Michel Houellebecq
Encyclopedia
Michel Houellebecq born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1958—or 1956 (birth certificate)—on the French island of Réunion
, is a controversial and award-winning French author, filmmaker and poet. To admirers he is a writer in the tradition of literary provocation that reaches back to the Marquis de Sade
and Baudelaire; to detractors he is a peddler of sleaze and shock. Having written poetry and a biography of the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft
he brought out his first novel Extension du domaine de la lutte in 1994. Les particules élémentaires followed in 1998 and Plateforme in 2001. After a publicity tour for this book, which led to his being taken to court for inciting racial hatred, he went to Ireland to write. He lived in Ireland
for many years, and now lives in Spain.
. He also lived in Algeria
from the age of five months until 1961, with his maternal grandmother. As his website gloomily states, his parents "lost interest in his existence pretty quickly" and at the age of six, he was sent to France to live with his paternal grandmother, a communist, while his mother headed off to lead the hippie lifestyle. His paternal grandmother's maiden name was Houellebecq, which became his pen name. Later, he went to Lycée Henri Moissan
, a high school at Meaux
in the north-east of Paris, as a boarder. He then went to Lycée Chaptal in Paris to follow preparation courses in order to join French Grandes écoles
(elite schools). He began attending the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon
in 1975. He started a literary review called Karamazov and wrote poetry.
in 1980, got married and had a son; then he got divorced, got depressed and got on with writing poetry. His first poems appeared in 1985 in the magazine La Nouvelle Revue
. Six years later, in 1991, he published a biography of the horror writer H P Lovecraft , a teenage passion, with the prophetic subtitle 'Against the World, Against Life'. Rester vivant:méthode (To Stay Alive) appeared the same year, and was followed by his first proper collection of poetry. Meanwhile he worked as a computer administrator in Paris, including at the French National Assembly
, before he became the so-called "pop star
of the single generation", gaining fame with his début novel Extension du domaine de la lutte
in 1994 (translated into English by Paul Hammond as Whatever).
He won the 1998 Prix Novembre for his second novel Les Particules Élémentaires
(translated by Frank Wynne
) and published as Atomised (Heinemann, UK) or, The Elementary Particles (Knopf, US). The novel became an instant "nihilistic
classic". Michiko Kakutani
, however, described it in The New York Times
as "a deeply repugnant read." The novel won Houellebecq—along with his translator, Frank Wynne
—the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
in 2002.
In 2000, Houellebecq published the short fiction Lanzarote
(published in France with a volume of his photographs), in which he develops a number of the themes he would explore in later novels, including fringe religions and cult leaders. His subsequent novel, Plateforme
(2001), earned him a wider reputation. It is a romance, told mostly in the first-person by a 40 year-old male arts administrator, with many sex scenes and an approbation of prostitution and sex tourism
. The novel's depiction of life and its explicit criticism of Islam
, together with an interview its author gave to the magazine Lire
, led to accusations against Houellebecq by several organisations, including France's Human Rights League
, the Mecca
-based World Islamic League and the mosques of Paris and Lyon
. Charges were brought to trial, but a panel of three judges, delivering their verdict to a packed Paris courtroom, acquitted the author of having provoked 'racial' hatred, ascribing Houellebecq's opinions to the legitimate right of criticizing religions.
The Possibility of an Island
(La Possibilité d'une île) (2005) is a novel that cycles between three characters' narratives, Daniel 1 (a contemporary comedian) and Daniels 24 and 25, neo-human clones of Daniel 1. He later adapted and directed the film based on his novel. In 2008, Flammarion published Ennemis publics (Public Enemies) a conversation by e-mails between Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Lévy
.
Houellebecq has also released a music CD Présence humaine, on Bertrand Burgalat
's Tricatel label in 2000, on which he sings, or rather declaims a selection of his poetry, over a rock band backing.
