The Truth About Our Society
An Analysis of Renegade Texts and A Reflection of ‘The Retirement Well’- Contemporary Fiction
Hi! Before you start reading, have you read the ‘ ‘Living History’ Book Proposal?’ Well, you might want to give that a little read first; I’ve linked it below :)
https://medium.com/@crystaljadalewiswrites/the-retirement-well-8390cf3fd896
The Renegade unit explores the importance of truth and realism in contemporary fiction. In the unit, I took a keen interest in the novels: ‘Serotonin’ by Michel Houellebecq and ‘No One Is Talking About This’ by Patricia Lockwood. These two pieces of literary fiction offer emotionally challenging, insightful analyses of one’s place and significance in society. Some may find their work hard to digest due to exploring themes such as identity, isolation, communication, and their overall critique of our current world.
Serotonin adopts a first-person narrative of a wealthy, complex man who struggles to maintain relationships with women and faces a continuous battle with his thoughts and the core of his existence. The book does an excellent job of informing its readers about the protagonist’s past lovers/encounters with women and creating parallels between his dwindling sex life and the rapid decline of the agricultural world. Equally, the nameless protagonist of ‘No One Is Talking About This’ struggles to embrace the rapid progression of technology. She finds connecting with others (on a deeper level and in the real world) complex due to her complicated relationship and infatuation with social media. This essay discusses the techniques, themes, and world issues explored in the two novels and how the authors have inspired my creative piece and enriched my knowledge of the literary genre.
When writing ‘My Retirement Well,’ I wanted to adopt a melancholic tone similar to Serotonin. In my creative piece, Carl refers to himself in the third person to show how he disconnects from his life, responsibilities, and the people around him. The repetition of illeism further shows his alienation from this ‘amazing’ life he has created, where he (unlike others) can retire early. Like Houellebecq, I aim to show how an opulent lifestyle can leave you unsatisfied. I could have chosen a more humorous/satirical tone, similar to Houellebecq. Yet, I wanted to create a sombre, nostalgic atmosphere, placing the reader in a timeframe where they can imagine what it would feel like to be Carl (in their late forties), contemplating their decisions and choices throughout their life.
Florent and Carl are similar in that they are both haunted by their inner thoughts. Florent says, ‘I can’t hide the truth: I will end my life unhappy, cantankerous and alone, and I will have deserved it” (Houellebecq, 2019). The author’s characterisation of Florent is multi-dimensional. We, as readers, may initially aspire to own a ‘4x4 Mercedes G350 TD’ (Houellebecq, 2019) and experience eating ‘canelés and macarons’ from ‘porcelain bowls’ (Houellebecq, 2019) accompanied by a ‘bottle of Ruinart’ (Houellebecq, 2019). But we soon learn of Florent’s cynical and objectifying nature towards women, which makes us, if anything, dislike and pity his lifestyle. Yet, the fact that Florent can admit and accept that whatever evil comes his way, he is owed uncovers the true feelings behind his flaunting of materialistic things and fantasies about women- that it’s all a façade and that he is miserable.
With the ending, the reader has a different perspective of Florent, causing them to sympathise with him. After realising that the story has been told through the eyes of a profoundly depressed individual, the reader realises just how blind-sighted they were to his true feelings. Here, Houellebecq has intentionally misled the reader through his constant representation of Florent’s arrogant demeanour to emphasise how, in our world, we think that people who have money are genuinely happy and have it better than us. Therefore, we don’t expect them to be dealing with mental health issues because they live perfect lives. Although some may see Carl as ungrateful for disregarding the retirement party thrown in his honour, ultimately, it is clear that sadness and anxiety are occupying his mind and clouding his judgement. When Carl messages Rachael to let her know that he won’t be there, she expresses her concern but, overall, responds in a way that is expected (sympathetic yet professional); if anything, she is more offended that her hard work and planning have gone to waste rather than the real reason for Carl not showing up. Most can infer that Carl’s reasoning is a lie. Houellebecq does an excellent job of force-feeding Florent’s personality through vulgar/explicit language. If I were to re-write this piece, I would include more text conversations and have Carl respond with shorter, interrupted sentences to show his anxiety, which would contrast with the long stream-of-consciousness moments in the narrative.
Similarly, Houellebecq confronts issues in politics through Florent. Florent says, ‘The whole point of bureaucracy is to reduce the possibilities of your life to the greatest possible degree…from the bureaucratic point of view, a good citizen is a dead citizen’ (Houellebecq, 2019). Again, the author’s characterisation encourages self-reflection. Creating an opinionated protagonist helps us understand the characters and makes them feel more real than fictional. Similarly, Carl expresses his views on hierarchy and anti-capitalism by integrating quotations from the famous play ‘Death of a Salesman’. It is clear that Carl seems to have similarities between his life and the subject matter of the play, and it can be said that the mention of these quotes foreshadows Carl’s death; he is due to meet the same fate as Willy Loman. I could have developed the descriptions surrounding the quotes to create more of a conversational tone with the reader. Yet, I preferred to keep it ambiguous to make the reader question their place in society.
