The Map And the Territory by Michel Houellebecq

TITLE: The Map and the Territory
AUTHOR: Michel Houellebecq
READ: January
THOUGHT: Was excited to read this when I heard Houellebecq was setting a novel in the contemporary art world. Does this novel mark the beginning of a newer "mature" phase in Houellebecq's work? I think you can count the times he uses "cunt"/"pussy"/"cock" on two hands! Which is impressive. Definitely a much more laid-back, restrained Houellebecq on this one -- not so much emphasis on misanthropy and vitriol though the characters are as adrift and seemingly hopeless as ever. I really enjoyed this novel. Houellebecq is always a pleasure to read, even at his most belligerent.  I think this novel made me realize that Houellebecq is much more of a classical, conventional novelist than people want to give him credit for: he really knows how to write narrative, and he always creates a center for his characters in the text; they are always the most important aspect. What is also interesting is how Houellebecq builds on his own mythology by placing himself directly in the text -- there is an author named Houellebecq in the novel who has written all the same book as the IRL Houellebecq has, and also lives in Ireland; it is very funny/enjoyable watching Houellebeq (the real one) have so much fun. Houellebecq is also very clearly what I would call a social novelist -- his didacticism -- something that I've found somewhat distasteful in the past -- is a central part of his writing, and it is certainly informed by a voluminous background of 19th century social thinkers. It seems like Jed, the main character, in his attempts at giving somewhat unfiltered accounts of the existence of working people on the verge of the 20th century into the 21st resembles Houellebecq's own cataloging of 'the world as it is' -- and perhaps he shall be remembered for that as well. I think the problem with Houellebecq is that it is difficult for the reader to create distance between the bursts of proselytization in the text and how 'seriously' the IRL Houellebecq is beholden to these pronouncements on human culture. It seems to me, the more I read him, that Houellebecq is more mirroring the fragmented form of 'intellectual discourse' of the world by interpolating these chunks of human culture orientated criticisms into his narratives, and by doing this, he is more exposing the level at which 'people today' speak and think about things -- and this sometimes takes the form of very ugly, biased, misogynistic, racist, etc speech -- though in comparison to his other books I've read even that is toned down significantly in this one. Houellebecq has always reminded me of a hornier weirder Woody Allen sometimes -- he vacillates between being joyful and/or accepting of the 'condition' of being a human being today, in all of its contrivances and absurdities, but then frequently falls back into an overwhelming cynicism/nihilism. I feel that this books is much more hopeful than other Houellebecq texts I've read -- the only thing that awaits the characters is old age and death but I think Houellebecq is trying to suggest that, like the art work that Jed does in the book, and the work that Houellebecq does in the novel 'that's just what you have to deal with.' Really enjoyed reading this book, might go back and read some of the Houellebecq I haven't read yet.