A recurrent theme in Houellebecq's novels is the intrusion of free-market economics into human relationships and sexuality. Whatever (Original title, Extension du domaine de la lutte, which literally translates as "extension of the domain of the struggle") alludes to economic competition extending into the search for relationships. As the book says, a free market
has winners and losers, and the same applies to relationships in a society that does not enforce monogamy. Westerners of both sexes already seek exotic locations and climates by visiting developing countries in organized trips. In Platform
, the logical conclusion is that they would respond positively to sex tourism organized and sold in a corporate and professional fashion.
Although Houellebecq's work is oftentimes credited with building on conservative, if not reactionary
, ideas, his critical depiction of the hippie movement
, New Age ideology
and the May 1968 generation, especially in Les Particules Elementaires, echoes the thesis of Marxist
sociologist Michel Clouscard
.
His novel The Map and the Territory (La Carte et le Territoire) was released in September 2010 by Flammarion and won the Prix Goncourt
. Slate magazine
accused him of plagiarising some passages of this book from French Wikipedia
. Houellebecq denied that this was plagiarism, stating that "taking passages word for word was not stealing so long as the motives were to recycle them for artistic purposes", evoking the influence of Georges Perec
or Jorge Luis Borges
, and advocating the use of all kinds of raw materials in literature, even advertisings, food recipes or mathematics demonstrations. During a visit to Israel
in March–April 2011, Houellebecq said that he "was always pro-Israel".
has been filmed by Philippe Harel
and adapted as a play in Danish by Jens Albinus for the Royal Danish Theatre
.
The English translation of his novel Platform was adapted as a play by the theatre company Carnal Acts for the Institute of Contemporary Arts
(ICA) in London in December 2004. A Spanish adaptation of the novel by Calixto Bieito
, performed by Companyia Teatre Romea, premiered at the 2006 Edinburgh International Festival
.
Along with Loo Hui Phang, Houellebecq wrote the manuscript for the film Monde extérieur (2002) by David Rault and David Warren
.
Les Particules Élémentaires has been made into a German film, Elementarteilchen, directed by Oskar Roehler
, starring Moritz Bleibtreu
and Franka Potente
. The film premiered at the 2006 Berlinale.
The film La Possibilité d'une île directed by Houellebecq himself and based on the novel premiered in France on 10 September 2008.
American rock singer and "godfather of punk" Iggy Pop
released in 2009 the rather quiet album Préliminaires
, which he described as influenced by his reading of Michel Houellebecq's novel The Possibility of an Island
. The author considered it a great honour, as he was himself deeply affected as a teenager by Iggy Pop's music with The Stooges
.
, now editor of The Paris Review, made a spirited defense:
Here is Houellebecq's response to negative reviews, ten years later:
Houllebecq has been accused of polemic stunts for the media. The author's statements in interviews and from his novels, led to the accusation that he was anti-Islamic. In 2002, a court acquitted Houellebecq of spreading racial hatred after he declared "Islam the stupidest of all religions". He was sued by a civil-rights group for hate speech and won on the grounds of freedom of expression.
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
, is a controversial and award-winning French author, filmmaker and poet. To admirers he is a writer in the tradition of literary provocation that reaches back to the Marquis de Sade
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
and Baudelaire; to detractors he is a peddler of sleaze and shock. Having written poetry and a biography of the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
he brought out his first novel Extension du domaine de la lutte in 1994. Les particules élémentaires followed in 1998 and Plateforme in 2001. After a publicity tour for this book, which led to his being taken to court for inciting racial hatred, he went to Ireland to write. He lived in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
for many years, and now lives in Spain.
Early life
The son of Lucie Ceccaldi, an Algerian-born French doctor, and her husband, René Thomas, a ski instructor and mountain guide, Houellebecq was born on the French island of RéunionRéunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
. He also lived in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
from the age of five months until 1961, with his maternal grandmother. As his website gloomily states, his parents "lost interest in his existence pretty quickly" and at the age of six, he was sent to France to live with his paternal grandmother, a communist, while his mother headed off to lead the hippie lifestyle. His paternal grandmother's maiden name was Houellebecq, which became his pen name. Later, he went to Lycée Henri Moissan
Henri Moissan
Ferdinand Frederick Henri Moissan was a French chemist who won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds.-Biography:...
