Indeed, he actually throws out his screen and begins to think again about Thomas Mann, about Proust—about the fate of our civilization. An inevitable result of all this is the demographic decline of Europe. Yet even these delights finally fade amid the loneliness, the isolation, and the pointlessness of it all—and that is why Houelle­becq’s books generally culminate in a kind of religious vision. Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish a translation by Shaun Whiteside in September 2019. The following entry presents an overview of Houellebecq's career through 2003. Many of the ‘new Atheists’, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, etc. When he finds out that his current Japanese girlfriend has been going to orgies behind his back, where she has serviced not only groups of other men but even three dogs (a pit bull, a boxer, and a terrier, as he specifies rather precisely), he resolves to disappear without a trace. Sérotonine (Michel Houellebecq) Critique de CCRIDER le 25 mars 2019 (3 votes, moyenne: 3,33 / 5) ... (Florent-Claude étant à l’évidence un avatar de Michel Houellebecq), ne déroge pas aux thèmes habituellement traités par l’auteur. 4 “La Vierge attendait dans l’ombre, calme et immarcescible. They usually ended up ditching their boyfriends for a quick fuck with some macho Latin idiot. It makes you wonder if he has played out his string as a fiction writer ... Like nearly every Houellebecq novel, Serotonin should be stamped on its spine with a tiny skull and crossbones, like you used to see on bottles of poison, to keep away the devout, the unsuspecting and the pure of heart. Dès lors qu’une mutation métaphysique s’est produite, elle se développe sans rencontrer de résistance jusqu’à ses conséquences ultimes.” Quoted from Houellebecq, Atomised, 4. Michel Houellebecq (prononcer [wɛlˈbɛk]), né Michel Thomas le 26 février 1956 à Saint-Pierre (La Réunion), est un écrivain, poète et essayiste français. . Nowadays (definitely in Belgium) there is a lot of debate concerning the immigration of people from Muslim countries. Pour Michel Houellebecq, comme pour Wells, "l'esprit humain n'est pas encore né, et en l'absence d'amour la défaite est assurée". He has affaires with his students and drinks until he isn’t able to stand straight. Over time, all such institutions that the individual requires to fully actualize a meaningful existence—such as a family and a connection to generations past and future, a nation, a tradition, perhaps a church—will weaken and eventually disappear. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Now this fundamental point which Houellebecq makes time and again deserves further reflection, because it challenges the very fun­damentals of both the contemporary “Left” and the “Right.” It challenges modern anthropology as such. have outed critique on Christianity and on the Islam. His latest novel, Serotonin , was published in an English translation earlier this year, and was promptly analyzed by numerous critics and public intellectuals across the country. It’s a book that’s quite topical and I believe it’ll be this way for some time still. The intellectuals aren’t really fond of this. Houellebecq has become a global publishing phenomenon: his books have been translated worldwide, three film adaptations of his work have been produced, and the author has been the subject of million-euro publishing deals and of successive media scandals in France. As things stand today, this second scenario clearly represents the most likely future for Europe. Thus, the freest people who have ever lived have also come to live the least meaningful lives. Does he then sacrifice himself and plummet to the ground in a desperate attempt to save us all? 2 “Dieu s’occupe de nous en réalité, il pense à nous à chaque instant, et il nous donne des directives parfois très précises. He was brought up in … Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. . The final struggle between Godefroy l’Empereur and the Islamists remained undescribed—and in our world, too, the future remains undecided and our vision is often warped by the frame of liberal individualism. Oh, sometimes they’d talk about cooking or vacuuming, but their favorite topic was washing dishes. Michel Houellebecq is a famous French novelist, a student of Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy, and a controversial prophet of pessimism. But whatever the case, it is not easy to see how we could possibly constrain the forces that we have unleashed. As we once worshipped the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we today venerate liberty, equality, and fraternity. This is why women in the Western world increasingly tend to have fewer children—if they even have them at all. Further cheapening sex and adding violence to it can only degrade mankind further. Encensé avec une générosité excessive par l'establishment de la critique, bénéficiant d'une promotion balayant