The Elementary Particles

by Michel Houellebecq

only rarely did he face this fact; it did not interrupt the dialogue between them.

The image of his grandmother dissolved and disappeared.

He could almost forget that he was there—not an unpleasant feeling.

no link, no physical connection between himself and these two impossibly tall and youthful people.

Bruno did not object: these people did not seem hostile.

Pelé takes a toilet brush and scrubs Bruno’s face. He can taste shit. He screams.

He knew that victims almost always refused to inform on their tormentors.

One or two cruel elements were enough to reduce the others to a state of savagery.

In early adolescence, boys can be particularly savage; they gang up and are only too eager to torture and humiliate the weak.

Meaux.

They would bring one or two victims back to the cirquième dormitory, where the ceremonies would begin.

animal societies are structured according to a hierarchy in which rank relates directly to the physical strength of each member.

The weakest animal, however, can generally avoid combat by adopting such submissive postures as crouching or presenting the rump.

At the boarding school in Meaux, Jean Cohen personified that moral order and did not intend to deviate from

the rejection of compassion, the elevation of individuals above the moral order and the triumph of the will—led

He wanted to do his best for the boy, as long as it did not require too much of his time; and he felt a certain guilt.

Then he would eat. He would eat bowl after bowl of cornflakes until he felt sick. His stomach felt heavy. He felt almost happy.

These are the ideas they wished to bequeath to their children: a woman stays at home and does the housework (her work made easier by a variety of electrical appliances, allowing her plenty of time to spend with her children). A man goes off to his job but, thanks to automation, works shorter hours, and his work is less arduous. Couples are happy and faithful; they live in a nice house in the suburbs. In their spare time, they may enjoy gardening and crafts and appreciate the arts, or they may prefer to travel and discover other countries, other cultures, other lifestyles.

Annabelle.

“Don’t worry, little Coralie; when you see him, you’ll know.”

She realized that she really liked Michel.

Little by little, he grew accustomed to her presence.

CAROLINE YESSAYAN IS TO BLAME FOR EVERYTHING

Caroline Yessayan.

later—fairly often, actually—when some little whore was sucking him off, Bruno would remember those few seconds of terrifying

As he grew older and remembered his boyhood with disgust, he came to see this as the defining moment of his life.

Caroline Yessayan had it in her power to undo all the humiliation and the sadness of his childhood.

Caroline Yessayan alone gave Bruno a reason to believe in humanity.

Thirty years later, Bruno was convinced that,

Caroline Yessayan’s miniskirt was to blame for everything.

1955, a new political movement dedicated to the preservation of the “extended family” was launched; proof in itself that society had now been reduced to the nuclear family.)

late 1950s and early 1960s were the golden age of romantic love—a

Jean ...

Françoise...

Along with the refrigerators and washing machines designed to make for a happy couple came the transistor radio and the record player, which would teach the adolescent how to flirt.

the supremacy of youth and individual freedom.

Things were very different for Annabelle. Last thing at night, before she went to sleep, she thought about Michel and every morning she was overjoyed to see him again.

without really wanting to, she had found true love. Her first love was the real thing; there would not be another, and such a question did not even arise.

When perfectly formed, these organs have a round, full, pleasing aspect and produce violent arousal in the male.

Violent

Without beauty a girl is unhappy because she has missed her chance to be loved.

The terrible predicament of a beautiful girl is that only an experienced womanizer, someone cynical and without scruple, feels up to the challenge.

!!

I’m not young or good-looking enough and I’m certainly not cool enough. My hair’s falling out, I’m getting fat. Worse than that, the older I get, the more terrified I am of rejection. I’m just not natural enough, not enough of an animal. It’s a permanent handicap because no matter what I say or do, no matter what I buy, I can never overcome it, because it’s a natural handicap.”

night, he dreamed of gaping vaginas.

There was, however, one source of warmth—between a woman’s thighs; but there seemed no way for him to reach

His room was austere, without a single poster on the wall.

the woman stared at her, her eyes filled with loathing.

A life lived in pursuit of a goal leaves little time for reminiscence.

His only goal in life had been sexual,

In this, Bruno was characteristic of his generation.

to fade into the “vast, amorphous mass of the middle classes,”