Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Vintage (2001), Edition: Soft Cover, Paperback, 272 pages
Description
An international literary phenomenon, The Elementary Particles is a frighteningly original novel–part Marguerite Duras and part Bret Easton Ellis-that leaps headlong into the malaise of contemporary existence. Bruno and Michel are half-brothers abandoned by their mother, an unabashed devotee of the drugged-out free-love world of the sixties. Bruno, the older, has become a raucously promiscuous hedonist himself, while Michel is an emotionally dead molecular biologist wholly immersed in the solitude of his work. Each is ultimately offered a final chance at genuine love, and what unfolds is a brilliantly caustic and unpredictable tale. Translated from the French by Frank Wynne.
Media reviews
35 livres cultes à lire au moins une fois dans sa vie
Quels sont les romans qu'il faut avoir lu absolument ? Un livre culte qui transcende, fait réfléchir, frissonner, rire ou pleurer… La littérature est indéniablement créatrice d’émotions. Si vous êtes adeptes des classiques, ces
De temps en temps, il n'y a vraiment rien de mieux que de se poser devant un bon bouquin, et d'oublier un instant le monde réel. Mais si vous êtes une grosse lectrice ou un gros lecteur, et que vous avez épuisé le stock de votre bibliothèque personnelle, laissez-vous tenter par ces quelques classiques de la littérature.
Quels sont les romans qu'il faut avoir lu absolument ? Un livre culte qui transcende, fait réfléchir, frissonner, rire ou pleurer… La littérature est indéniablement créatrice d’émotions. Si vous êtes adeptes des classiques, ces
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titres devraient vous plaire.De temps en temps, il n'y a vraiment rien de mieux que de se poser devant un bon bouquin, et d'oublier un instant le monde réel. Mais si vous êtes une grosse lectrice ou un gros lecteur, et que vous avez épuisé le stock de votre bibliothèque personnelle, laissez-vous tenter par ces quelques classiques de la littérature.
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Trotzdem sind die "Elementarteilchen" kein nihilistisches Buch, denn sie enthalten auch eine positive Utopie. Und die liegt - hier ist Houellebecq wertkonservativ im besten Sinne des Wortes - in der Moral und in der Liebe. Wenn es schon im sechsten Kapitel des ersten Teils heißt, es "ließe sich
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behaupten, daß eine Gesellschaft, die von den reinen Prinzipien der universellen Moral geleitet wird, ebenso lange besteht wie die Welt", dann wird der Vision des geklonten Menschen eine Existenzform gegenübergestellt, der man sich zumindest annähern kann. Diese positive Utopie ist auch anderen Episoden des Romans eingeschrieben, nicht zuletzt den beiden Liebesgeschichten, die gerade durch ihre Unzulänglichkeiten so ergreifen. Noch hat die "Kampfzone" sich nicht in alle Bereiche menschlichen Lebens ausgeweitet: "Mitten in der großen natürlichen Barbarei ist es den Menschen manchmal (wenn auch selten) gelungen, kleine, warme, von der Liebe besonnte Plätze zu schaffen. Kleine, abgekapselte reservierte Bereiche, in denen Intersubjektivität und Liebe herrschten." Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member JimElkins
Well, it seems there is hardly any point in contributing an other review here, when there are 88 reviews already on the site, and when so many people think "The Elementary Particles" is a "powerful," "unflinching" book.
I think it's weak: weaker than all of the models that the author attempts to
If you want genuine existential disorientation, read Sartre.
If you want intransigent, pithecoid hatred of the human condition, read Celine.
If you want a book that actually doesn't flinch in regarding death, try "Everyman."
If you want a protracted imaginative ventroliquism of motionless despair (like Michel's in this book), read "The Unnameable."
If you want raw, repetitive, compulsive, unsatisfying sexual excess, read de Sade. (Or Cathy Acker.)
If you want the thrill of a science-fiction ending in which humans are regarded as wonderful but primitive things of a happily discarded past, watch "Star Trek."
This is a pastiche of those authors, along with pinches of Sollers, Camus, and Artaud. The philosophizing asides are replete with clichés, and the supposedly astonishing scientific passages are clearly cobbled from popular magazines. If you find this novel shocking, you might consider just how immersed in the "endless middle classes" you really are: this kind of café existentialism is a trope of the middle class.
Houllebecq could write a strong novel, if he would allow himself to write the excoriating racist screeds that he attributes to one of his two principal characters. (A bet: I think he has written that kind of prose, but hasn't published it. Maybe he is also suffering from a bit of middle class timidity.)