, a high school at Meaux
Meaux
Meaux is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located east-northeast from the center of Paris. Meaux is a sub-prefecture of the department and the seat of an arondissement...
in the north-east of Paris, as a boarder. He then went to Lycée Chaptal in Paris to follow preparation courses in order to join French Grandes écoles
Grandes écoles
The grandes écoles of France are higher education establishments outside the main framework of the French university system. The grandes écoles select students for admission based chiefly on national ranking in competitive written and oral exams...
(elite schools). He began attending the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon
Institut national agronomique Paris-Grignon
The Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon was a French grande école. It was created in 1971 by merging the Institut national agronomique and the École nationale supérieure d'Agronomie de Grignon, thus having a history that goes back to 1826.INA P-G disappeared as an administrative entity on...
in 1975. He started a literary review called Karamazov and wrote poetry.
Works
Houellebecq graduated as an agronomical engineerInstitut national agronomique Paris-Grignon
The Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon was a French grande école. It was created in 1971 by merging the Institut national agronomique and the École nationale supérieure d'Agronomie de Grignon, thus having a history that goes back to 1826.INA P-G disappeared as an administrative entity on...
in 1980, got married and had a son; then he got divorced, got depressed and got on with writing poetry. His first poems appeared in 1985 in the magazine La Nouvelle Revue
Nouvelle Revue Française
La Nouvelle Revue Française is a literary magazine founded in 1909 by a group of intellectuals, including André Gide, Jacques Copeau, and Jean Schlumberger...
. Six years later, in 1991, he published a biography of the horror writer H P Lovecraft , a teenage passion, with the prophetic subtitle 'Against the World, Against Life'. Rester vivant:méthode (To Stay Alive) appeared the same year, and was followed by his first proper collection of poetry. Meanwhile he worked as a computer administrator in Paris, including at the French National Assembly
French National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....
, before he became the so-called "pop star
Pop Star
"Pop Star" is a 2005 single from Japanese singer Ken Hirai. The single went on to top the 2005 Oricon Charts and is known for its remarkable music video, featuring Ken in seven different personas, including a raccoon and his own manager. The Video also helped Ken break into the US and Canadian...
of the single generation", gaining fame with his début novel Extension du domaine de la lutte
Extension du domaine de la lutte
Extension du domaine de la lutte is the debut novel of French writer, Michel Houellebecq, which was published in 1994 in France and in 1998 in the UK by Serpent's Tail, and released in 1999 as a film .-Plot introduction:It is a...
in 1994 (translated into English by Paul Hammond as Whatever).
He won the 1998 Prix Novembre for his second novel Les Particules Élémentaires
Les Particules Élémentaires
Atomised, also known as The Elementary Particles , is a novel by the French author Michel Houellebecq, published in France in 1998. It tells the story of two half-brothers, Michel and Bruno, and their mental struggles against their situations in modern society...
(translated by Frank Wynne
Frank Wynne
Frank Wynne is an Irish literary translator and writer.Born in Co. Sligo, Ireland, he worked as a comics editor at Fleetway and later at Deadline magazine . He worked for a time at AOL before becoming a literary translator...
) and published as Atomised (Heinemann, UK) or, The Elementary Particles (Knopf, US). The novel became an instant "nihilistic
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
classic". Michiko Kakutani
Michiko Kakutani
is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The New York Times and is considered by many to be a leading literary critic in the United States.-Life and career:...
, however, described it in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as "a deeply repugnant read." The novel won Houellebecq—along with his translator, Frank Wynne
Frank Wynne
Frank Wynne is an Irish literary translator and writer.Born in Co. Sligo, Ireland, he worked as a comics editor at Fleetway and later at Deadline magazine . He worked for a time at AOL before becoming a literary translator...
—the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is an international literary award for a work of fiction, jointly sponsored by the city of Dublin, Ireland and the company IMPAC. At €100,000 it is one of the richest literary prizes in the world...
in 2002.
