They only think about themselves and if there is something profitable in it, then they’ll convert to whatever they need to convert into. http://cinema.arte.tv/fr/magazine/lenlevement-de-michel-houellebecq Michel Houellebecq vit selon des règles précises et immuables. I think Houellebecq has a very powerful critique, it s a very powerfully felt critique. . Women wouldn’t be allowed in schools anymore; only men would be allowed to go to university. 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. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Anyway, they fuck their way through two or three, maybe more if they’re really pretty, and wind up with a kid. by Michel Houellebecq French novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and critic. But, having said all this, is there any hope in Houellebecq’s oeuvre? Instead, it has left our lives empty, without purpose, and, above all, extremely lonely. 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. REVIEW ESSAY Sérotonine by Michel Houellebecq Flammarion, 2019, 352 pages. One reason may be that Houellebecq is not just a reactionary, he’s also a critic of modern capitalism. 3 “Du point de vue amoureux Véronique appartenait, comme nous tous, à une génération sacrifiée. Michel Houellebecq’s tragic humanism. The second part of this title could serve as a summary of most of Michel Houellebecq’s books. Pour Michel Houellebecq, comme pour Wells, "l'esprit humain n'est pas encore né, et en l'absence d'amour la défaite est assurée". 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. Ces élans d’amour qui affluent dans nos poitrines jusqu’à nous couper le souffle, ces illuminations, ces extases, inexplicables si l’on considère notre nature biologique, notre statut de simples primates, sont des signes extrêmement clairs. Wed 21 Sep 2011 04.00 EDT. In this age of instant hookups and online pornography, renewed chastity seems very far off. Michel Houellebecq’s Critique of Western Anomie. This is a light read. . If, as in his view, the modern world is based on a fundamentally flawed anthropology—and has, as a consequence, produced a completely dysfunctional society—then it cannot continue to exist for very long. To have a position of power would mean to convert to the Islam. He has affaires with his students and drinks until he isn’t able to stand straight. His mother was a "sexually liberated" anaesthetist; his father a mountain guide. LE PLUS. Serotonin: A Novel by michel houellebecq farrar, straus and giroux, 320 pages, $27. Critiques (455), citations (411), extraits de Soumission de Michel Houellebecq. Les idées incongrues voisinent ici avec les longues réflexions muries. Tiré chez Flammarion à 320 000 exemplaires, c'est la sensation de la rentrée littéraire. . Par exemple, on peut citer l’apparition du christianisme. In most of his books, Houellebecq refers to some form of identitarian movement, of nationalists and populists, or, as in Séroto­nine, a popular uprising à la today’s gilets jaunes. They usually ended up ditching their boyfriends for a quick fuck with some macho Latin idiot. Est-ce qu’il faut vraiment, en supplément, que je donne ma vie pour ces minables? Houellebecq is concerned primarily with chaos. Like all Houellebecq heroes, Michel only finds relief in sex (.....) The book has been translated into rather polite English, which is a pity. They’ll critique and humor anything and the more taboo surrounds the topic, the quicker they’ll be to do it. Consider the emancipation of women and the feminist ideology that underpins it (a favorite topic in Houellebecq’s work). L'écrivain publie le 7 janvier "Soumission", roman dans lequel il imagine une France dirigé par un parti islamiste. So, while the Islam is presented in a bad daylight, the true critique is on our society and our intellectuals as a whole. . 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. I feel, rather, that we can make arrangements. Houelle­becq, however, draws upon older intuitions which maintain that the bond which forms through sexual intimacy may reemerge once or twice, but not much more, and that we should therefore be extremely cautious in acquiring amorous experience. 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. Having languished for years without a sense of purpose, Florent-Claude resolves to end his reliance on antidepressants. 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. Deeply depressed by his romantic and professional failures, the aging hedonist and agricultural engineer Florent-Claude Labrouste feels he is “dying of sadness.” | Sign In with Blink, Scare Tactics: Michel Houellebecq Defends His Controversial New Book. Or is it the writer who is speaking here, presenting his oeuvre as an attempt to offer salvation? However, once you've diagnosed the pathology you can't just surrender to it. They would be allowed to have multiple wives. They are both liberation movements; they both want the complete emancipation of the indi­vidual. 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. 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. Sérotonine tells the story of Florent-Claude, who grows up somewhere near Paris, trains as an agriculturalist, finds a job with Mon­santo, and later works in Normandy’s cheese industry before ending up in the French Ministry of Agriculture. But this in itself is not enough. But I and lots of other people will.”7. For a brief moment, just before the end of Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel Sérotonine, a ray of hope seems to galvanize its protagonist. Erratic consumer preferences, capricious fashions, and an unpredictable herd instinct dictate the opinions (or the whims and fancies) of most of us who no longer have a family, a home, a church, and a nation to reinforce our sense of identity. . As things stand today, this second scenario clearly represents the most likely future for Europe. Many of the ‘new Atheists’, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, etc. We are free, and we are glad we are free. This frustration is expressed directly by the character Christiane in Les particules élémentaires: Never could stand feminists. It has started to consume itself. Love as a kind of innocence and as a capacity for illusion, as an aptitude for epitomizing the whole of the other sex in a single loved being rarely resists a year of sexual immo­rality, and never two. 