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INDEX
Against the World, Against Life, 117
description of Lovecraftian cosmos, 105. See also Lovecraft, Howard Phillips
introduction to, 114
Althusser, 75, 77
American reception of Houellebecq, 13
atheism
atheistic humanism, 11, 76, 130, 1
35, 139
Daniel’s atheism in The Possibility of An Island, 20
Houellebecq on, 45, 129, 146 n. 7
Rediger on, 135–36
Bataille, 3
Baudelaire, 3, 142, 147 n. 7
Beauvoir, Simone de, 84
Bernanos, Georges, 144–45 n. 8
Bourdieu, 75
Bourget, Paul, 101
Burke, Edmund, 145–46 n. 1
Camus, 13, 77
Carnap, Rudolf, 22
Catholicism
Catholic renaissance, 101–3
Comte on, 90
conversion to Catholicism: in Submission, 129–30, 132; in The Map and the Territory, 102
decline of Catholicism, 31, 139; in France, 42–45
depiction of Catholic priests, 144–45 n. 8; in The Map and the Territory, 44; in Whatever, 31, 43–45
and Islam, 131
return to Catholicism, 16
Charlie Hebdo, 71, 122–23
Christianity
Comte on, 50, 94–95
decline of Christianity in Europe, 33–34, 46, 60, 135, 139
early, parallel with Elohimism, 64.
and Elohimism, 31, 35, 72
and Islam, 52, 73, 123
medieval Christianity, 88, 139–40
Saint-Simon on, 77, 86–89
similarities with Islam, 130
Claudel, Paul, 101
Comte, 33, 47, 95–97, 140
on the decline of Christianity, 50, 94–95
on eternal life, 49–50, 91
Houellebecq’s critique of Comte’s ideas about eternal life, 50–51, 91–92
law of the three stages, 89
perception of Catholicism, 90
on religion, 49
religion of humanity, 3, 16, 49–50, 78, 90
on rights, 92–93. See also Fourier
Viard on, 3
view of monotheism, 90
on women, 93–94
Coppée, François, 101–2
Dantec, Maurice, 3
D’Aurevilly, Barbey, 147 n. 7
Descartes, 22, 144 n. 2
Diderot, 78
Durkheim, 15
definition of religion, 47, 51
sacred and the profane, the, 59, 63–64
Duteurtre, Benoît, 3
Elementary Particles, The
Americanization, 8–10
Annabelle, 21, 37–38, 40, 104, 116
Annick, 21, 39–40
Asad’s theories of religion, as mise-en-scène of, 60
Bruno: on life after death, 39; sexual obsession, 37
Christiane, 36–37, 40, 82
Cruickshank on, 2
Desplechin, 12, 33
Djerzinski: on religion, 33; on women, 83, 93
escape from materialism, 29–30. See also materialism
Kakutani on, 13
Lieu du Changement, 36
meaning of use of quantum physics, 29. See also quantum physics
Meditations on Interweaving, 29, 87
Muray on, 105
and naturalism, 144 n. 1. See also Naturalism
Elohimism, 15–16, 97
disciplinary aspect of, 68–70
doctrine of, 61–63, 146 n. 2
and euthanasia, 58
immortality, 48, 61, 64–65
and Islam, 71–73
and materialism, 48–49, 52
parallel with early Christianity, 64
and positivism, 50
prophet of, 61, 64
and “religare,” 60–63
rise of, 31, 35, 48, 57, 79
and the sacred and the profane, 63–64. See also Durkheim
suicide ritual, 64. See also suicide
and the supernatural, 64–66
Engels, 77
Enlightenment, 133, 139–41
critique of, 135, 141
and the decline of Christianity, 94. See also Christianity
and Islam, 139. See also Islam
radical enlightenment, 78
shortcomings of, 17, 123, 140
euthanasia
of the elderly, 48, 57
and Elohimism, 58
legality of euthanasia, 144 n. 1
opposition to, 41–42. See also Schopenhauer
feminism, 6, 127
antifeminism, 3
and de Beauvoir, 84
and Fourier, 82
Sweeney on, 143 n. 1
Flaubert, 22. See also Realism
Foucault, 13, 75–76
Fourier, 14, 16, 77–78, 96–97, 146 n. 4
affinities with Saint-Simon, 89
on children and child-rearing, 84–85
on human rights, 85
and Marx, 95
on numerical organization of utopia, 85–86
on sexuality, 80–82
on women, 82–84
Frankfurt School, 136
Glucksmann, André, 76
Hegel, G. W. F., 22
Houellebecq (character), 17–18
conversion to Catholicism in The Map and the Territory, 102. See also Catholicism
humanism
atheistic humanism, 11, 76, 130, 135, 139
secular humanism, 73