In 2000, Houellebecq published the short fiction Lanzarote
Lanzarote (novel)
Lanzarote is a novella by the French author Michel Houellebecq, published in France in 2003 from a draft written at an unspecified earlier time .-External links:*...
(published in France with a volume of his photographs), in which he develops a number of the themes he would explore in later novels, including fringe religions and cult leaders. His subsequent novel, Plateforme
Platform (novel)
Platform is a novel by French writer Michel Houellebecq . It has received both great praise and great criticism, most notably for the novel's apparent condoning of sex tourism and anti-Muslim feelings...
(2001), earned him a wider reputation. It is a romance, told mostly in the first-person by a 40 year-old male arts administrator, with many sex scenes and an approbation of prostitution and sex tourism
Sex tourism
Sex tourism is travel to engage in sexual activity with prostitutes.The World Tourism Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, defines sex tourism as "trips organized from within the tourism sector, or from outside this sector but using its structures and networks, with the primary...
. The novel's depiction of life and its explicit criticism of Islam
Criticism of Islam
Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages. Early written criticism came from Christians, prior to the ninth century, many of whom viewed Islam as a radical Christian heresy...
, together with an interview its author gave to the magazine Lire
Lire
Lire is a French literary magazine covering both French and foreign literature. It was founded in 1975 by Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber and Bernard Pivot.-External links:*...
, led to accusations against Houellebecq by several organisations, including France's Human Rights League
Human Rights League
Several organisations are named Human Rights League in English:* Registered with the International Federation of Human Rights, abbreviated from its name in French as FIDH, established in 1922 and having its headquarters in Paris...
, the Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
-based World Islamic League and the mosques of Paris and Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
. Charges were brought to trial, but a panel of three judges, delivering their verdict to a packed Paris courtroom, acquitted the author of having provoked 'racial' hatred, ascribing Houellebecq's opinions to the legitimate right of criticizing religions.
The Possibility of an Island
The Possibility of an Island
The Possibility of an Island is a 2005 novel by French novelist Michel Houellebecq, set within a cloning cult that resembles the real-world Raëlians.-Plot summary:There are three main characters, Daniel, and two of his clones....
(La Possibilité d'une île) (2005) is a novel that cycles between three characters' narratives, Daniel 1 (a contemporary comedian) and Daniels 24 and 25, neo-human clones of Daniel 1. He later adapted and directed the film based on his novel. In 2008, Flammarion published Ennemis publics (Public Enemies) a conversation by e-mails between Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French public intellectual, philosopher and journalist. Often referred to today, in France, simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the "Nouveaux Philosophes" movement in 1976.-Early life:...
.
Houellebecq has also released a music CD Présence humaine, on Bertrand Burgalat
Bertrand Burgalat
Bertrand Burgalat is a French musician, composer and producer.- Background :Bertrand Burgalat was born in the Corsican town of Bastia in 1963...
's Tricatel label in 2000, on which he sings, or rather declaims a selection of his poetry, over a rock band backing.
A recurrent theme in Houellebecq's novels is the intrusion of free-market economics into human relationships and sexuality. Whatever (Original title, Extension du domaine de la lutte, which literally translates as "extension of the domain of the struggle") alludes to economic competition extending into the search for relationships. As the book says, a free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
has winners and losers, and the same applies to relationships in a society that does not enforce monogamy. Westerners of both sexes already seek exotic locations and climates by visiting developing countries in organized trips. In Platform
Platform (novel)
Platform is a novel by French writer Michel Houellebecq . It has received both great praise and great criticism, most notably for the novel's apparent condoning of sex tourism and anti-Muslim feelings...
, the logical conclusion is that they would respond positively to sex tourism organized and sold in a corporate and professional fashion.
Although Houellebecq's work is oftentimes credited with building on conservative, if not reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
, ideas, his critical depiction of the hippie movement
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
, New Age ideology
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
and the May 1968 generation, especially in Les Particules Elementaires, echoes the thesis of Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
sociologist Michel Clouscard
Michel Clouscard
Michel Clouscard was a French Marxist philosopher and sociologist.- Biography :Clouscard's early life was dominated by athletics...
