Plateforme

Published: March 16th 2025 (week 11 of 2025)

So far, all of Houellebecq's novels I have read follow the same basic plot. Plateforme is not really any different to Les Particules élémentaires, and even in Extension du domaine de la lutte one can see the same pattern—although in a raw, experimental form.

In the first act, we meet the main character: disillusioned with life and resigned to just passively drifting through existence. It is a bleak, monotone, and monochrome existence.

Then, he meets a woman, and suddenly his life comes alive. He experiences happiness, becomes willing to take initiative, finds inspiration to actively be and do instead of just passively existing and mechanically repeating.

In the third act, something happens that takes the woman away. At the very moment of her disappearance, the main character breaks. The loss destroys him, even if he manages to carry on existing—though in an even more mono state than during the opening act. The end result is functionally equal to dying.

Taking a book written by Houellebecq book in hand and deciding to read it, one knows what to expect at this point. Resigned nothingness, warm happiness, and dreadful, debilitating loss; in exactly this order. Whatever you say or think about him, Houellebecq is quite ingenious - always telling the same story on the emotional level, but making it appear different on the rational one.

There is no question about his books dripping with misanthropy, they absolutely do. However, I would question the assessment that Houellebecq is committed to hate. Looking at how half-hearted the attempts at hate his characters make are, and how clear are his descriptions of longing, loss, and love I am inclined to say Houellebecq stands much closer to the latter. Nevertheless, it is a twisted relationship.

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