Michel Houellebecq and Modern Tourism

By Otto Spijkers

Michel Houellebecq was born in 1958 on the French island Réunion, in East-Africa. His parents soon lost interest in him, and thus he was raised by his grandmother who lived near Paris; Houellebecq now lives in Ireland. Houellebecq reached world fame when he published Les Particules élémentaires (“Atomized”, published in 1998), a novel about two half-brothers who are detached from society in two different ways. This book was followed by Plateforme: au milieu du monde (“Platform”, 2001), about international tourism (more on this book below), and most recently La Possibilité d'une île (“Possibility of an island”, 2005), in which Houellebecq paints a picture of the future.

Houellebecq describes the detachment and lack of belonging often associated with present day life. In Plateforme, the book about modern tourism, Houellebecq writes:

Qu’avais-je, pour ma part, à reprocher à l’Occident? Pas grand-chose, mais je n’y étais pas spécialement attaché (et j’arrivais de moins en moins à comprendre qu’on soit attaché à une idée, un pays, à autre chose en général qu’à un individu). […] Je pris soudain conscience avec gêne que je considérais la société où je vivais à peu près comme un milieu naturel – disons une savane, ou un jungle – aux lois duquel j’aurais dû m’adapter. L’idée que j’étais solidaire de ce milieu ne m’avait jamais effleuré; c’était comme une atrophie chez moi, une absence. (Plateforme, p. 339.)

And thus, since there is no compelling reason for loyalty and attachment to one’s own country, modern individuals attempt to escape. Plateforme is really about people’s desire to flee their own community whenever they can:

Dès qu’ils ont quelques jours de liberté, les habitants d’Europe occidentale se précipitent à l’autre bout du monde, ils traversent la moitié du monde en avion, ils se comportent littéralement comme des évadés de prison. (Plateforme, p. 34.)

What these travelers are looking for is unclear. In any case, tourists always desire to keep a certain distance between themselves and the country they are visiting:

Comme tous les habitants d’Europe occidentale, je souhaite voyager. Enfin il y a les difficultés, la barrière de la langue, la mauvaise organisation des transports en commun, les risques de vol ou d’arnaque : pour dire les choses plus crûment, ce que je souhaite au fond, c’est pratiquer le tourisme. (Plateforme, p. 34.)

Moreover, tourists only show a distant interest in the struggles and difficulties of local life. The problem is that this is no different when these tourists return home; the distance always remains, and thus becomes the general condition, described by Houellebecq as follows:

Il se sentait séparé du monde par quelques centimètres de vide, formant autour de lui comme une carapace ou une armure. (Houellebecq, Les Particules élémentaires, p. 109.)

In the end, says Houellebecq, humans can only be attached to one other individual (partner), or a dog. Not to a community (a country), or an idea. His latest book, La Possibilité d'une île, ends with the description of a journey, undertaken by a future man together with his cloned dog, named Fox, to escape his detached existence and become a community-man again. He fails.

Michel Houellebecq and his dog.