Elliot Rodger
The End / Doors
The first thing a reader of the novel Incel sees is the below front page warning:
This novel contains numerous depictions of suicide and suicidal thinking. If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, please consult resources list at the end of this book.
It is nice that author of Incel ARX-Han provides resources at the end of the book. Yet, it made me put off reading the book for a little while. It was not on my summer reading list.
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One needs to view incels (involuntary celibates) as part of the current culture. This is a group of young men who cannot get what they desire. A relationship with a woman.
Many might dismiss all of this as the problems of a particular cult. But there is growing evidence linking mass shootings to incels.
The major movement towards the masculine archetype moves forward under the current administration. Somewhere in the political spectrum (or non-political spectrum) is incels.
These are almost always the lone shooters in mass shootings. They are not likely to ban together in some para-military unit to attack. Yes, like many others out there, the incel is a reaction to the obvious femininization of American culture. There has been a number of so-called “Men’s” movements over the years. Many, related to male bonding and there was a desire to get back to this. And, of course, there is the Trump administration and its representation of the symbolism of the masculine archetype as the dominating symbolism in America at the moment.
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But a sub-group of culture I discovered called Incels felt more alienation than anything else. I searched the net and found much based around “Incel.” The fictional novel that stirred/pulled this community together is called Incel written by the anonymous American-Chinese author ARX-Han. And, the real life manifesto by Elliot Rodger that defined an apsect of the incel community for the first time. (We discussed this manifesto in our previous post Fad or Trend.
I read up on Incel and found many books and other things that circulated around the Incel universe. One is a fascinating interview on YouTube with author ARX-Han being interviewed on a podcast. ARX-Han is using some device to disguise his voice, adding to another layer of anonymity. It offers an insight into an entirely different way of thinking today far from the cultural norm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3GiOBhRixY
One of the desires of the author is his need or desire for anonymity. At the same time, his substack website Decentralized Fiction (https://www.decentralizedfiction.com) is elaborated filled with content in all forms of media. Beautifully organized and the sign of marketing and sales. Yet still, why the anonymous nature of him? Perhaps this goes with the territory of the genre he has defined by bringing many other things in culture together. Being anonymous seems to be ARX-han’s brand.
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After watching this video and gathering more names orbiting around the culture of Incels. Really, a philosophy it seemed the more I researched it. I got the book tonight on Amazon Kindle. So far, I’ve read about 10% of it and it’s quite amazing. Hard to classify but almost a new literary genre.
In the interim of reading Incel, I downloaded the audio of the book The Supreme Gentleman Killer by author Brian Whitney. It is an excellent insight into Elliot Rodger’s “My Twisted World Manifesto.”
The book Incel itself is very strange. Obviously, a wordsmith put in the task of nihilism. Perhaps a true depiction of a group, a feeling, an attitude of young men in culture today. It was as if I was peeking in on a culture that wanted to remain anonymous. Peeking in on the culture against their will.
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Incel has been compared to the work of Bret Easton Ellis. But to me it is closer to Virginia Wolf and Proust as the world is analyzed down to the microscopic detail. See the first chapter about a bar meeting.