I think it's weak: weaker than all of the models that the author attempts to
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emulate. If you want genuine existential disorientation, read Sartre.
If you want intransigent, pithecoid hatred of the human condition, read Celine.
If you want a book that actually doesn't flinch in regarding death, try "Everyman."
If you want a protracted imaginative ventroliquism of motionless despair (like Michel's in this book), read "The Unnameable."
If you want raw, repetitive, compulsive, unsatisfying sexual excess, read de Sade. (Or Cathy Acker.)
If you want the thrill of a science-fiction ending in which humans are regarded as wonderful but primitive things of a happily discarded past, watch "Star Trek."
This is a pastiche of those authors, along with pinches of Sollers, Camus, and Artaud. The philosophizing asides are replete with clichés, and the supposedly astonishing scientific passages are clearly cobbled from popular magazines. If you find this novel shocking, you might consider just how immersed in the "endless middle classes" you really are: this kind of café existentialism is a trope of the middle class.
Houllebecq could write a strong novel, if he would allow himself to write the excoriating racist screeds that he attributes to one of his two principal characters. (A bet: I think he has written that kind of prose, but hasn't published it. Maybe he is also suffering from a bit of middle class timidity.)
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LibraryThing member aaronbaron
Elementary Particles proved much, much better than I expected. In fact, my expectations were so joyfully smashed that I have difficulty recalling them. They probably incorporated Houellebecq’s reputation as a post-punk Sartre: abject, arrogant, melodramatic, and self destructive. In short, the
First and foremost, the book is incredibly funny. This came as a great shock to me. Houellebecq’s grim existentialist persona ill prepared me for such a sharp sense of humor, and meta fiction is a sententious tradition. Yet Houellebecq chose to illustrate one of the books key tenants, namely the contemporary culture of sexual liberation is incapable of producing enduring happiness, through the adventures of a character named Bruno, a horny middle aged civil servant trying desperately to get laid in a New Age compound. This is brilliant ground for satire, and Houellebecq has the genius to deliver it throughout his novel. In fact, he learned from the best, as the book makes clear that his literary mentor is none other than Aldous Huxley. To take lessons from the mature Huxley that authored the dystopian masterpiece Brave New World makes sense for a writer with Houellebecq’s interests, and he makes no attempts to hide this debt. But for Houellebecq to simultaneously emulate the young Huxley, the Huxley who wrote the hilarious Chrome Yellow and thereby brought the moldering English Country Manor satiric tradition into the 20th century, the same Huxley who inspired Evelyn Waugh, this comes as a delightful surprise. Forget post-punk Sartre, Houellebecq is the Huxley of the new millennium, coolly dissecting our values in order to reveal the absurdity that fuels them.
Secondly, Houellebecq’s insights are genuinely original and deeply troubling. Elementary Particles maintains that the sexual revolution of the later 20th century situates the ideal of perfect happiness in the virile physicality of youth. The book presents evidence, drawn variously and convincingly from popular culture, historical events, and biological research, supporting this theory. In a culture that worships youth, growing old is anthemia. We inevitably drift away from our own ideal, and we grow increasingly unable to recapture the storied delights of that ideal. Most of the characters in Elementary Particles are aging out of the only happiness they know, sexual fulfillment, and it is their doomed struggle to preserve this notion of happiness, in a desperate and crazed denial of biological fact, that constitutes the most wretched and humorous moments of the novel. Only one character, Michel, is not afflicted by this doomed quest, but the misery it produces around him leads him to search for a cure. Fortuitously, Michel is a gifted biologist, and his research in genetic manipulation ultimately leads to the displacement of the human race by a new, serene species who has no sexual drive and who reproduce via cloning. This is where science fiction crashes into the story, but like all good science fiction it functions as a potent mirror onto the present. The Elementary Particles contends that the only way to transcend human misery is to eradicate humanity itself. A difficult argument to accept, but also one that is not easily dismissed.
This unprecedented mixture of brilliant satire and disquieting analysis grabbed me by the collar and made me deeply appreciate this novel. Elementary Particles is an unflinching narrative about human misery, and it made me laugh out loud. Surely that is the sign of a great book.