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. Even if you don’t share his view on the matter, it is definitely worth the read. This simple idea forms the fundamental conviction of Houellebecq’s work. REVIEW ESSAY Sérotonine by Michel Houellebecq Flammarion, 2019, 352 pages. In this novel we follow a university professor from Paris, who specializes in the work of Joris-Karl Huysmans. Houellebecq masterfully gives critique both to the Islam and to the hypocrisy of the intellectual elite, who don’t really follow through in their beliefs when it isn’t profitable for them to follow them. 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. 1 (2014), Issue 1, pp. The new Michel Houellebecq novel, Serotonin, is an exhausted and exhausting book. We are profoundly incapable of defining ourselves as individuals (although we think we can). For a short while he seems to recover his lust for life. Where does this liberal view of man, which has ushered in the rapid decline of Western civilization, originate? French novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and critic. 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. Take, for example, the protagonist of Soumission, who tries with all his might to convert to Christianity in the legendary cliffside city of Rocamadour: The Virgin waited in the shadows, calm and timeless. 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. 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. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. 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. True, the Islam has some unacceptable laws, but it’s we as a society who are willing to let those unacceptable laws exist as long as we get some profit from it (here: multiple women). In this sense, Sérotonine is typical of Houellebecq’s oeuvre. In all of his work, from the early poems of the 1990s to his recent novels, there exists a sustained critique of contemporary neoliberal society, free trade capitalism, and radical individualism. 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? Le nouveau roman de Michel Houellebecq, "Sérotonine", vient de sortir. Elle avait certainement été capable d’amour; elle aurait souhaité en être encore capable, je lui rends ce témoinage; mais cela n’était plus possible. Véronique had known too many discothèques, too many lovers; such a way of life impoverishes a human being, inflicting sometimes serious and always irreversible damage. The latter is the case for the controversial French writer Michel Houellebecq. Or perhaps he finds himself as an author unable to rid himself of that sense of defeat which characterizes his generation (Houellebecq was born in 1956—the truly lost generation). He was brought up in … . Karl Ove Knausgaard reviews Michel Houellebecq’s new novel, which imagines France as a Muslim state in 2022. 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. 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. 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. While reading, I was struck by the thought that Sérotonine may per­haps have been based on an older manuscript (from the period of Plateforme and La possibilité d’une île) which Houellebecq still wanted to finish. . 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. Lorin Stein (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), 139. And both base their vision of society on the (unfounded but supposedly “self-evident”) principle that every individual enjoys certain “inalienable rights,” which by definition eclipse all other claims, and to which all other ties, loyalties, and connections must ultimately be subordinated. Michel Houellebecq (prononcer [wɛlˈbɛk]), né Michel Thomas le 26 février 1956 à Saint-Pierre (La Réunion), est un écrivain, poète et essayiste français. Unable to chart a course for ourselves, we are floating around in an empty sea. As more options open up each day, our hearts close to the possibility of real human warmth, having been betrayed too many times—and having witnessed ourselves betraying others—for the brief mo­ments of seductive thrills that we, as “liberated individuals,” can no longer resist. 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 Les particules élémentaires (1998), the pursuit of knowledge itself assumes religious proportions that raises mankind to a divine perspective through genetic manipulation. The following entry presents an overview of Houellebecq's career through 2003. Pas de se suicider, enfin pas tout de suite car il ny aurait pas de roman, mais de disparaître, de sévaporer. Many of the ‘new Atheists’, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, etc. Frank Wynne (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), 121–22. Phénomène rare, artificiel et tardif, l’amour ne peut s’épanouir que dans des conditions mentales spéciales, rarement réunies, en tous points opposées à la liberté de moeurs qui caractérise l’époque modern. But whatever the case, it is not easy to see how we could possibly constrain the forces that we have unleashed. Houellebecq actually calls this criticism of H.P. . The complete review's Review: . 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. Then they start making jam from Marie Claire recipe cards. Michel Houellebecq is perhaps the single most successful and controversial of all contemporary novelists writing in French. always going on about washing dishes and the division of labor; they could never shut up about the dishes. Of course, the cult of virginity lost its credibility in the Western world some time ago, today’s philosophy being that we have to experiment to find the right partner. La critique de Sérotonine, le dernier roman de Michel Houellebecq, par Lettres it be, c'est par ici ! Michel Houellebecq's novel follows the career of a French academic during a future election in France in which a Muslim party wins. Because individualism makes our societies so weak (re­sulting, as we have seen, in an unwillingness to defend our civilization, to resist mass immigration, and even to reproduce, among other things), our society shall either regress and regenerate, or it will be replaced. So, at first, no one of the intellectuals actually becomes a Muslim, until one part of it incites an interest. Houellebecq's novel is a damning indictment of modern society (or rather: specifically modern French society). In Plateforme, the limitless supply of sex in Thailand’s coastal resorts leaves the author’s subjects on a temporary high. Michel Houellebecq enflamme la rentrée. In desperation, the resistance leader commits suicide at a demonstration not unlike today’s gilets jaunes protests. . The following entry presents an overview of Houellebecq's career through 2003. Houellebecq does not really reach a conclusion. And in Soumission (2015), the West succumbs to the Muslim creed. E ver the deadpan comedian, Michel Houellebecq … People who critique the Islam can get death threats or drawing Muhammed might mean blasphemy and the loss of Muslim friends. 