hysteria is so over

Enfant terrible Michel Houellebecq has been recently endorsed by the Raelian cult. (Via The Elegant Variation)

In a statement earlier this week, the Raelian movement praised 'The Possibility of an Island', describing Houellebecq as a "top-ranking intellectual who dares to say publicly that he finds Rael sympathetic and that its ideas are interesting."

"At last — a stone in the pool of intolerance of the French intellectual milieu," it said.

Houellebecq, who attended a Raelian congress two years ago, told Le Monde that he found the sect "well-adapted to modern times, to our leisure-based civilisation. It imposes no code of morality and it promises immortality... For a science fiction fan like me, its ideas are interesting."

Meanwhile, Yankee Pot Roast proves, once and for all, that you pronounce it "wellbeck" and Michel himself gives us an A to Z of culture. (Via The Literary Saloon)

D is for Depression:

This is the archetypal modern disease - hysteria is over. Everyone will end up prone to depression after a certain age. There's not really anything you can do about it because while the demands people make of their lives are going to go on growing, their ability to achieve them won't. There may be a chemical solution.

The advantage is that depressives can often be extremely funny. There's nothing like a good depressive for having a humorous and perceptive take on the world. I am very fond of the depressive narrator as a character. Perhaps too much so.
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