Drawing in the image of Martin the image of the modern man of art, a man not adapted to life, but in his sensible and holistic awareness of the world around him and his worthlessness in it, Houellebecq contrasts him with images of heroes of different generations and views-father, girlfriends, police commissioner. But in the gallery of outrunning events, these images are clearly not enough. And here the masterful literary device is to enter the stage as one of the heroes of Houellebecq himself, under his own name, with his own life position, which may differ from the position of the real Houellebecq (we do not know), but ideally coincides in the novel with life inadvertence and loneliness most Martin. And the terrible death of the author-hero is just a literary device to increase the impact on the reader of the hermit's life of Martin, which happened after the wealth that fell on him.
The author draws us a bright picture of the near future of the European future, which he wants to see, which lives the aged Martin, partly to the creation of this future is involved. And this is the little thing that gives us hope for the creative role of modern art in the life of a modern European man, the hope is very illusory if we look at it through the prism of modern reality.