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man sounded like a real ass. Also, Elementary Particles advertised many elements of meta fiction, my least favorite trend in contemporary writing. I cannot but despise fiction that hates itself, fiction that cannibalizes better fiction, fiction that aspires to that most pompous and derived of disciplines, critical theory. Remarkably, these fears were actually founded. Essentially a story about the none-too-soon demise of the human race, Elementary Particles does indeed wallow in angst and destruction, and true to classic meta fiction form, cold ruminative tracts of historical and sociological analysis continually intrude upon the story. Yet against all odds Elementary Particles is outstanding, a true pleasure to read. How could this be?First and foremost, the book is incredibly funny. This came as a great shock to me. Houellebecq’s grim existentialist persona ill prepared me for such a sharp sense of humor, and meta fiction is a sententious tradition. Yet Houellebecq chose to illustrate one of the books key tenants, namely the contemporary culture of sexual liberation is incapable of producing enduring happiness, through the adventures of a character named Bruno, a horny middle aged civil servant trying desperately to get laid in a New Age compound. This is brilliant ground for satire, and Houellebecq has the genius to deliver it throughout his novel. In fact, he learned from the best, as the book makes clear that his literary mentor is none other than Aldous Huxley. To take lessons from the mature Huxley that authored the dystopian masterpiece Brave New World makes sense for a writer with Houellebecq’s interests, and he makes no attempts to hide this debt. But for Houellebecq to simultaneously emulate the young Huxley, the Huxley who wrote the hilarious Chrome Yellow and thereby brought the moldering English Country Manor satiric tradition into the 20th century, the same Huxley who inspired Evelyn Waugh, this comes as a delightful surprise. Forget post-punk Sartre, Houellebecq is the Huxley of the new millennium, coolly dissecting our values in order to reveal the absurdity that fuels them.
Secondly, Houellebecq’s insights are genuinely original and deeply troubling. Elementary Particles maintains that the sexual revolution of the later 20th century situates the ideal of perfect happiness in the virile physicality of youth. The book presents evidence, drawn variously and convincingly from popular culture, historical events, and biological research, supporting this theory. In a culture that worships youth, growing old is anthemia. We inevitably drift away from our own ideal, and we grow increasingly unable to recapture the storied delights of that ideal. Most of the characters in Elementary Particles are aging out of the only happiness they know, sexual fulfillment, and it is their doomed struggle to preserve this notion of happiness, in a desperate and crazed denial of biological fact, that constitutes the most wretched and humorous moments of the novel. Only one character, Michel, is not afflicted by this doomed quest, but the misery it produces around him leads him to search for a cure. Fortuitously, Michel is a gifted biologist, and his research in genetic manipulation ultimately leads to the displacement of the human race by a new, serene species who has no sexual drive and who reproduce via cloning. This is where science fiction crashes into the story, but like all good science fiction it functions as a potent mirror onto the present. The Elementary Particles contends that the only way to transcend human misery is to eradicate humanity itself. A difficult argument to accept, but also one that is not easily dismissed.
This unprecedented mixture of brilliant satire and disquieting analysis grabbed me by the collar and made me deeply appreciate this novel. Elementary Particles is an unflinching narrative about human misery, and it made me laugh out loud. Surely that is the sign of a great book.
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LibraryThing member Widsith
Another author in that very French intellectual tradition which seems to confuse being cynical with being profound. The basic thesis is that humans are risible and worthy of our hatred, and that interpersonal relationships are a despicable delusion. Some of this is illustrated with neatly-done set
There are some moments of wit, but in general the prose style is merely functional. I think this is supposed to be cleverly ‘scientific’ but I found it only uninteresting.
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pieces, other parts are more didactic. The novel shows a consistent disgust for human bodies and sexuality which I thought rather juvenile.There are some moments of wit, but in general the prose style is merely functional. I think this is supposed to be cleverly ‘scientific’ but I found it only uninteresting.
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LibraryThing member mrtall
Atomised is a beautifully-written treatment of one of the harshest messages in contemporary fiction.
It’s the story of half-brothers (their slatternly hippie mother is their common progenitor) who are formed by the emotional paucity of their upbringing (each of their fathers abandons them), but
Houellebecq charts the lives of these two damaged specimens through a combination of conventional narrative and faux-scientific third-person analytic reportage, in which the two men are discussed in a tone usually reserved for fruit flies and vivisected rats.
But this is a powerful book. Although it’s hard to read at points – both for its brutal, ugly depictions of debased sexuality, and for its profound sadness – it rewards attention.
Atomised is the first draft of a suicide note for western civilization. I can only hope enough people read it with open eyes and minds in time to stave off its potential consummation.