.
His novel The Map and the Territory (La Carte et le Territoire) was released in September 2010 by Flammarion and won the Prix Goncourt
Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"...
. Slate magazine
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
accused him of plagiarising some passages of this book from French Wikipedia
French Wikipedia
The French Wikipedia is the French language edition of Wikipedia, spelt Wikipédia. This edition was started in March 2001, and has about articles as of , making it the third-largest Wikipedia overall, after the English-language and German-language editions...
. Houellebecq denied that this was plagiarism, stating that "taking passages word for word was not stealing so long as the motives were to recycle them for artistic purposes", evoking the influence of Georges Perec
Georges Perec
Georges Perec was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist and essayist. He is a member of the Oulipo group...
or Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, and advocating the use of all kinds of raw materials in literature, even advertisings, food recipes or mathematics demonstrations. During a visit to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in March–April 2011, Houellebecq said that he "was always pro-Israel".
Adaptations
Extension du domaine de la lutteExtension du domaine de la lutte
Extension du domaine de la lutte is the debut novel of French writer, Michel Houellebecq, which was published in 1994 in France and in 1998 in the UK by Serpent's Tail, and released in 1999 as a film .-Plot introduction:It is a...
has been filmed by Philippe Harel
Philippe Harel
Philippe Harel is a French film director, actor and screenwriter born in 1956.-Selected filmography:* La femme défendue * Extension du domaine de la lutte -External links:...
and adapted as a play in Danish by Jens Albinus for the Royal Danish Theatre
Royal Danish Theatre
The Royal Danish Theatre is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first serving as the theatre of the king, and then as the theatre of the...
.
The English translation of his novel Platform was adapted as a play by the theatre company Carnal Acts for the Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
(ICA) in London in December 2004. A Spanish adaptation of the novel by Calixto Bieito
Calixto Bieito
Calixto Bieito is a Spanish theater director known for his "radical" interpretations of classic operas.-Biography:...
, performed by Companyia Teatre Romea, premiered at the 2006 Edinburgh International Festival
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks from around the middle of August. By invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music , theatre, opera...
.
Along with Loo Hui Phang, Houellebecq wrote the manuscript for the film Monde extérieur (2002) by David Rault and David Warren
David Warren (director)
David Warren is an American theatre and television director.-Theatre:Warren has a number of Broadway production directing credits to his name, including Holiday, Summer and Smoke and Misalliance...
.
Les Particules Élémentaires has been made into a German film, Elementarteilchen, directed by Oskar Roehler
Oskar Roehler
Oskar Roehler is a German film director, screen writer and journalist. He was born in Starnberg as the son of writer Gisela Elsner and the writer Klaus Roehler. Since the mid-1980s he has been working as a screenwriter, for, among others, Niklaus Schilling, Christoph Schlingensief and Mark...
, starring Moritz Bleibtreu
Moritz Bleibtreu
Moritz Bleibtreu is a German actor.Bleibtreu was born in Munich, the son of actors Monica Bleibtreu and Hans Brenner, and the great-grand-nephew of the actress Hedwig Bleibtreu.Bleibtreu grew up in Hamburg...
and Franka Potente
Franka Potente
Franka Potente is a German film actress and singer. She first appeared in the comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval and gained critical recognition in the action thriller Lola rennt . Potente received Germany's highest film and television awards for her performances in Run Lola Run and...
. The film premiered at the 2006 Berlinale.
The film La Possibilité d'une île directed by Houellebecq himself and based on the novel premiered in France on 10 September 2008.
American rock singer and "godfather of punk" Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
released in 2009 the rather quiet album Préliminaires
Préliminaires
Préliminaires is a 2009 album by Iggy Pop, released on June 2, 2009, and inspired by Michel Houellebecq's novel La Possibilité d'une île ....
