Sociology as serial murder: Raphaël Quenard

Another round

Raphaël Quenard's novel Clamser à Tataouine The novel disturbingly explores a monstrous series of crimes and their social dimension, embedded in a complex metanarrative reflection on the power and danger of storytelling. The nameless narrator, a "jeune marginal" and "joyeux sociopathe," categorically rejects society, blaming it for his personal failure ("ratage"). His plan, which immediately follows a failed suicide attempt in Paris in January 2024, is a macabre strategy of revenge: he decides to make society "pay the price for his defeat" ("salement payer l'addition de sa défaite") by symbolically wiping it out through the killing of representative figures from six social strata. Flammarion writes in his announcement: "With his novel about this devilishly perverse, provocative, and snarky psychopath, the author takes the reader on a macabre journey laced with black humor." Raphaël Quenards Clamser à Tataouine appears as a dark, postmodern Reigen, in which the erotic game of classes, which in Arthur Schnitzler still exposes social masks, turns into a cycle of hatred, violence, moral emptiness and black humor.

This excerpt describes the turning point after the aborted suicide attempt in Paris and articulates the central motivation and method of the serial killings. The narrator, a cheerful sociopath, refuses to pay for the "addition de ma lâcheté" himself. The murders are thus an act of vicarious revenge. The sociological dimension is explicit here: to achieve total annihilation, he must "strike symbolically" and kill "a representative of each social class." This establishes the "épopée macabre" as a planned sociological critique and strategy of annihilation. The victims are not chosen randomly, but methodically, to reflect the entire social structure. The selection of women is philosophically justified: not by "virilisme vengeur" ​​(male revenge), which underscores his deep-seated misanthropy. The serial crime is thus introduced as a methodical, symbolic and intellectually grounded reckoning with the “société détestée”, which in his opinion has condemned him to “ratage”.

The novel's structure is methodically divided into six acts, each representing a social class through a female victim. The narrator explains the choice of women not as direct misogyny, but as a "misandry that looks like misanthropy, but is actually misogyny." The victims are carefully selected to reflect the entire social hierarchy—from the aristocracy to the marginalized homeless.

The first act, "L'aristocrate," focuses on Marthe, a baroness and widow of an industrial captain. Although Marthe struggles to maintain her inherited castle and the financial problems of the wealthy are highlighted, she symbolizes the elite, whose wealth is built on "well-reflective consanguinity" and between yourself The murder, carried out in her opulent Parisian apartment, is a rash, impulsive act: Marthe is stabbed in the neck with a large kitchen knife and pinned to a chest of drawers. The act serves as revenge against the "aristocrat who proudly toned down the curves caused by repeated pregnancies."

Act II, "L'ingénieure" (Hélène), targets the urban upper middle class. Hélène is an engineer and lives with her husband, an oncologist, in a seemingly "clean" bourgeois household. She embodies the progressive, sometimes obsessive lifestyles of the bourgeoisie, among other things through her vegetarianism and her "Zero Waste" philosophy. The narrator uses his knowledge from his unfinished chemistry studies to treacherously poison Hélène with cyanide in her almond milk drink. This murder is an intellectual triumph, as suspicion is successfully directed at the au pair, Katrin. The fact that the narrator has "no interest in this execution" makes him, according to his own logic (and that of the doctor Franck, which he quotes), "unassailable."

In Act III, he encounters "La femme de footballeur" (Cindy), who represents the "bourgeoise inespérée"—the nouveaux rich who have achieved rapid wealth through social advancement (engagement to the footballer Nestor Gonzague). Cindy confesses to the narrator that the material "opulence" makes her dizzy and that she finds it difficult to fill the "vacuum that surrounds her." The narrator, who has infiltrated the PSG stadium as a host, uses an escalating argument between Cindy and Nestor as an opportunity to push Cindy from a third-floor balcony. The murder is dismissed as a suicide, and the narrator is pleased that his "fateful epic" ("épopée funeste") thus contributes to "the birth of the one who will turn the heads of millions of French people" ("à donner naissance à celui qui fera chavirer les têtes de millions de Français") (Nestor Gonzague, who subsequently becomes a star).