It’s the story of half-brothers (their slatternly hippie mother is their common progenitor) who are formed by the emotional paucity of their upbringing (each of their fathers abandons them), but
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who turn out as polar opposites in many ways. Michel is a scientist; he’s reserved, emotionally cold – almost an automaton. Bruno, on the other hand, tries to assuage his wounds through rampant sex; although he’s drawn mercilessly as a sexual inadequate, he’s never the less obsessed with the act.Houellebecq charts the lives of these two damaged specimens through a combination of conventional narrative and faux-scientific third-person analytic reportage, in which the two men are discussed in a tone usually reserved for fruit flies and vivisected rats.
But this is a powerful book. Although it’s hard to read at points – both for its brutal, ugly depictions of debased sexuality, and for its profound sadness – it rewards attention.
Atomised is the first draft of a suicide note for western civilization. I can only hope enough people read it with open eyes and minds in time to stave off its potential consummation.
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LibraryThing member thorold
We all know that there are three things the French are really good at: philosophy, cookery, and sex. This book tells you very little about cooking, but it does establish a serious claim to French excellence in the field of obsessive masturbation, an event in the sexual olympiad that was previously
Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for this, but it didn't really work for me. Houellebecq's satirical dissection of the flaws of late-20th century materialism is penetrating and occasionally very funny, but his notion of tying this in with ideas from fundamental physics and biotechnology to construct some kind of grand theory of humanity (presumably also meant satirically) felt rather bolted-on, and didn't make all that much sense. It's all a bit like Mulisch and The Discovery of Heaven — the knowledge that the 20th century was about to end seems to have pushed all sorts of otherwise quite respectable writers into the notion that they were going to write the Great Y2K Novel. (The comparison with Mulisch isn't confined to the millenarian aspects: Houellebecq turns out to be almost as nasty to his female characters as Mulisch is.)
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dominated by American and British novelists. But Houellebecq's Bruno puts Brian Aldiss's Hand-Reared Boy and even Roth's immortal Portnoy into the shadow as a wanker: I think we have a new champion... Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for this, but it didn't really work for me. Houellebecq's satirical dissection of the flaws of late-20th century materialism is penetrating and occasionally very funny, but his notion of tying this in with ideas from fundamental physics and biotechnology to construct some kind of grand theory of humanity (presumably also meant satirically) felt rather bolted-on, and didn't make all that much sense. It's all a bit like Mulisch and The Discovery of Heaven — the knowledge that the 20th century was about to end seems to have pushed all sorts of otherwise quite respectable writers into the notion that they were going to write the Great Y2K Novel. (The comparison with Mulisch isn't confined to the millenarian aspects: Houellebecq turns out to be almost as nasty to his female characters as Mulisch is.)
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LibraryThing member Abi78
The first time I read this book I was bowled over by its brilliance and moved to tears, I think becuse the characters are so flawed and so real. I could especially identify with Annabelle and was quite shaken by the similarity of a lot of her thoughts and feelings to my own.
However, a recent
Very strange.
However, a recent
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re-read left me fairly cold. I don't know why this is. Agreed, there's a lot in the book that's horrible (but that's never put me off before)and the science is most likely very dodgy, but I still can't really account for my changed reaction. Very strange.
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LibraryThing member stillbeing
I just finished reading this one yesterday, and I really enjoyed it, though I can't seem to put my finger on why. In some ways clinical, others humourous, and yet quite bleak and at times tragic, I found I couldn't quite second guess what was about to happen and it really kept me wanting to know
The main drawback, I think, was that both brothers could have been explored a lot more fully. It always felt that one was being highlighted to the neglect of the other, and I felt, at the end, that there was so much I still didn't know about the characters that I would have liked to have found out. I also would have liked to have known more about Bruno's ultimate demise, since we get to find out about everyone elses; he seemed to have been conveniently brushed aside at the end, which was a shame as he deserved a bit more finality.
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what was going to happen next. I don't often read when I get home from work, but I pulled this one out almost every evening, so that really says something.The main drawback, I think, was that both brothers could have been explored a lot more fully. It always felt that one was being highlighted to the neglect of the other, and I felt, at the end, that there was so much I still didn't know about the characters that I would have liked to have found out. I also would have liked to have known more about Bruno's ultimate demise, since we get to find out about everyone elses; he seemed to have been conveniently brushed aside at the end, which was a shame as he deserved a bit more finality.
