The Unspeakable Meets the Unreadable

Well, maybe "unreadable" is unfair--but I'm still carrying a lot of scars from my grad encounters with the French theoretique. And a lot of imbedded psychic shrapnel, as it were, from various Marxist improvised intellectual devices (IID's).

Anyhow--Michel Houellebecq has published a new book-length essay on H.P. Lovecraft, and it looks amazing. HPL as a New England Classicist equivalent of Jarry and Celine? I'm in. Check it out.

As a side note, Houellebecq's publisher McSweeney's (the press founded by Dave Eggers of Heartbreaking fame) continues to do God's work. Or the work of the Dark Gods. Or something. Go there and buy from them. They're aggressively supporting new, brilliant writing and also stretching the boundaries of culture. That includes 826 Valencia, a groundbreaking nonprofit that teaches low-income kids how to write and publish. Go on, go.