Michel Houellebecq

I don't construct language, I deconstruct it, I said to the young man at the dinner table.

He's in advertising, has written a book on marketing, how to use the power of narrative to persuade. He's running an agency with offices in Oakland and D.C. Wife, 2 kids. When I said what I said--that as a writer I don't construct, I destruct--he seemed interested.

I'm writing a book now, I said, where I'm flying to Rome with my dead body beside me. We're going to explore the classical world together to see what made it tick. The narrative is clustered around a series of questions--what is beauty, justice, freedom and so forth--that were first posed in antiquity.

That sounds original, he said.

No, it's just a concept, I said, I'm drawing on pre-existing sources, the pre-Socratics mostly. I'm trying very hard to avoid originality. As a writer, I said to the young man, I'm now trying to take away from my writing as much or more than I've written.