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LibraryThing member klarusu
This is a brutal and explicit entry onto the 1001 Books List. Houellebecq uses a combination of detached, documentary style narration and crude, sexual narrative voice to recount the past and present lives of two brothers, Michel and Bruno, raised separately but sharing the same mother. The
Each individual character's history is recounted in a formulaic, scientific manner. It is as if the narrator is setting their current actions in the context of empirical data and study. It is an interesting approach but ultimately, it leaves the reader detached from the main characters. Bruno and Michel are like matter and anti-matter. Bruno is a crude, sexually motivated unsuccessful writer whilst Michel is an almost asexual scientific genius. In the passages detailing Bruno's life, the reader hears his literal voice and his narrative voice. For Michel, the description of his life is scientific. In Bruno, Houellebecq carries out an examination of sex - not love, not relationships but brutal, visceral sex. Ultimately we are led to believe, however, that these two brothers are equally damaged and this is exemplified in the mirroring of their final relationships with women.
It is the epilogue that really puts a new slant on the book. In the end, it leaves a question in the reader's mind: having laid the worst of humanity to bare, should we be willing to give it up easily in the pursuit of security. What price should we pay for a santised but physically and emotionally safe existence? Houellebecq best exemplifies his approach to this book when he describes a scientific technique:
"A Griffiths history is constructed from a succession of more or less random quantum measurements taken at different moments".
This novel is Bruno and Michel's Griffiths history. It is a book to stimulate thoughts and ideas but not a pleasure to read. It is certainly worth reading but not one of my favourites.
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alternation in styles maximises the 'shock factor'; although in modern writing, crudity has become commonplace, the apposition of styles employed here does go some way towards attaching a sense of novelty to it. It isn't a book for the faint-hearted.Each individual character's history is recounted in a formulaic, scientific manner. It is as if the narrator is setting their current actions in the context of empirical data and study. It is an interesting approach but ultimately, it leaves the reader detached from the main characters. Bruno and Michel are like matter and anti-matter. Bruno is a crude, sexually motivated unsuccessful writer whilst Michel is an almost asexual scientific genius. In the passages detailing Bruno's life, the reader hears his literal voice and his narrative voice. For Michel, the description of his life is scientific. In Bruno, Houellebecq carries out an examination of sex - not love, not relationships but brutal, visceral sex. Ultimately we are led to believe, however, that these two brothers are equally damaged and this is exemplified in the mirroring of their final relationships with women.
It is the epilogue that really puts a new slant on the book. In the end, it leaves a question in the reader's mind: having laid the worst of humanity to bare, should we be willing to give it up easily in the pursuit of security. What price should we pay for a santised but physically and emotionally safe existence? Houellebecq best exemplifies his approach to this book when he describes a scientific technique:
"A Griffiths history is constructed from a succession of more or less random quantum measurements taken at different moments".
This novel is Bruno and Michel's Griffiths history. It is a book to stimulate thoughts and ideas but not a pleasure to read. It is certainly worth reading but not one of my favourites.
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LibraryThing member Miguelnunonave
Just a pile of sleaze. Revolting characters. The glorification of perverted feelings and decadent ideas. One of the worst books I have ever read (through to the end) in French - somehow I still could not put it down. Incredibly depressing. Another contemporary French literary abortion.
LibraryThing member middled
I found this an outstanding book. It is not comfortable to read, but I can't think of a more incisive book I've read this decade (what does that mean?) . . . I don't have the words. I agree it's 'unmissable' as the hype says.
I've always been enthralled with the 1960s and all that went with it
It is unpleasant to agree with the ideas about western European society put forth here, as they are essentially negative. I couldn't disagree that they are put across very well however - and in a very accessible fashion.
Not because of any political slant, but because of the weight of ideas put forth, I can't think of it as anything but a good thing that a book like this became a bestseller.
I've always been enthralled with the 1960s and all that went with it
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(though born in 1980), the cultural history certainly. This book made me revise that quite seriously (possibly at an appropriate time of my life).It is unpleasant to agree with the ideas about western European society put forth here, as they are essentially negative. I couldn't disagree that they are put across very well however - and in a very accessible fashion.
Not because of any political slant, but because of the weight of ideas put forth, I can't think of it as anything but a good thing that a book like this became a bestseller.
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LibraryThing member atyson
I found the continual switching between accounts of the character's lives and cultural history didn't work for me. The change of tone was a bit incongruous and I felt like I would rather be reading one or the other. Also, there is a lapse into horror where the author seems simply to going for the
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jugular. There are lots of intriguing observations on sexual behaviour along the way. But the whole endeavour is finally mitigated by the last chapter and epilogue which puts all that has gone before into a chilling perspective. What started out to me seeming like a rather old-fashioned existential novel ended up a timely update on Brave New World. Show Less
LibraryThing member sbloom42
Michel Houellebecq's "The Elementary Particles" is a sci-fi tale turned inside-out. The bulk of the text tells the story of two step-brothers who share a mother and how their experiences with love, sex, and emotional pain lead towards an evolutionary leap for humanity. But the leap isn't the heart
There's a slim story written far in the future by the evolved race which wraps the main story. The wrapper story claims that the main story is the creation myth for the evolved race and that while it was written from source material, much of it may not be factual. I felt that this explanation helped redeem the monstrous aspects of some of the scenes in the main story. Maybe the characters aren't as flawed as the story makes them out to be, but because the evolved race portray themselves as gods made by inferiors, they had to exaggerate the flaws.
