The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ

that she counted over, barely moving her lips.
And he pulled and his mother resisted, knowing
very well what wings are worth

cobbled in the shade out of bits
of string and feathers from a comforter
and by how much they outweigh a man’s

hope on the winds’ scales,
she who already, how many times over,
behind the drawn blinds of her bedroom,

gave birth to Icarus screaming.
—marilyn hacker

Michel Houellebecq 1958–

réunion, france

O

ne of the best-known and most controversial of contemporary nov-

elists, Houellebecq has professed disgust for almost all the leading

movements in France since the 1960s. He has written passionately

against psychoanalysis, against the breed of socialism defined by the student

uprisings, and against the bureaucracy of the French university system. Sexual

liberation and materialism, he believes, have led to an unraveling of modern

society and account for the violence and despair that characterize it. Houellebecq

has served as an administrative secretary in the Assemblée nationale. In addition

to being an internationally known novelist, he is a best-selling poet in France.

Principal works: La Poursuite du bonheur, 1991; Rester vivant: Méthode, 1991;

Extensions du domaine de la lutte, 1994; Le Sens du combat, 1996; Renaissance,