Act IV focuses on "La jeune active" (Louise) from the "classe moyenne." Louise, a "novice in organizing evenings," whose husband serves in the 13th Régiment de Dragons Parachutistes, represents a household income of approximately 3.500 euros. The narrator meets her at a cooking workshop. Her passion for hiking in the French Alps, motivated by a "natural deficit disorder," becomes his undoing. In the Chartreuse Mountains, he stages an accident on a ridge: he lets his foot slip on a rock, pushes Louise, and pulls his arm away when she tries to grab hold, creating the impression of involuntary action. The act is a masterpiece of staging, earning him an "instant relaxation" from the gendarmerie, as the witnesses interpret his "irréprochable performance" as a state of shock. After four victims, the narrator experiences an "exhilarating feeling of gaining in professionalism" ("sentiment grisant de gagner en professionnalisme").

In the fifth act, he meets "La caissière" (Jessica), who represents the "classe populaire." Jessica works for minimum wage and bears the financial burden as well as the worries about her criminal brother, Dewi. For the narrator, she is a figure of resignation. He decides to free her from "Pitié." But the execution fails: he kills her in her kitchen with "vingt-trois coups de surin" (sausage knives). He considers the impulsiveness and brutality of this act "merdé" (shit) and it forces him to hurry and accelerate his plan.

Act VI completes the strategy of annihilation with "La SDF" (Shakira), a marginalized, crack-addicted homeless woman whom he ties up in an abandoned caravan in the "Rase Campagne" through trickery. Shakira represents the lowest class, the "marginaux," whom "personne ne s'intéresse" cares about. The cruelty of this act lies in letting her "mourir de fim" (die of hunger) in order to capture her "dernier souffle" (last breath). After six completed murders, the narrator feels liberated and decides to disappear to Tataouine to become a "Clamser" (clamser).

The serial murder in the novel Clamser à Tataouine This is not merely a macabre revenge fantasy of the narrator, but also serves as a sociologically structured class dance, underpinning the thesis that all of society—and each of its strata—is characterized by profound alienation. The narrator, who describes himself as a "jeune marginal" and a "joyeux sociopathe," blames society for his failure. This methodical act of annihilation illuminates the specific forms of alienation in the various social dimensions. The aristocrat Marthe and the upper-class bourgeois Hélène are subject to alienation through self-presentation. Hélène, an engineer, lives in an urban, bourgeois world. While their dietary and ecological practices (vegetarianism, zero waste, gluten- and lactose-free) appear as expressions of consciousness, the narrator exposes them as mere "pleasures" and a "stratagem" of industry, designed to "promote ever more money to anxious consumers." Cindy, the "nouveau riche" and partner of a football player, experiences alienation through material abundance: her rapid rise frees her from material constraints but plunges her into a "material opulence" that painfully makes her aware of her "uselessness" and the emptiness surrounding her. Even the middle class (Louise) tries to escape this alienation through self-optimization and a retreat into nature (hiking). In doing so, she relies on the “Étude Américaine” about the Natural Deficit Disorder as the ultimate argument from authority.

In contrast, the working class and the marginalized experience a deep-rooted alienation through existential hardship. Jessica, who earns minimum wage as a cashier, must bear the burden of a harsh human existence and manage the financial strain of her criminal brother, Dewi. Despite her alarmingly bleak and serene gaze, the narrator interprets Jessica as a figure of resignation and servitude, which is her only weapon against fate. The lowest class, represented by the homeless Shakira, experiences the most extreme form of alienation: societal indifference. The narrator is aware that no one cares about the marginalized, which minimizes the likelihood of his discovery. He exploits this fact for his cruel plan to slowly starve Shakira to death. The observations of Shakira's friend Warda also offer a direct critique of capitalist alienation by inverting the common mantra "le temps, c'est de l'argent" (time is money). The true formula, she argues, is "l'argent, c'est du temps" (money is time). Only those who are "blindé" (rich) or "rincé" (washed out/poor) possess time, while everyone else becomes a slave to the system. The murders of these symbolic representatives are thus an "attempted total annihilation" of society, intended to vicariously present the consequences of one's own "ratage" (disenfranchisement) and perceived social defeat.