From the point of view of the wrapper story, I really enjoyed the idea that the creation myth was flipped on its head to be written from the point of view of gods created by imperfect beings. I also enjoyed that the standard sci-fi story was flipped on its head and told as relating what happened in the past instead of the future. Finally, I really liked how the mention of inaccuracies in the main text linked to the Biblical commentary within the text, and raised questions about the truth of the main story.
All in all I'd highly recommend this book, as long as you have a stomach for graphic sexual content and violence.
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of the story; the heart of the story is the loneliness and emotional pain that accompanies love and loss. There's a slim story written far in the future by the evolved race which wraps the main story. The wrapper story claims that the main story is the creation myth for the evolved race and that while it was written from source material, much of it may not be factual. I felt that this explanation helped redeem the monstrous aspects of some of the scenes in the main story. Maybe the characters aren't as flawed as the story makes them out to be, but because the evolved race portray themselves as gods made by inferiors, they had to exaggerate the flaws.
From the point of view of the wrapper story, I really enjoyed the idea that the creation myth was flipped on its head to be written from the point of view of gods created by imperfect beings. I also enjoyed that the standard sci-fi story was flipped on its head and told as relating what happened in the past instead of the future. Finally, I really liked how the mention of inaccuracies in the main text linked to the Biblical commentary within the text, and raised questions about the truth of the main story.
All in all I'd highly recommend this book, as long as you have a stomach for graphic sexual content and violence.
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LibraryThing member devdev365
Brilliant philosophical novel! -- Has something in common with Vonnegut's Galapagos -- both novels narrate a set of human failings that lead evolution down a non-human path to some sort of (arguably) utopian finale.
Michel and Bruno are two opposing sorts of "particles" which collide in the genius
Michel and Bruno are two opposing sorts of "particles" which collide in the genius
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of Michel to create a new philosophy of harmony and love. Show Less
LibraryThing member GarySeverance
After reading The Map and the Territory (2010), I was determined to read more of the work of Michel Houellebecq. I chose The Elementary Particles (1998) because it was mentioned frequently in social media. I thought it would be as interesting and entertaining as his most recent novel. I was not
The novel is a story of two half-brothers living in France, sharing a mother but fathered by two very different men. The family history is presented in a somewhat chaotic fashion in the first section of the book, “The Lost Kingdom.” The descriptions of the family development of Bruno and Michel are brief and loosely connected leaving the reader unsure of the strength of influence of the blood relatives. The two brothers live separately as children and do not meet until later in the novel. The first section is good because it is difficult to find any sort of systematic influence of social/environmental variables that determine the different adult personalities of Bruno and Michel. Both are phlegmatic, but Bruno is a low-key, extroverted hedonist while Michel is an introverted social isolate.
The Lost Kingdom section sets the stage for the main theme of the novel that begins to be played out in section two, Strange Moments. Largely through conversations the brothers have in brotherly meetings, their past and current lives are chronicled. The illusion of cause and effect in the lives of individuals suggests that we are pre-determined by key events (quanta) in our lives that are elemental and irreversible. The extension of this assumption is that if we just think rationally about peak events, we can gain control of and freedom from them. Much of our thinking is ‘reductionistic’ in the guise of insightful rumination: If only this had happened, If only I had done that. The problem the two brothers face is that there are no elementary particles of personal development, of thoughts or behaviors. When Bruno and Michel choose to focus on social variables from their pasts, they perceive patterns that they incorporate into their self-concepts. The consequences are for years, both miss the point of life, that elementary discrete particles of personality are actually inextricable components of social/cultural unfolding ‘waves.’ Key factors are woven into a continuous fabric from birth to death with nothing left out or isolated except in a person’s own mind.