toutes les autres sorties du janvier, « Sérotonine » confirme que depuis « Soumission », Houellebecq est entré en hibernation, tel un ours suçant sa patte. I think Houellebecq has a very powerful critique, it s a very powerfully felt critique. This naturally implies a powerful nation-state that protects the social fabric, along with a high degree of skepticism towards immigration and free trade. Houellebecq blames the Flower Power generation that spawned the revolution of 1968 for bringing that vision to fruition. Consider the emancipation of women and the feminist ideology that underpins it (a favorite topic in Houellebecq’s work). It has started to consume itself. It echoes, in certain ways, Marxist Verelendungstheorie: as technological inno­vations have made jobs boring and interchangeable, and as free trade has destroyed traditional farm life and honest labor, we now pass through life as atomized wage slaves in the service of incomprehensible, unfathomable government organizations and overwhelmingly powerful multinational corporations. And Houellebecq proposes that this new trinity falls short—that the very idea that we should be trying to pursue individual happiness is itself flawed. Gradually something akin to a will to live begins to resurface: he notices skirts by the bar in a café, girls, facial expressions, emotion, desire, and irritation at the mind-numbing TV programs he had been watching every day. To have a position of power would mean to convert to the Islam. E ver the deadpan comedian, Michel Houellebecq … The extreme right party and the Muslim party. Sérotonine - Michel Houellebecq ***** There's no question that the major publishing event of the new French literary season is the new book by Michel Houellebecq, the now aging enfant terrible of the French literary establishment. His mother was a "sexually liberated" anaesthetist; his father a mountain guide. . 29 1 Comments Print Email Kindle. Any reader, in my view, will be hard-pressed to deny that Houelle­becq has identified—in passages such as this one—a crisis we all recognize. Serotonin: A Novel by michel houellebecq farrar, straus and giroux, 320 pages, $27. C'est dans ce contexte politico-historique orageux que Michel Houellebecq propulse le narrateur de Soumission: un universitaire quadragénaire, spécialiste de Huysmans et des écrivains décadents de la fin du XIXe siècle, par ailleurs personnage houellebecquien par excellence, solitaire, détaché, parfaitement indisposé par son époque – ses élites politiques et intellectuelles, ses idéaux progressistes et ses réflexes bien-pensants, ses mœurs mercantiles – et dont les exécrations, prononcées sans colère, nour… I believe Houellebecq plays with these two critiques and themes beautifully. Al­though Houellebecq, a poet more than a philosopher, shies away from laying out a detailed political manifesto, he tells us on every page that we need to rediscover a territorial, social, and historical connection with others around us, a connection which transcends individual choice, momentary whims, and instrumental interests. . Michel Houellebecq: a terrific fictional character. Paru en 2009, aux éditions Flammarion, Interventions 2 n’avait pas manqué de faire réagir la critique. So today I understand how Christ felt, his frustration at people’s hardened hearts: they have seen the signs and yet they pay no attention. This simple idea forms the fundamental conviction of Houellebecq’s work. So the paradox is this: the freedom we desire eventually makes us unfree and unhappy, while the constraints that we reject eventually make us happy and free. Where does this liberal view of man, which has ushered in the rapid decline of Western civilization, originate? Yet we are also sad, fundamentally uprooted, always wan­dering, never at home, never safe—exiled, in effect, from the garden we still vaguely remember having once inhabited. They feel the presence of the Angel or the flower blossoming within but then the work­shop’s over and they’re still ugly, aging and alone. Michel Houellebecq is perhaps the single most successful and controversial of all contemporary novelists writing in French. In this novel we follow a university professor from Paris, who specializes in the work of Joris-Karl Huysmans. But, given the aston­ishing rise of populists and nationalists in Europe and beyond, the question cannot be avoided. After half an hour, I got up, fully deserted by the Spirit, reduced to my damaged, perishable body, and I sadly descended the stairs that led to the car park.4. Lovecraft his first novel, and though it was published in 1991, four years before Whatever , it’s a work of nonfiction. They are both liberation movements; they both want the complete emancipation of the indi­vidual. So, while the Islam is presented in a bad daylight, the true critique is on our society and our intellectuals as a whole. While the pro­tagonist deliberates over whether or not to jump from his