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. Does he then sacrifice himself and plummet to the ground in a desperate attempt to save us all? 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. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. So yes, the modern world brought liberation. Especially after the Zen workshops. Michel Houellebecq's novel follows the career of a French academic during a future election in France in which a Muslim party wins. 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. Photograph: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images. Essays and criticism on Michel Houellebecq - Critical Essays. REVIEW ESSAY It is also more subtle than you might expect. Yet, it is also critique of the intellectual world. Religion is not something people are able to critique easily. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life by Michel Houellebecq, Dorna … Why, then, has Houellebecq, for his latest book, chosen a pro­tagonist who belongs to the nihilistic 1990s rather than the asser­tive 2010s? Other negative impacts would be instated for women. 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. In the Netherlands (where I live), suicide is facilitated to ensure that here, too, no constraints—such as the duty to care for your parents—are placed on the indi­vidual. "Houellebecq's deadpan description of a France colonized by American products and ideas is the background to what will be Michel's great notion. He writes wonderfully. He has to be deliberalized. Both would mean a huge shift in the political landscape and society as they know it. This naturally implies a powerful nation-state that protects the social fabric, along with a high degree of skepticism towards immigration and free trade. The glow on the horizon fades—just like in the closing passage of Houellebecq’s first novel, Ex­tension du domaine de la lutte, in which the subject’s hope sim­ilarly vanishes after a delightful, optimistic afternoon in the country: “It will not take place, the sublime fusion,” he reflects, “the goal of life is missed.”1. He is the author of The Significance of Borders (Brill, 2012). But has this been an autonomous process? Constantly enticed by the promise of relief, which in the end never really re­lieves, we keep hopelessly searching for the thing that “truly” makes us, as “individuals,” “be ourselves.” In Houellebecq’s view, the very philosophical concept of “the individual self” is wrong. 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. Oh, sometimes they’d talk about cooking or vacuuming, but their favorite topic was washing dishes. If they continue to work full hours, building a family becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible. We are now at the point where we must begin to think about what comes after—and this will necessarily be some form of tra­ditionalism. 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. The book instantly became a bestseller in France, Germany and Italy. This is why women in the Western world increasingly tend to have fewer children—if they even have them at all. Do I really have to be so explicit? To start with sex, in Extension du domaine de la lutte Houelle­becq writes: From the amorous point of view, Véronique belonged, as we all do, to a sacrificed generation. The intellectuals aren’t really fond of this. Once they’d done that, it was always the same story—they started going on about how there were no real men anymore. To recreate embeddedness in society, the individual himself has to be embedded again. And everything melts away into an all-encompassing void. . Once a metaphysical mutation has arisen, it tends to move inexorably toward its logical conclusion.6. So they have crying fits. Michel Houellebecq’s satirical novel about France becoming an Islamic state is actually a clever, often very funny read. Michel Houellebecq, original name Michel Thomas, (born February 26, 1956 or 1958, Réunion, France), French writer, satirist, and provocateur whose work exposes his sometimes darkly humorous, often offensive, and thoroughly misanthropic view of humanity and the world.He was one of the best-known, if not always best-loved, French novelists of the early 21st century. Il est de bon ton de critiquer le dernier Houellebecq. 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. 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. Having languished for years without a sense of purpose, Florent-Claude resolves to end his reliance on antidepressants. 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. Rudderless. Submission (French: Soumission) is a novel by French writer Michel Houellebecq. 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. 7 Sylvain Bourmeau, “Scare Tactics: Michel Houellebecq Defends His Controversial New Book,” Paris Review, January 2, 2015. But how has this really been working out for them? Liberation, once again, hardly liberates. Houellebecq gives his opinion on the matter through this book. Francios, the novel's main character, is a scholar of the nineteenth-century French writer J.K. Huysman. ( Log Out /  This desperate moralism opens the doors to massive num­bers of immigrants, undermines real political communities, and makes distinctive national and civilizational aspirations impossible. Michel Houellebecq: a terrific fictional character. Here, people can experience instant pleasure but duties—the care of children and elders—are avoided. She had certainly been ca­pable of love; she would have wished to still be capable of it, I’ll say that for her; but it was no longer possible. 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.