In the third part, Emotional Infinity, Bruno, a secondary school teacher, keeps looking for the pleasurable factors that seem to be missing in his life as he obsessively seeks sexual activity and elusive pleasure. Michel, a biophysicist keeps looking for elementary physical particles that determine the ontology of the human being. Working on the implications of the scientific description of the human genome, he finds that even with cloning there is the possibility of mutations at the point of meiosis that are random when human sexuality takes its normal course. His idea is that sexual activity may be separated from human procreation, using a laboratory platform of meiosis that would eliminate the possibility of spontaneous mutation. Sexuality then is a minor factor that can be used for part of a person’s pleasure, while the manipulation of the human genome on a stable platform in the laboratory can be used for producing people who are free from certain diseases both mental and physical. This will not cause a revolution in human history but rather an evolution over a greatly extended time, as with all paradigm shifts.
“Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” was a phrase coined by social scientist, G. Stanley Hall. The fabric of life of the individual and the species is woven by continuous development in our total environment. The concepts of social isolation, key social stages, and physical space with infinitely small atomic and subatomic particles are delusions perpetuated by our desire for scientific answers. All of our subjective and scientific experiences in this world that we are conscious of or observe with instruments involve what Michel sees as an “interweaving” of all things. This is a comforting conclusion of continuity when we think of death as some sort of lonely event or qualitative gate to a better environment.
The Elementary Particles is a lovely novel that is a delusion in and of itself that I choose to perpetuate, as a persistent, continuous, false belief.
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disappointed.The novel is a story of two half-brothers living in France, sharing a mother but fathered by two very different men. The family history is presented in a somewhat chaotic fashion in the first section of the book, “The Lost Kingdom.” The descriptions of the family development of Bruno and Michel are brief and loosely connected leaving the reader unsure of the strength of influence of the blood relatives. The two brothers live separately as children and do not meet until later in the novel. The first section is good because it is difficult to find any sort of systematic influence of social/environmental variables that determine the different adult personalities of Bruno and Michel. Both are phlegmatic, but Bruno is a low-key, extroverted hedonist while Michel is an introverted social isolate.
The Lost Kingdom section sets the stage for the main theme of the novel that begins to be played out in section two, Strange Moments. Largely through conversations the brothers have in brotherly meetings, their past and current lives are chronicled. The illusion of cause and effect in the lives of individuals suggests that we are pre-determined by key events (quanta) in our lives that are elemental and irreversible. The extension of this assumption is that if we just think rationally about peak events, we can gain control of and freedom from them. Much of our thinking is ‘reductionistic’ in the guise of insightful rumination: If only this had happened, If only I had done that. The problem the two brothers face is that there are no elementary particles of personal development, of thoughts or behaviors. When Bruno and Michel choose to focus on social variables from their pasts, they perceive patterns that they incorporate into their self-concepts. The consequences are for years, both miss the point of life, that elementary discrete particles of personality are actually inextricable components of social/cultural unfolding ‘waves.’ Key factors are woven into a continuous fabric from birth to death with nothing left out or isolated except in a person’s own mind.
In the third part, Emotional Infinity, Bruno, a secondary school teacher, keeps looking for the pleasurable factors that seem to be missing in his life as he obsessively seeks sexual activity and elusive pleasure. Michel, a biophysicist keeps looking for elementary physical particles that determine the ontology of the human being. Working on the implications of the scientific description of the human genome, he finds that even with cloning there is the possibility of mutations at the point of meiosis that are random when human sexuality takes its normal course. His idea is that sexual activity may be separated from human procreation, using a laboratory platform of meiosis that would eliminate the possibility of spontaneous mutation. Sexuality then is a minor factor that can be used for part of a person’s pleasure, while the manipulation of the human genome on a stable platform in the laboratory can be used for producing people who are free from certain diseases both mental and physical. This will not cause a revolution in human history but rather an evolution over a greatly extended time, as with all paradigm shifts.
“Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” was a phrase coined by social scientist, G. Stanley Hall. The fabric of life of the individual and the species is woven by continuous development in our total environment. The concepts of social isolation, key social stages, and physical space with infinitely small atomic and subatomic particles are delusions perpetuated by our desire for scientific answers. All of our subjective and scientific experiences in this world that we are conscious of or observe with instruments involve what Michel sees as an “interweaving” of all things. This is a comforting conclusion of continuity when we think of death as some sort of lonely event or qualitative gate to a better environment.
The Elementary Particles is a lovely novel that is a delusion in and of itself that I choose to perpetuate, as a persistent, continuous, false belief.
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LibraryThing member thebadpandey
This is just a downright great book. I have a copy of platform my sister gave me but havent gotten to it yet. I have high expectations based on this one. And it isnt because I used to be a perverted molecular biologist!