apartment (and after he has just worked out the speed and duration of the fall in a dry, almost surreal calculation), suddenly there is this: Actually, God does care about us, he thinks about us all the time, and he guides us, sometimes quite precisely. They don’t have much choice, really—most of them have money problems too.5. But how has this really been working out for them? Alex Clark. Est-ce qu’il faut vraiment, en supplément, que je donne ma vie pour ces minables? In this sense, Sérotonine is typical of Houellebecq’s oeuvre. Do I really need to offer up my life for these whingers? Another outcome is constant con­flict, constant competition—and in the end, fighting, divorce, and social isolation—and a new generation of boys and girls growing up in such disfigured settings. A crisis of atomization. The new Michel Houellebecq novel, Serotonin, is an exhausted and exhausting book. Other negative impacts would be instated for women. The elections are coming up and two parties are taking the front. So far, a typical French novel. Or has it been manufactured? . They would be allowed to have multiple wives. Houellebecq is concerned primarily with chaos. Quitting his job, he leaves their joint apartment without a word and decides to carry on anony­m­ously for as long as his savings will allow. This desperate moralism opens the doors to massive num­bers of immigrants, undermines real political communities, and makes distinctive national and civilizational aspirations impossible. We are profoundly incapable of defining ourselves as individuals (although we think we can). Étude des poésies de Michel Houellebecq Delphine Grass: Michel Houellebecq et les préromantiques allemands : vers une lecture poétique du roman houellebecquien Joaquim Lemasson: Une poésie prosaïque Per Buvik: Inauthenticité et ironie. A scarce, artificial and belated phenomenon, love can only blossom under certain mental conditions, rarely conjoined, and totally opposed to the freedom of morals that characterizes the modern era. We are free, and we are glad we are free. Unable to chart a course for ourselves, we are floating around in an empty sea. En réalité, les expériences sexuelles successives accumulées au cours de l’adolescence minent et détruisent rapidement toute possibilité de projection d’ordre sentimental et romanesque.” Quoted from Houellebecq, Whatever, 112. In a way his vision reminds me of something my PhD supervisor, the British philosopher Roger Scruton, once (jokingly) told me, that “the discovery of fossil fuels is the greatest tragedy in the history of man.” Whatever he really meant by that (he certainly wasn’t referring to that other modern heresy, the quasi-religion of “climate change”), he seemed to suggest that we have unleashed forces which we are unable to control. It is also more subtle than you might expect. The feminists will not be able to, if we’re being completely honest. So, while the Islam is presented in a bad daylight, the true critique is on our society and our intellectuals as a whole. It isn’t very long and is easily readable. All of Michel Houellebecq's usual concerns and areas of interest, that is: the protagonist fed up with and disappointed by contemporary civilisation, the exotic foreign locale, the nutty cult, contemporary tourist-culture, cloning and other age-defying attempts, the sex. Et je comprends, aujourd’hui, le point de vue du Christ, son agacement répété devant l’endurcissement des coeurs: ils ont tous les signes, et ils n’en tiennent pas le compte. Véronique avait connu trop de discothèques et d’amants; un tel mode de vie appauvrit l’être humain, lui infligeant des dommages parfois graves et toujours irréversibles. Michel Houellebecq’s satirical novel about France becoming an Islamic state is actually a clever, often very funny read. They just don’t give a shit. Sign In With Your AAJ Account Francios, the novel's main character, is a scholar of the nineteenth-century French writer J.K. Huysman. These loving impulses that enter into our hearts to the point of suffocation, these illuminations, these ecstasies which cannot be explained by simple biological nature, by our status as primates: these are extraordinarily clear signals. All control of life—and of who we are—is lost. Michel Houellebecq’s novel Submission—recently translated into English—depicts a dystopian near future in which France undergoes Islamization. For without the ability to define ourselves in an unbreakable connection with our surroundings, there is nothing for us to derive meaning from and we end up depressed. I’m practically one myself. No mercy, no comfort: the project of our civilization has come to an end. Houellebecq gives his opinion on the matter through this book. She had sovereignty, she had power, but little by little I felt myself losing touch, I felt her moving away from me in space and across the centuries while I sat there in my pew, shriveled and puny. Sexe et dépression en sont les