, which he described as influenced by his reading of Michel Houellebecq's novel The Possibility of an Island
The Possibility of an Island
The Possibility of an Island is a 2005 novel by French novelist Michel Houellebecq, set within a cloning cult that resembles the real-world Raëlians.-Plot summary:There are three main characters, Daniel, and two of his clones....
. The author considered it a great honour, as he was himself deeply affected as a teenager by Iggy Pop's music with The Stooges
The Stooges
The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...
.
Criticisms
Literary critics have labeled Michel Houellebecq's novels 'vulgar,' 'pamphlet literature' and 'pornography;' he has been accused of obscenity, racism, misogyny and islamophobia. His works, particularly 'Atomised' were poorly received by French literary intelligentsia; and though the critical response internationally was more positive, there were notable poor reviews in the New York Times by Michiko Kakutani and Anthony Quinn, Perry Anderson, as well as mixed reviews from the Wall Street Journal.. Meanwhile, without ignoring the book's grotesquerie, Lorin Stein from SalonSalon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, now editor of The Paris Review, made a spirited defense:
- "Houellebecq may despair of love in a free market, but he takes love more seriously, as an artistic problem and a fact about the world, than most polite novelists would dare to do; when he brings his sweeping indignation to bear on one memory, one moment when things seemed about to turn out all right for his characters, and didn’t, his compassion can blow you away."
Here is Houellebecq's response to negative reviews, ten years later:
- "First of all, they hate me more than I hate them. What I do reproach them for isn’t bad reviews. It is that they talk about things having nothing to do with my books—my mother or my tax exile—and that they caricature me so that I’ve become a symbol of so many unpleasant things—cynicism, nihilism, misogyny. People have stopped reading my books because they’ve already got their idea about me. To some degree of course, that’s true for everyone. After two or three novels, a writer can’t expect to be read. The critics have made up their minds."
Houllebecq has been accused of polemic stunts for the media. The author's statements in interviews and from his novels, led to the accusation that he was anti-Islamic. In 2002, a court acquitted Houellebecq of spreading racial hatred after he declared "Islam the stupidest of all religions". He was sued by a civil-rights group for hate speech and won on the grounds of freedom of expression.
Novels
- Extension du domaine de la lutteExtension du domaine de la lutteExtension du domaine de la lutte is the debut novel of French writer, Michel Houellebecq, which was published in 1994 in France and in 1998 in the UK by Serpent's Tail, and released in 1999 as a film .-Plot introduction:It is a...
(1994 ; Trans. as Whatever by Paul Hammond, 1998) - Les Particules élémentairesLes Particules ÉlémentairesAtomised, also known as The Elementary Particles , is a novel by the French author Michel Houellebecq, published in France in 1998. It tells the story of two half-brothers, Michel and Bruno, and their mental struggles against their situations in modern society...
(1998 ; Trans. as Atomised by Frank WynneFrank WynneFrank Wynne is an Irish literary translator and writer.Born in Co. Sligo, Ireland, he worked as a comics editor at Fleetway and later at Deadline magazine . He worked for a time at AOL before becoming a literary translator...
, 2000 ; published in the US as The Elementary Particles) - Plateforme (2001; Trans. as PlatformPlatform (novel)Platform is a novel by French writer Michel Houellebecq . It has received both great praise and great criticism, most notably for the novel's apparent condoning of sex tourism and anti-Muslim feelings...
by Frank WynneFrank WynneFrank Wynne is an Irish literary translator and writer.Born in Co. Sligo, Ireland, he worked as a comics editor at Fleetway and later at Deadline magazine . He worked for a time at AOL before becoming a literary translator...
