Atomised

This article is about the novel by Michel Houellebecq. For the film based on the book, see Atomised (film).

"The Elementary Particles" redirects here. For the concept in particle physics, see Elementary particle.

The cover of the UK edition of Atomised

Atomised, also known as The Elementary Particles (French: Les Particules élémentaires), is a novel by the French author Michel Houellebecq, published in France in 1998. It tells the story of two half-brothers, Michel and Bruno, and their mental struggles against their situations in modern society. It was translated into English by Frank Wynne as Atomised in the UK and as The Elementary Particles in the US. It won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for writer and translator.

Summary

The story unfolds fifty years in the past, though Houellebecq only reveals the frame story to the reader in the epilogue. Despite the essentially elaborate scope of the plot revealed in the novel's conclusion, the narrative focuses almost exclusively on the bleak and unrewarding lives of the protagonists, two half-brothers who barely know each other. They seem devoid of love, and in their loveless or soon to be loveless journeys, Bruno becomes a saddened loner, wrecked by his upbringing and failure to individuate, while Michel's pioneering work in cloning removes love from the process of reproduction. Humans are proved, in the end, to be just particles and just as bodies decay (a theme in the book) they can also be created from particles. Large sections of the story are presented in the form of suppertime storytelling dialogues, between Michel, his childhood sweetheart Annabelle, Bruno, and his post-divorce girlfriend Christiane, or in the form of Bruno's accounts on his childhood miseries to his psychiatrist.

Plot

The story focuses on the lives of Bruno Clément and Michel Djerzinski, two French half-brothers born of a hippie-type mother, described as selfish and narcissistic, who abandoned them both. Michel is raised by his paternal grandmother and becomes a brilliant but extremely introverted molecular biologist, whose groundbreaking discoveries will ultimately lead to the elimination of sexual reproduction, and the advent of a new humanity altogether. Bruno's upbringing is much more tragic as described: he is shuffled and forgotten from one abusive boarding school to another, tries to have a normal life, only to find himself trapped in a loveless marriage and a frustrating career as a high-school French teacher, then grows into a lecherous and insatiable sex addict whose dalliances with prostitutes and sex chat on Minitel do nothing to satisfy him, while his sessions with a bored and cold psychiatrist do not help him at all; he becomes obsessed with his young female students, writes racist pamphlets out of frustration, and matters inexorably escalate to the point where he finds himself on disability leave from his job and in a mental hospital after a failed attempt to engage in sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl of North-African origin. Later, an unexpectedly fulfilling relationship with a free-spirited woman he met at a new-age camp, with whom he came closest he had ever come to love and happiness, who understood him and accepted him with all his flaws, who invited him into the world of swingers clubs where he could finally act on his devouring sexual desire, ends tragically when she becomes handicapped then commits suicide as she didn't want to be a burden, which further annihilates Bruno's psyche and his hopes of finding happiness; it is implied that he commits to a mental hospital for life.

At the end of the novel it is revealed that Djerzinski's scientific as well as conceptual work (finished just before his likely suicide by drowning) led to what is called the "third metaphysical mutation" – a transhumanist transition from humanity to a new species of neo-humans, virtually immortal and reproduced by cloning, in an effort to eradicate dangerous passions which brought down and threatened humanity, as well as the very idea of individuality which Djerzinski held as the root of all evil (a parallel is drawned with Buddhism), in an effort, furthermore, to restore a sense of shared spirituality and fraternity through the means of science, in a world where the ancient spirituality based on the idea of God, which shaped civilization and provided comfort towards mortality, has long vanished and led to an unbearable void ; and it is actually a neo-human who narrated the story a few decades later, looking back on humans (which are almost extinct by then) with the same mixture of condescendance and compassion humans used to feel when looking back on apes.

Reception and recognition

The novel's publication caused a stir in French literary circles. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies and propelled Houellebecq into the French (later international) intellectual and literary spotlight during the summer and autumn of 1998. The vivid, almost pornographic, sexual descriptions were a frequent target of criticism, and Houellebecq himself attracted both scorn and praise for his bold proclamations (regarding polemic aspects of the novel) and erratic behaviour in television or press interviews. The author was eventually awarded the Prix Novembre in recognition of the novel, failing to obtain the prestigious Prix Goncourt for which it had become the favorite. He became the last author to get this prize under this name; indeed, Philippe Dennery, the founder of the Prix Novembre, disapproved the awarding of the prize to Houellebecq and resigned; the prize got a new patron — Pierre Bergé — and a new name, Prix Décembre.

In April 2008, Houellebecq's estranged mother, Lucie Ceccaldi, returned to France to publish The Innocent One, mainly a rebuttal of his alleged mis-characterization of her parenting as contained in the novel (despite the fictitious nature of the novel, the mother of both protagonists does have the same name, and one of the brothers is called Michel like the author). In press interviews, she threatened to "knock his teeth out" with her walking stick if he were to have "the misfortune of sticking [her] name on anything again." Michel Houellebecq, who had already been scrutinized in the first "non-authorized biography" about him published in 2005, was deeply affected by the mediatic buzz this generated — with for instance very intimate details of his primary childhood exposed in the book — but chose not to retaliate.

Film adaptation

Further information: Atomised (film)

A film version premiered at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival and won the Silver Bear award. The German film Elementarteilchen was directed by Oskar Roehler, and had reportedly been sold to distributors in 23 countries within days of its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. The cast includes Moritz Bleibtreu (Bruno), Christian Ulmen (Michel), Franka Potente (Annabelle), and Martina Gedeck (Christiane).

External links

• The prophets of pessimism, Josie Appleton, Spiked, August 3, 2006