Precarity as a mode of being-in-the-world in Michel Houellebecq’s <i>Possibilité d’une Île</i>

Michel Houellebecq’s Anéantir has received mixed reviews. focus on loving intimacy and care for the elderly within nuclear family allegedly showcases his transformation from an embittered critic of capitalist status quo to apolitical novelist interested in private sphere. I argue that this criticism overlooks concerns about old age love earlier novels how they relate social critique. Particularly La Possibilité d’une île presents a critique lonely precarity as dominant mode being-in-the-world today. Though critics post-Fordism have already described post-Fordist forms life opportunistic, fearful, cynical, Houellebecq adds uncertain marketized lifestyle also leads bitterness increases with age. By confronting phenomenology contemporary Heidegger’s analysis Dasein, that, whereas Heidegger highlights role anxiety death fostering sense meaning human existence, rather argues such authentic confrontation become impossible culture is instead emotional tonality most responsive cultivation meaningful good life.