, 2002) - La Possibilité d'une île (2005 ; Trans. as The Possibility of an IslandThe Possibility of an IslandThe Possibility of an Island is a 2005 novel by French novelist Michel Houellebecq, set within a cloning cult that resembles the real-world Raëlians.-Plot summary:There are three main characters, Daniel, and two of his clones....
by Gavin Bowd, 2006) - La Carte et le Territoire, Paris, Flammarion (2010) (Tran. as The Map and the Territory)
Other books
- H. P. Lovecraft: Contre le monde, contre la vie (1991; Trans. as H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against LifeH. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against LifeH. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life is a work of literary criticism by French author Michel Houellebecq regarding the works of H. P. Lovecraft...
by Dorna Khazeni, Intro by Stephen KingStephen KingStephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
, 2005), an analysis of the life and work of H. P. LovecraftH. P. LovecraftHoward Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
. - Rester vivant, méthode, La Différence (1991)
- La Poursuite du bonheur, poèmes, La Différence (1992)
- Le Sens du combat, poèmes, Flammarion (1996)
- Interventions, recueil d'essais, Flammarion (1998)
- Renaissance, poèmes, Flammarion (1999)
- LanzaroteLanzarote (novel)Lanzarote is a novella by the French author Michel Houellebecq, published in France in 2003 from a draft written at an unspecified earlier time .-External links:*...
(2000, Trans. by Frank WynneFrank WynneFrank Wynne is an Irish literary translator and writer.Born in Co. Sligo, Ireland, he worked as a comics editor at Fleetway and later at Deadline magazine . He worked for a time at AOL before becoming a literary translator...
, 2002) - Ennemis publics (letters between Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri LévyBernard-Henri LévyBernard-Henri Lévy is a French public intellectual, philosopher and journalist. Often referred to today, in France, simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the "Nouveaux Philosophes" movement in 1976.-Early life:...
), Flammarion (2008; Transl. as Public Enemies: Dueling Writers Take on Each Other and the World, Random House, 2011, paperback, 320 pages, ISBN 0812980786)
Articles
- "Description d'une lassitude" (2002) in Houelle 10, Paris.
- "Je crois peu en la liberté – Entretien" (1998) in Revue Perpendiculaire 11, Paris: Flammarion, p. 4–23.
- "L'homme de gauche est mal parti" (2003) in Le FigaroLe FigaroLe Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...
6/1/03, p. 1, 13. - "La question pédophile: Réponse" (1997) in L'Infini 59, Paris: Gallimard, pp. 96–98.
- "La privatisation du monde" (2000) in L'Atelier du roman 23, Paris, pp. 129–34.
- "Le haut langage" (1995) in La Quinzaine littéraire, 670; Paris; pp. 21–22.
- "Michel Houellebecq répond à Perpendiculaire" (1998) in Le Monde 18 September 1998
- "Neil YoungNeil YoungNeil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
" (2000) in Michka Assayas (ed.) Dictionnaire du rock, Paris: Robert Laffont (second part of the article, co-signed with Yves Bigot who wrote the more chronological first part). - "Préface" in Tomi Ungerer (2001) Erotoscope, Paris: Éditions Taschen.
- "Préface: L'Humanité, second stade" (1998) in Valérie Solanas, Scum Manifesto, Paris: Éditions Mille et une nuits, pp. 63–69.
- "Préface: Préliminaires au positivisme" (2003) in Bourdeau, Braunstein & Petit (eds.): Auguste Comte aujourd'hui, Paris: Éditions Kimé, pp. 7–12.
- "Préface: Renoncer à l'intelligence" (1991) in Rémy de GourmontRemy de GourmontRemy de Gourmont was a French Symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars...
, L'Odeur des jacinthes, Paris: Orphée/La Différence, pp. 7–20. - "Un monde sans direction" (1996) in La Quinzaine littéraire, 700; Paris; pp. 8–9.
- "Wilde Flucht" (2000) in Tageszeitung Berlin, 30 October 2000.
- "En présence de Schopenhauer" (2010) in Mediapart.fr, feb. 2010 (5 parts).
Films
- Cristal de souffrance (1978)
- Déséquilibre (1982)
- La Rivière (2001) Canal +
- La Possibilité d'une îleLa Possibilité d'une île (film)La Possibilité d'une île is a 2008 film directed by Michel Houellebecq, loosely based on his 2005 novel The Possibility of an Island.-Plot:...
(2008)
CDs
- Le Sens du combat (1996) Paris: Les Poétiques de France Culture.
