“Destroy”: Michel Houellebecq against apathy

Michel Houellebecq’s novel “Destroy” went on sale – the writer himself called it the last in his career. This is a mixture of family saga, political thriller and science fiction – the action takes place in the near future against the backdrop of the presidential campaign in France

A gang of hackers flooded the Internet with provocative videos. Short videos are accompanied by a set of geometric shapes – without requirements and intelligible messages. True, one video depicts the assassination of the French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Zhyuzh, the favorite of the upcoming presidential elections in 2027, in a frighteningly realistic way. Somewhere in nature, people in black mantles are executing a politician in the tradition of the Great French Revolution – on the guillotine.

The masters of visual effects sigh enviously – it is not clear how the attackers achieved such quality graphics: everything on the video seems to be real. But it’s definitely fake. Of course, fake – here he is, a potential presidential candidate. Bruno Zhyuzh is quite alive, healthy and constantly working – he even moved to a service apartment right in the building of the ministry, closer to the office. Paul Reason, the protagonist of the book and the Minister’s confidant, sees Bruno almost every day.

For Paul personally, the political scandal fades into the background when he learns that his own father had a stroke. The illness of the patriarch of the family briefly unites all the Resons under one roof – they have not spent so much time together for a long time. Digging through his father’s papers, Paul accidentally finds pictures with symbols from hacker messages mixed with some kind of satanic signs. Apparently, Rezon Sr., a retired intelligence officer, found out something about cyber attacks. And this discovery almost brought him to the grave.

Michel Houellebecq, winner of the Prix Goncourt (for the novel Map and Territory) and knight of the Legion of Honor, can be compared with Victor Pelevin. Both misanthropes and cynics, both remain in the top sellers for decades and retain the status of influential intellectuals. Both regularly made far-sighted predictions, and those came true.

However, Pelevin is already more of a chronicler – his latest books summarize and explain more than they prophesy. Welbeck successfully maintains his fame. For example, Serotonin (2019) is believed to have foreseen the scope of the yellow vest movement. “Destroy” (released at home in January 2022) looks at first glance like a prediction novel. Events unfold in France in the very near future, in addition to purely fictional characters, there are quite real ones. Critics recognize Emmanuel Macron in the outgoing president, Bruno Le Maire, the current Minister of Economy and Finance and friend of Houellebecq, in Bruno Jugé. On the pages of the book, under their own names, far-right politicians Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, Macron’s rivals in the 2022 elections, are also mentioned.

It is, of course, a game. Houellebecq consciously juggles genres, shifting from political thriller to near-science fiction with conspiracy theories. But it’s not that it strongly twists the “tabloid” intrigue – within this genre framework, a caustic family saga in the spirit of Jonathan Franzen is written in much more detail. This is the main plot, which, in turn, turns out to be a lazily disguised allegory. An allegory of what – a regular reader will understand immediately. The Eurosceptic and anti-globalist Houellebecq, of course, once again writes about the decline of Western civilization. It is no coincidence that he called “Destroy” his last novel – he is unlikely to be able to add anything else significant on the topic. Everything seems to be rotten in the French kingdom.

Local critics, with obvious relief, write about notes of tenderness in love lines – the old grumbler has finally found at least something good in the sublunar world. And they are deceived. Belated tenderness is the last refuge of losers, Welbeck is sure. The last surge of hormones on the eve of physical death. The Rezon family (the surname, of course, translates as “Reason”), following the rest of the civilized world, failed everything that was possible. No one was able to correctly prioritize in life, everyone failed in their careers, and as spouses, and as parents. Someone dried up feelings and got lost in intellectual chimeras. Someone has killed the Catholic god and now seeks solace in newfangled teachings – like the neo-pagan cult of Wicca.

The collapse of one single family deliberately rhymes with a socio-political crisis. The economy is growing, burning the middle class – soon there will be ultra-rich and ultra-poor. France has become an unsystematic cluster of urban agglomerations and “rural deserts”. The elections have finally degraded into a circus show – populist hypocrites, rightists stuck in the past, extremist radicals. Even the best of politicians – effective technocrats – do not see the people behind the numbers. But the most disgusting thing in modern Europe, according to Houellebecq, is apathy. We see almost all the events of the novel through the eyes of Paul – a smart man, even a good one, but indifferent to his fate and the fate of the world. Actually, this quality makes him a hero of his time.

Who these mysterious hackers are and what they want – Welbeck does not disclose, leaving room for interpretation. The most obvious reading—as in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet—is that the future itself has declared war on the bleak present. And the present doesn’t seem to mind. After all, the next rebirth will bring more happiness – this is what Wiccan dogma promises.