This is a very interesting interview. He is the French guy who is controversial in case you forgot.
Iggy Pop is a big fan. Incidentally, I saw Iggy Pop at a gig in Paris in the 80s. Cosmic coincidence eh?
Michel Houellebecq interview at Paris Match >
There are some great quotes:
Pensées of Pascal. I was terrified by this passage:
“Imagine a number of men in chains, all under sentence of death, some of whom are each day butchered in the sight of the others; those remaining see their own condition in that of their fellows, and looking at each other with grief and despair await their turn. This is an image of the human condition.”So what made you write your first novel, Whatever, about a computer
programmer and his sexually frustrated friend?“I hadn’t seen any novel make the statement that entering the workforce was like entering the grave. That from then on, nothing happens and you have to pretend to be interested in your work.”
“I’m not sure that there are such an unusual number of sex scenes in my novel.
I don’t think that’s what was shocking. What shocked people was that I
depicted sexual failure.”
Recommended. The Paris Match is a great website, so have a good look around.