- Présence humaine (2000) Paris: Tricatel.
Published in collaboration
- Judith Barry, Pascal Convert & Rainer Pfnür (eds.) (1993) Genius Loci, Paris: La Différence.
- Catherine Breillat (ed.) (1999) Le livre du plaisir, Paris: Éditions 1.
- (1995) Objet Perdu: fictions – Idées – Images, Paris: Lachenal et Ritter & Parc Éditions.
- Claus Hegemann (ed.) (2000) Kapitalismus und Depression II: Glück ohne Ende, Berlin: Alexander Verlag.
- Dominique Noguez (ed.) (2002) Balade en Seine-et-Marne: Sur les pas des écrivains, Paris: Éditions Alexandrines.
- Thomas Ruff & Michel Houellebecq (2002) Nudes, München: Walther König.
- Sarah Wiame (drawings) & Michel Houellebecq (poems) (1993) La Peau, Paris: Sarah Wiame.
- Sarah Wiame (drawings) & Michel Houellebecq (poems) (1995) La Ville, Paris: Sarah Wiame.
Works on Michel Houellebecq
- Ben Jeffery, Anti-Matter: Michel Houellebecq and Depressive Realism (2011)
- James Grieve, "A Mongrel in the Path: Prose and Poetry by Michel Houellebecq", in Art & Authenticity (2010)
- Aurélien Bellanger, Houellebecq écrivain romantique (2010)
- Lucie Ceccaldi, L'innocente (2008)
- Murielle Lucie Clément, Michel Houellebecq revisité (2007)
- Murielle Lucie Clément and Sabine van Wesemael (eds.), Michel Houellebecq sous la loupe (2007)
- Gavin Bowd (ed.), Le Monde de Houellebecq (2006)
- Fernando ArrabalFernando ArrabalFernando Arrabal Terán is a Spanish playwright, screenwriter, film director, novelist and poet. He settled in France in 1955, he describes himself as “desterrado,” or “half-expatriate, half-exiled.”...
, Houellebecq (2005) - Éric Naulleau, Au secours, Houellebecq revient ! (2005)
- Jean-François Patricola, Michel Houellebecq ou la provocation permanente (2005)
- Denis Demonpion, Houellebecq non autorisé, enquête sur un phénomène (2005)
- Sabine van Wesemael, Michel Houellebecq, le plaisir du texte (2005)
- Olivier Bardolle, La Littérature à vif (Le cas Houellebecq) (2004)
- Sabine van Wesemael (ed.), Michel Houellebecq (2004)
- Dominique Noguez, Houellebecq, en fait (2003)
- Murielle Lucie Clément, Houellebecq, Sperme et sang (2003)
- Thomas Steinfeld, Das Phänomen Houellebecq (2001)
- Manuel Chemineau, "Michel Houellebecq. Vive le trash!", in Wiener Zeitung, Extra (2 April 1999)
External links
- Fan club
- Houellebecq et le “Prix Clone-court”: ou le Nouvel-Âge du clonage de clowns raëliens—(Cloning Clowns with the “Clonecourt Prize” is now “Raëlity”!)
- Holidays in the Sun by Travis Jeppesen
- "A dog's life (poodles excepted)" by Michael Worton, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 29 October 2005 - "L'Étranger in a Strange Land: Michel Houellebecq's Weekend in L.A." by Brendan Bernhard, LA WeeklyLA WeeklyLA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
, June 2005 - The man can't help it, In-depth interview, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 31 August 2002. - 'Confused Extremes', review of Atomised in the Oxonian Review
- An essay on Houellebecq and critical theory
- The Possibility of An Island Reviews & Scores at Metacritic.com
- The Possibility of an Island Review on Stalker.
- The Pursuit of the Hole, review of The Possibility of an Island in the Oxonian Review
- Critical bibliography on Michel Houellebecq's works (Auteurs.contemporain.info)
- "90% Hateful" by John Updike, The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, 15 May 2006 - Interview with Houellebecq's mother, regarding her own memoir