Metanovel about the serial crime

This passage addresses the narrator's rhetorical strategies in Act II (L'ingénieure, Hélène) and illustrates his capacity for manipulation and self-promotion. To establish himself as Hélène's tutor in her bourgeois circle, the narrator claims to hold an engineering degree, even though he abandoned his studies after completing his Licence 3 de Chimie. The passage reveals how the narrator employs technical jargon—Avogadro's constant, Faraday's constant, electrochemical interactions—to demonstrate his ease ("aisance") with the subject matter. The metanarrative insight is crucial here: "Le jargon rassure, tout le monde le sait. Le jargon impressne." Jargon serves not for communication, but for intimidation and as a triumph of boasting ("Triomphe de l'esbroufe"). The complexity of the subject matter is merely feigned to deceive the interlocutors and prevent them from delving deeper into the topic: "Going into the details of a subject is the best way to avoid having to talk about it." ("Entrer dans le détail d'un sujet, voilà la meilleure façon d'éviter d'en parler.") This act of deception in dealing with Hélène exemplifies the narrator's method of using a superficial cultural background ("un bagage culturel de façade") to infiltrate different social classes and deceive his victims, the "classe sociale recherchée." This demonstrates that the act is not only brutal but also an act of intellectual superiority by the "diabolically perverse psychopath."

The entire structure of the novel is permeated by a metanarrative level that presents the series of crimes as a literary production and the narrator as a compulsive chronicler of his own monstrosity. The story is told retrospectively in November 2024 in Tataouine, where the narrator lives as a "parasite" at the expense of 82-year-old Liliane. He records his deeds as "memoirs," which he wraps in the "soapy cloths of fiction" to protect himself from discovery.

Writing is not just a justification for him, but an addiction and a "satanic need to exist." His murders are "simple blunders beneficial to my literary production," meant to pave the way for a "star author career." He envisions becoming a celebrated author whose work will be hailed as the "last bastion of freedom" and the "last bulwark against the spread of censorship of all kinds and barbarity."

His metanarrative techniques include manipulation through language and numbers. He openly reflects on the use of jargon, which soothes and impresses, as well as on the rhetorical power of statistics ("They produce only one effect. They make mouths churn"). He presents himself as intellectually superior by citing the American Study as the ultimate argument to bolster his claims—even if he fabricates these facts. His greatest flaw, however, lies in his questionable dexterity and arrogance, which leads him to incorporate the excessively precise details of his actions into the manuscript—the sheer obsession with putting his chaotic soul into words betrays him.

In the interview, Raphaël Quenard explains in detail his intentions and the philosophical basis of his book project. Clamser à TataouineHe explains that the book's primary intention is not to illuminate the banality of evil, but rather to explore its fascination with those beings who equate themselves with God by determining the hour of death of their neighbors. Beyond this thematic focus on "substitution to the good God," the book's structure was conceived as a "journey through the social classes." The author sees the main subject of this book as "how we all, every day in the banal, find our place and fight for it." This struggle of the protagonist manifests itself in an unbridled striving for freedom: the murderer seeks an "espace de liberté" (space of freedom) in which he wants to be "free and uncontrollable," even if it means acting "against the morality of his time." The author refers to this as the "poet's mischief" (l'espiéglerie du poète).