LibraryThing member wouterzzzzz
Still not sure what to think of this book. The cover promises a book that your either love or hate, but I don't really have either of those. The book is intruiging, but at times hard to follow. There are some explicit scenen, but nothing too shocking. Maybe I have to read the book a second time to
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really appreciate (or hate) it :) Show Less
LibraryThing member rayski
Two step brothers meet in secondary school, lead very different lives, but are so similar in their isolation and inability to love.
LibraryThing member Eily
I disliked this novel quite a lot. It concerns two brothers, same mother, different fathers, and takes place from the late fifties to the eighties. The characters are not sympathetic, nor meant to be, I assume. One brother, Michel (guess who he is meant to be) is a mathematician and scientist, and
His brother, Bruno meanwhile is a simpleton who goes about looking for sexual excitement. He is not very successful, not surprisingly, for he seems to hate women intensely, while desiring their bodies to the exclusion of all other human feeling. Eventually, however, he falls in love with a woman who can fellate him satisfactorily, and who is as keen on ‘swinging’ sex as him.
There is much filth, only moderately enjoyable since it is seen through the eyes of such a negative character. Whatever Houllebecq was trying to do (and I really don’t know), he produced a novel full of non-affective sex, with almost no saving graces. It’s just a rather revolting puzzle on the whole.
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through him we get little disquisitions on various scientific advances throughout the period covered by the book (including genetic ones, which are quite interesting). But he is disengaged from the world and misses his one chance at love because of his lack of impetus. He can’t seem to act when he needs to, and so goes through life on the periphery of other people’s lives, while becoming quite a famous and feted scientist. His brother, Bruno meanwhile is a simpleton who goes about looking for sexual excitement. He is not very successful, not surprisingly, for he seems to hate women intensely, while desiring their bodies to the exclusion of all other human feeling. Eventually, however, he falls in love with a woman who can fellate him satisfactorily, and who is as keen on ‘swinging’ sex as him.
There is much filth, only moderately enjoyable since it is seen through the eyes of such a negative character. Whatever Houllebecq was trying to do (and I really don’t know), he produced a novel full of non-affective sex, with almost no saving graces. It’s just a rather revolting puzzle on the whole.
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LibraryThing member paulharryallen
A marvellous yet confusing book telling the tale of two brothers yet managing to include points about social structure and quantum physics.
LibraryThing member experimentalis
that was enough Houellebecq for me. Bad structure, bad prose, bad ideas. Only illiterate conservatives can like this poser
LibraryThing member dnewsome
Wow, a small book with huge ideas. Some of the information was a little hard to grasp my head around. Most especially the scientific information about Michel's research. All in all, it was an okay book. It had a very depressing view on life: all humans go through life trying to find meaning, we
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find ways to fill the void through marriage,love, children. When in the end you can't ever escape the emptyness. :( Show Less
LibraryThing member emmylee04
I kind of hated this book and yet I couldn't put it down. Every time I thought it was getting better, it got more and more depressing. It's anti-women, anti-religion, and anti-pretty much everything I'm all about... I'm just glad I got it out of the library instead of buying the darn thing. Why did
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I bother finishing it? I have no idea. Something about it made me care a little bit about the characters, only to be left with the most empty feeling at the end. Not recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member curious_squid
This book was a strange mixture of philosophy and science - "big ideas" with a tenuous plot that stretched over the characters lifetime and out and out porn.
The story often seemed an inconsequential way to move between ideas or long detailed descriptions of solo/group sex. Yet somehow the story of
Not sure the book jacket adequately described the book at all, but on further consideration, not sure this book CAN be sufficiently explained.
Definitely do not regret reading it.
The story often seemed an inconsequential way to move between ideas or long detailed descriptions of solo/group sex. Yet somehow the story of
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these people was still interesting enough and the ideas were so grand that I kept wanting to read, and see where it was all going.Not sure the book jacket adequately described the book at all, but on further consideration, not sure this book CAN be sufficiently explained.
Definitely do not regret reading it.
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LibraryThing member BarryU21
A great writer from France, underrated in the United States.
LibraryThing member isobeljane
I loved this book to the core. The author describes the world we live in as falling off the axis through debauchery and free for all/ no boundries ethics. Brilliant.
Subjects
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Winner — 2002)
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (Shortlist — 2001)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction — 2000)
The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
Language
Original language
French
Original publication date
1998
Physical description
272 p.; 5.19 inches
ISBN
0375727019 / 9780375727016
Other editions
Atomised by Michel Houellebecq (Hardcover)