deux pôles principaux. Après avoir reçu le prix Goncourt en 2010, Michel Houellebecq revient en librairie le 7 janvier 2015 avec Soumission. His new book imagines a France ruled by Islamists and he has been under 24-hour police protection since the Charlie Hebdo attack. La critique de Sérotonine, le dernier roman de Michel Houellebecq, par Lettres it be, c'est par ici ! This frustration is expressed directly by the character Christiane in Les particules élémentaires: Never could stand feminists. In all these movements, Houellebecq sees (correctly, in my view) an attempt to preserve traditional European culture or indeed to reestablish it: a world in which the family is once again at the center, in which nations are restored, maybe even a form of Christianity is reinstated. The sun doesn’t rise. Having languished for years without a sense of purpose, Florent-Claude resolves to end his reliance on antidepressants. French novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and critic. The Rebirth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Technology (New York 2014). It is this fundamental assumption of the modern age—that individual autonomy (be it through free markets or welfarism) leads to happiness—which Michel Houellebecq challenges. Should they adapt our values and standards or is it okay to live in a multicultural society? The latter is the case for the controversial French writer Michel Houellebecq. http://cinema.arte.tv/fr/magazine/lenlevement-de-michel-houellebecq Michel Houellebecq vit selon des règles précises et immuables. . It makes you wonder if he has played out his string as a fiction writer ... Like nearly every Houellebecq novel, Serotonin should be stamped on its spine with a tiny skull and crossbones, like you used to see on bottles of poison, to keep away the devout, the unsuspecting and the pure of heart. The French edition of the book was published on 7 January 2015 by Flammarion, with German (Unterwerfung) and Italian (Sottomissione) translations also published in January. In La possibilité d’une île (2005), that cry finally brings a new holistic world religion into being, which sublimates desire in an almost Buddhist manner. Review: Submission, by Michel Houellebecq - The Irish Times In Les particules élémentaires (1998), the pursuit of knowledge itself assumes religious proportions that raises mankind to a divine perspective through genetic manipulation. Then they start making jam from Marie Claire recipe cards. Houellebecq actually calls this criticism of H.P. We fly towards the light like moths; we are constantly drawn by its maddening attraction—and yet we are never fulfilled by the thing we pursue. Even if you don’t share his view on the matter, it is definitely worth the read. He has a series of relationships, all of which ultimately fail. Michel Houellebecq’s tragic humanism. L’amour comme innocence et comme capacité d’illusion, comme aptitude à résumer l’ensemble de l’autre sexe à un seul être aimé, résiste rarement à une année de vagabondage sexuel, jamais à deux. Again, all this may be true, or partly true: the comforting convic­tion that we are not alone, the idea that we are part of a greater plan and that a fatherly figure is watching over us, may well be necessary to accept the existential shortcomings of ourselves and those around us. Both the social-dem­ocratic and the liberal wing of the modern political spectrum (re­spectively advocating the welfare state and the free market) wish to maximize individual autonomy. When learning about this all the male intellectuals decide that the Islam isn’t all that bad and become a Muslim. Milk, grain, and meat from massive tillages in South America are dumped onto the French market, effectively seal­ing the fate of the farmers of France. . It contains a scathing critique of the European Union and imagines farmers blocking roadways … From disappointment (at the lack of an all-embracing cultural ideal, romantic love, meaningful social intercourse) to depression. But it doesn’t last. So, at first, no one of the intellectuals actually becomes a Muslim, until one part of it incites an interest. His latest novel, Serotonin, was published in an English translation earlier this year, and was promptly analyzed by numerous critics and public intellectuals across the country. Interview met Michel Houellebecq’, in: NRC Handelsblad, (September 23, 2005) 27. Au bout d’une demi-heure je me relevai, définitivement déserté par l’Esprit, réduit à mon corps endommagé, périssable, et je redescendis tristement les marches en direction du parking.” Quoted from Michel Houellebecq, Submission, trans. Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel acquired an air of urgency when its publication in France, at the beginning of this year, coincided with the emergence of the anti-metropolitan agitators known as les gilets jaunes. In contrast to such movements stands the alternative: the con­quest or replacement of our civilization by a new “metaphysical mutation.” Such a metaphysical mutation also conforms, though in a different way, to some traditionalist standard and involves the sacri­fice of the individual’s desires and liberation in favor of the group. It is no wonder that many critique Christianity instead when they want to disprove God, the same arguments apply in great lines to the Islam as well. always going on about washing dishes and the division of labor; they could never shut up about the dishes. Today, even new life (in the womb) may be extinguished to avoid disturbing the individual’s freedom. Submission (French: Soumission) is a novel by French writer Michel Houellebecq. Listen to Michel Houellebecq, enfant terrible of French literature The author is a friend of many of French society's movers and shakers, having met … . His best friend from college days, a man of aristocratic ancestry currently running the family château near Caen in Normandy, organizes a short-lived protest movement of farmers against free trade—but even this attempt to finally do something meaningful, to resist the slash and burn of modern existence, proves ineffectual. F or a brief moment, just before the end of Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel Sérotonine, a ray of hope seems to galvanize its protagonist.For a short while he seems to recover his lust for life. Submission (French: Soumission) is a novel by French writer Michel Houellebecq. have outed critique on Christianity and on the Islam. But, having said all this, is there any hope in Houellebecq’s oeuvre? When did we go astray? Having languished for years without a sense of purpose, Florent-Claude resolves to end his reliance on antidepressants. REVIEW ESSAY Yet, it is also critique of the intellectual world. This is the tragedy that has befallen us. But I and lots of other people will.”7. Perhaps the protagonist remains lying on the sofa in his apartment, crushed, unable even to gather the strength to walk to the open balcony door and hop over the railing? Michel Houellebecq’s Serotonin is a caustic, frightening, hilarious, raunchy, offensive, and politically incorrect novel about the decline of Europe, Western civilization, and humanity in general. They’ll critique and humor anything and the more taboo surrounds the topic, the quicker they’ll be to do it. And everything melts away into an all-encompassing void. Elle possédait la suzeraineté, elle possédait la puissance, mais peu à peu je sentais que je perdais le contact, qu’elle s’éloignait dans l’espace et dans les siècles tandis que je me tassais sur mon banc, ratatiné, restreint. If that is true, we must wait not just for his next book, but for the next generation of authors to pick up the challenge and run with it a little further: and to help us express, and even revive, the Western will to live. The second part of this title could serve as a summary of most of Michel Houellebecq’s books. The Elementary Particles was and continues to be a cause célèbre in France. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Frank Wynne (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), 121–22. In a few short years, they managed to turn every man they knew into an impotent, whining neurotic. . If you sense overtones of George Orwell here, be advised, it smacks of Orwellian critique – Houellebecq exchanges the political dogma of “Big Brother” for the omnipresent religious dogma in the neohumans, the “Supreme Sister”. One reason may be that Houellebecq is not just a reactionary, he’s also a critic of modern capitalism. In some of his books (such as La carte et le territoire), Houelle­becq allows his characters to achieve a degree of happiness in con­sumerism—as in the massive hypermarket where one can wander about endlessly in search of yet another self-indulgent pleasure—small comfort indeed. . Here, people can experience instant pleasure but duties—the care of children and elders—are avoided. Subsequently, he experiences up close how rural life is collapsing as a consequence of free trade and unfair competition from Third World countries. Il est de bon ton de critiquer le dernier Houellebecq. But this in itself is not enough. | Sign In with Blink, Scare Tactics: Michel Houellebecq Defends His Controversial New Book. The complete review's Review: . Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel acquired an air of urgency when its publication in France, at the beginning of this year, coincided with the emergence of the anti-metropolitan agitators known as les gilets jaunes. Houellebecq, in the end, does not really answer the question. Religion is not something people are able to critique easily. However, once you've diagnosed the pathology you can't just surrender to it. Indeed, apart from implying the indispensability of a strong national state, Houellebecq indicates that two much more fundamental challenges must be overcome: our sexual and spiritual liberation.