Huysmans, Joris-Karl, 101, 134, 136
conversion to Catholicism, 129, 132. See also Catholicism
Interventions II
“Approches du désarroi,” 34
erotic hierarchy, 10, 80
“J’ai un rêve,” 91
“L’humanité, second stade,” 84
“Préliminaires au positivism,” 49
Proguidis, Lakis, 24, 30
Solanas, Valerie, 84, 93–94
Islam, 13, 52, 91
as alternative to atheistic humanism, 124. See also humanism
collapse of in The Possibility of An Island, 31, 35, 57, 73
conversion to, 17, 128, 132, 134–36
Elohimism as alternative to, 16, 72–73. See also Elohimism
“great replacement,” 135
Islamicization, 71, 100, 122
Islamic State, 141
Islamophobia, 17, 71, 123, 145 n. 6
Lévi-Strauss on, 71
medieval Islam, 140
and Positivism, 139
Quran, 71
similarity with Christianity, 130
Spinoza on, 71
“stupidest religion” comment, 71, 123
and women, 125, 127–28
Kant, 26, 92, 119
La Mettrie, Julien Offray de, 78
Lanzarote, 143 n. 6
Le Pen, Marine, 122, 131
Lévy, Bernard-Henri, 76, 143 n. 7
Littell, Jonathan, 3
Lovecraft, Howard Phillips, 143 n. 7, 146 n. 6
origins of materialist horror, 113–17
Maistre, Joseph de, 142
Maoism, 75–76
Map and the Territory, The
capitalism of the countryside, 16, 100
and Catholic renaissance, 102. See also Catholicism
Châtelus-le-Marcheix, 99
contents of fictional Houellebecq’s library, 95
conversion to Catholicism, 102. See also Catholicism
depiction of Catholic priests, 44. See also Catholicism
and evolution of Houellebecq’s work, 13, 16, 103
immigration, 13, 100
Martin’s final art project, 12, 104
Marxism, 11, 75–76, 89
Marx, 22, 76–78, 95
Marx and Fourier, 96
materialism
“age of materialism,” 11, 29, 60, 88
Bellanger on, 4
comparison with Islam, 71. See also Islam
and Elohimism, 48, 52, 56. See also Elohimism
Jeffery on, 5
materialist horror: and Lovecraft, 113–17; and moral secularization, 43, 45; and Pascal, 117–20; and sexual liberalism, 10; as experimental approach to
literature, 105; Houellebecq’s use of term, 143 n. 7; instances of, 105–9 (See also Whatever)
metaphysics of materialism, 87
and Newtonian mechanics, 29–30, 87
postmaterialism in The Elementary Particles, 29–30. See also The Elementary Particles
principal experimental condition of Houellebecq’s work, 22, 46
relation to: capitalism, 4, 8–12; suicide, 35–42 (See also suicide)
and Robespierre, 78–79
Maugham, Somerset, 103
Mauriac, François, 101
Millet, Richard, 3
National Front, 71, 122
Naturalism
and The Elementary Particles, 144 n. 1
and Huysmans, 129
literary, 143–44 n. 1
and Zola, 22
Neurath, Otto, 22
Nietzsche, 3, 22
Djerzinski on, 92
Houellebecq on, 93, 119
Nouveaux philosophes, 76
Pascal, 15, 17, 112–13
origins of materialist horror, 117–20. See also materialism
Péguy, Charles, 101
Platform
Colombani on, 109
Eldorador Aphrodite, 82, 97
erotic philanthropy, 82. See also Fourier
on Islam, 71–72, 91
Maslin on, 13
Robert, 14
sex tourism, 6, 82
Valérie, 72, 97
on Western sexuality, 110–12
political correctness, 3, 13
Positivism, 4, 14, 86, 89
in Brazil, 96
Houellebecq’s utopia as mise-en-scène of Positivism, 16
and Islam, 139
and materialism, 49. See also Comte
positivist catechism, 90. See also Comte
Possibility of An Island, The
Biblical structure, 3, 48, 145 n. 1
Esther, 14, 54–56, 58, 60
euthanasia, 48, 57, 64. See also euthanasia
“Future Ones,” 62, 69, 97
“human savages,” 57–58, 68, 70, 116
Isabelle, 53–54, 56, 61
“life story,” 57, 62, 69, 97, 116, 119
as mise-en-scène of Asad’s theories of religion, 60, 68–71,
Miskiewicz, 48, 64–65
Nazism, 53–54
prophet, 61, 64
Supreme Sister, 62, 68–69, 92
Updike on, 13
posthumanism, 13
comparison with prehumanism, 98
Morrey on, 2
posthuman clone society of The Possibility of An Island, 16
Public Enemies
Colombani’s review of Platform, 109
Houellebecq’s childhood encounter with Pascal, 118. See also Pascal