Regarding the artistic and moral classification, Quenard emphasizes the nuanced nature of the characters, who possess "zones of shadow" ("zones d'ondes") and are meant to reflect the "complexity of a human soul." In his view, literature must explore "these obscurities" ("ces obscurités-là"). Although the novel addresses themes such as femicide, Quenard stresses that the book is "not political." It was not his intention "to construct something resembling a moralizing discourse," but rather to show the truth that even in "abominable beings" ("êtres abominables") "flashes of light" ("éclairs de lumière") can exist. He emphasizes the strict separation between author and character, since the problematic utterances and reflections in the text are attributed to his characters and not to himself. Quenard views creation as omnivorous and describes artists as vampires who suck the life and experiences of the people they encounter into their work. He strives for his work to remain indigestible, in contrast to those who attempt to devour the world. The characters, including the first victim, Marthe, are inspired by "people whom life and the magical nature of existence bring you into contact with."

The interpretation of the novel's ending

The novel's ending provides a tragically ironic conclusion to the metanarrative trap. Despite his deep conviction that he has found the "parade ultime" and protected his actions through fiction, the narrator is overtaken by the inherent justice of the literary world and the revenge of his victims.

The 82-year-old Liliane, whom he considers a senile, easily manipulated landlady, is not only his reader but also recognizes the manuscript's "unhabitual intensity" and deciphers the truth behind the fiction. Liliane is the aunt of Hortense, the daughter of Marthe, his first victim. Hortense, who appears in the narrative as Albane—a renowned actress and director—orchestrates a deadly romance. The narrator, who believes he is falling in love for the first time in his life, is tricked by his "satanic need to prove that this satanic need to exist" ("satané besoin de prouver, ce satané besoin d'exister"). This leads him to let Albane/Hortense read his manuscript.

The narrator's execution in his sleep is the perfect reflection and culmination of his first murder of Marthe: instead of the kitchen knife and the chest of drawers, Liliane's sharpened walking stick is thrust into his neck, and he is nailed to the "Matelas." Hortense becomes the "armed arm of immanent justice" ("bras armé de la justice immanente"), avenging herself in the name of her mother Marthe and all other victims.

The ultimate irony lies in the direct reference to the opening Pascal quote: “All of humanity’s misfortunes stem from one thing alone: ​​their inability to know how to rest quietly in a room.” (“Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne pas savoir demeurer en repos, en une chambre.”) Liliane had offered him the proverbial “chambre sur un plateau” in Tataouine, the possibility of peace and security. But the narrator could not resist his “damned need to go out, to tell my life story” (“satané besoin de sortir, de raconter ma vie”) and the compulsion to communicate. His “banc fétiche,” the place of his literary inspiration, became the place of his capture by Hortense/Albane. The narrator, who believed he could achieve immortality by fictionalizing his monstrous deeds, is killed by the inescapable truth of his own story. His death is thus the logical end of an existence incapable of finding peace, one that instead lost itself in self-dramatization and the retelling of its own crimes.

In comparison with Arthur Schnitzler's Reigen Raphaël Quenard's Clamser à Tataouine Both works can be read as radically contemporary and nihilistic variations on the same social experiment: both depict a series of encounters in which sexuality, power, and social hierarchy are inextricably intertwined. While Schnitzler, in turn-of-the-century Vienna, exposes the mechanics of desire as a social grammar—a dance of classes, bodies, and conventions—Quenard translates this principle of repetition into a violent parody: his serial killer moves through the classes of the present, not to erotically, but to physically "penetrate" and destroy them. The structure of repetition, which in Schnitzler reveals the cycle of lust and hypocrisy, becomes in Quenard the cycle of hatred and social revenge. Where Schnitzler's characters fail at the limits of morality, Quenard's narrator fails due to the impossibility of empathy. Clamser à Tataouine appears thus as a “Reigen de la mort“, a mirror of the postmodern emptying of desire, in which bodies are no longer bearers of longing, but scenes of destruction.