Michel Houellebecq is a French author, filmmaker, and poet. His first book was a biographical essay on the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi has criticised Houellebecq's stance on Lovecraft in this book.. An essay by Todd Spaulding makes the case for why Houellebecq portrayed Lovecraft as an 'obsolete reactionary' whose work was based largely on 'racial hatred.'. Houellebecq published his first novel, Whatever, in 1994.