly pushing the boundaries of sexual ethics is no longer transgressive. Trying to live a moderately moral life, in the cesspit our society is becoming, is to swim against the tide.
I didn’t find the article interesting. The authors and their output are part of the degeneration. They have little original to offer.
Houellebecq, unlike Bataille or Burroughs, is trying to see beyond the degradation and find hope and redemption.
I thought Submission was a well written novel, but Serotonin was a bleak, tedious book – I’m not keen to read any more Houellebecq after that one!
‘Transgressive’ authors needn’t try so hard to be so serious and heavy: think of Lolita – an absolutely delightful book to read, which makes it all the more transgressive!
“He [Houellebecq] is a hopeless romantic in a world of excess, a sentimentalist in a time of tech-mediated spectacle.” Sort of like Barbara Cartland then?
So believing in genuine love is to be a sentimentalist (and snob) like Barbara Cartland ?
That’s the attitude Houellebecq is trying to demolish.
I sometimes think that French writers. philosophers just need to cultivate cheerfulness.
This kind of thing was done a long time ago by Lautréamont.
What began with Homer, Theocritus, Virgil, Ovid and Horace ends here, with only the buggery and bestiality remaining.
Well, I would just as soon not hear any of. Continue as they may, I don’t need to hear about sodomy. It will always be here as in Sodom. But let’s move on to better topics.
Atomized is very good. Deep and ultimately, sad. His other books have been a slight disappointment for me.
What exactly did was “deep” about Atomized? I must have missed something there.