Nietzsche, Schopenhauer & Houellebecq

Michel Houellebecq — who is arguably the most important author alive — is a figurative descendant of Schopenhauer. As many have already pointed out, the whole of Houellebecq’s work can be read through the filter of Schopenhauer’s philosophy:

In both cases, suffering is taken for granted, and there is the same pessimism, the same conception of style, and even the same central emphasis on compassion as the general basis for ethics; we also find the same salvific character of aesthetic contemplation, and the same impossibility of ‘being at home’ in the world (Agathe Novak-Lechevalier)

In his book, In the Presence of Schopenhauer, Houellebecq acknowledges his indebtedness to the so-called ‘Buddha of Frankfurt’, and argues that ‘even if you find yourself in disagreement with him, you cannot fail to be deeply grateful to him’.

It would seem as though, for Houellebecq, there is no ‘anxiety of influence’, no distancing himself from his figurative forefather. According to Harold Bloom and his theory of influence, the relationship between ‘precursors and their poetic “sons” is [akin] to a Freudian “family romance,” where poetic relations seem to bear familial resemblances to one another’ (Geddes). Usually, ‘conscious admission of the precursors’ influence can be the death-knell for the [poetic son’s] self-confidence as a unique and…