Book Review: Whatever (1994) by Michel Houellebecq

(The title in French: Extension du domaine de la lutte, literally "extension of the domain of struggle")

Disgusting

This book is disgusting in every possible way.

I literally couldn't read this book and eat at the same time because the feelings of disgust clashed so much with my appetite.

The narrator is simultaneously:

• Disgusted by the sight of people around him interacting in sexual/romantic ways - he constantly interprets the happiness and romantic encounters of others around him as some kind of personal affrant
• Disgusted by his own appearance - he keeps comparing the men around hiim to himself and assesses them on the most superficial dimensions
• Disgusting by virtue of his habit of sexualising women around him in the manner of some kind of lecherous creep - he says insane creep shit all the time as part of his internal narrative

This book is about being disgusted by the sight of others going about their ordinary lives.

Incredible

The most incredible thing about this book is that it was published in 1994.

It perfectly captures what I can only describe as an incel mentality. All the things I think of as part of incel mentality are here:

• The obsession with looks as defining the sexual status of both men and women. Often this is coupled with a belief that looks/attractiveness cannot be changed unless through extreme measures.
• The obsession with looks/attractiveness inequality, with the primary frame being the comparative looks of people around you
• The belief that aging and the loss of sexual attractiveness as destroying the value/dignity of a person (Note the obsession with "hitting the wall" etc.)
• The belief that this sexual inequality is structural, and arises out of the ability of individuals to make (self-interested) choices
• That this leads to a dramatic numerical inequality in the number of sexual partners, which is to be understood as relatively new phenomenon (Note the incel obsession with body count)
• That it requires the resolution of some larger force to break the competition that we are apparently trapped in, in the same way that anti-capitalism seeks to break capitalist competition. (Note the demand for government-issued gf)
• The interpretive frame that normal people going about their normal lives as therefore being some kind of malicious display of superiority over the traditionally passive observer

It's just totally incredible that Michel Houellebecq wrote this in 1994, in France, and somehow, 30 years later there are weirdos on the internet who think like this who have managed to form a community around it:

It’s a fact, I mused to myself, that in societies like ours sex truly represents a second system of differentiation, completely independent of money; and as a system of differentiation it functions just as mercilessly. The effects of these two systems are, furthermore, strictly equivalent. Just like unrestrained economic liberalism, and for similar reasons, sexual liberalism produces phenomena of absolute pauperization. Some men make love every day; others five or six times in their life, or never. Some make love with dozens of women; others with none. It’s what’s known as ‘the law of the market’. In an economic system where unfair dismissal is prohibited, every person more or less manages to find their place. In a sexual system where adultery is prohibited, every person more or less manages to find their bed mate. In a totally liberal economic system certain people accumulate considerable fortunes; others stagnate in unemployment and misery. In a totally liberal sexual system certain people have a varied and exciting erotic life; others are reduced to masturbation and solitude. Economic liberalism is an extension of the domain of the struggle, its extension to all ages and all classes of society. Sexual liberalism is likewise an extension of the domain of the struggle, its extension to all ages and all classes of society.