November: Whatever by Michel Houellebecq

For our next Mind Over Midnight session, we’ll turn to Michel Houellebecq’s Whatever, a bleak yet razor-sharp meditation on loneliness, desire, and the modern condition. In this debut novel, Houellebecq dismantles the illusions of romance, careerism, and freedom in late-capitalist society, exposing a protagonist whose cynicism mirrors an age of disconnection.

As we meet, we’ll ask: does Houellebecq’s brutally honest voice illuminate truths we prefer to ignore, or is it simply nihilism dressed as philosophy? Come prepared to wrestle with questions of sexuality, alienation, and whether meaning is possible in a world that reduces everything to economics and impulse.