Florent has an unhealthy relationship with his environment, causing him to dissociate from life; he believes there is no true meaning to his life and nothing else worth living for. Towards the end of the novel, he takes his own life. Similarly, Carl, a successful entrepreneur with his own publishing house, has the uncomfortable realisation that he has fallen down the well of capitalism. As Florent does at the end of the novel, it can be inferred that Carl, too, takes his life instead of attending his retirement party. Equally, the reader could be led to believe that Carl is (as is said in the haiku) ‘dancing’ in his living room and ‘watching TV’. The ending could be completely innocent, just a man who wanted to avoid his retirement party. Like most existential literature, my piece requires an active reader to decipher the ending.
In Lockwood’s novel, she used fragmentation in the form of social media posts to contribute to the novel’s overall view on human contact and digital communication. Lockwood focuses heavily on the distance social media can create between intimacy and genuineness. The protagonist of ‘No One Is Talking About This’ refers to the posts as ‘a flying river of garbage, carrying away old thoughts, bruised dreams, like the wreckage of trees, plastic bottles, and dead animals’ (Lockwood, 2021). The influx of these negative images and captions of social media posts shows the overwhelming feeling that social media can give you and the epidemic that is social media. Yet, how she lists these horrifying images and employs sarcasm and irony throughout the narrative shows how she has become numb to them, as this content is typical to see daily. In the novel, the protagonist says, ‘She [wonders] how long she could keep up… [and what] would happen to her voice when she couldn’t’ (Lockwood, 2021), which makes the reader question whether they can survive without social media; what will happen to authenticity? Will it be normal to communicate this way? She also suggests that she could be swept away in the ‘river of garbage’ (Lockwood, 2021), and nobody would notice or care for long.
Similarly, I create fragmented and poetic prose to create an out-of-body experience and take the reader through Carl’s subconscious mind. For example, Carl says various quotes from the tragic play ‘Death of a Salesman’ and recites his thoughts poetically on the children’s nursery rhyme ‘Jack and Jill’, showing his dire outlook on life. I also stylistically wrote the text notifications in uppercase to emphasise Carl’s anxiety and fear of the outside world. If I write this piece again, I will consider creating more phone conversations, perhaps his text history (maybe with his (ex-wife), his emails, and his social media to emphasise that rush and the overwhelming feeling that Lockwood has done so well and perhaps contrast this with his online presence in his young adulthood to add more depth to his character.
Overall, this unit taught me the importance of representing human conditions in their most honest form. Both authors have different views on society but undoubtedly create a world their readers relate to. The literature studied on the Renegade unit has taught me the importance of these stories, especially with the advancements of technology only improving and more and more people (especially celebrities) expressing their issues publicly with mental health. Both novels leave the reader with the burning question: When you reflect on your life, do you regret the choices you made?
Bibliography
Houellebecq, M. (2019) Serotonin. Great Britain: William Heinemann.
Lockwood, P. (2021) No One Is Talking About This. 2nd ed., United States: Penguin Random House.
London Review Bookshop. (2021) Patricia Lockwood and John Lanchester: ‘No One is Talking About This’. [Online video] [Accessed on 16th July 2023] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnv5eyE7QbA
Louisiana Channel. (2019) Michel Houellebecq: Q&A with His Readers. [Online video] [Accessed on 21st July 2023] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IyJEFbBhXo
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Manchester Metropolitan University. (no date) MMU Harvard. Manchester Metropolitan University. [Online] [Accessed on 15th July 2023] https://www.mmu.ac.uk/library/referencing- and-study-support/referencing/mmu-harvard#ai-32646–0
Masterclass. (2021) What Is an Unreliable Narrator? 4 Ways to Create an Unreliable Narrator in Writing. [Online] [Accessed on 19th July 2023] https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is- an-unreliable-narrator-4-ways-to-create-an-unreliable-narrator-in-writing
MedCircle. (2021) Stress, Forgetfulness, & Memory Loss: When Is it Mental Illness? [Online video] [Accessed on 25th July 2023] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xejMcYP5Zw4
MedCircle. (2022) ‘4 Types of Dissociation.’ Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | PTSD. [Online video] [Accessed on 25th July 2023] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i-p3g3Epm8&t=17s
Oxbridge Essays. (2020) A Complete Guide to Writing a Reflective Essay. [Online] [Accessed on 5th July 2023] https://www.oxbridgeessays.com/blog/complete-guide-to-writing-a-reflective- essay/
