(Drivebycuriosity) - Michel Houellebecq belongs to the most important contemporary authors. His novels are analytical, philosophical and entertaining. And he likes to provoke. Houellebecq`s latest novel "Annihilation" comes up to his reputation (amazon ).
The complex plot is set in France around the year 2027 and focuses on a man in his late 40s (this is a spoiler free blog). There are 2 basic threads, one following the protagonist´s professional and the other his private life. He has a well paid job in the French administration, "at the heart of the state apparatus" and is friend with the French minister of Finance. This thread describes political developments in France and the preparations for an upcoming election.
The private thread focuses on marriage, the lives of siblings and health issues. Parallelly are happening mysterious & scary events and the protagonist has often bizarre dreams.
This is a spoiler free blog, so I won´t tell in which directions these threads lead, but the title "Annihilation" gives something away. Don´t expect an easy summer read.
As usual with Houellebecq novels that I have read, I am not too much impressed by the plot. But what makes me reading him again and again - and makes me a fan of him - are his his sharp wit and his analytical & precise musings about almost anything.
This novel is of course philosophical - as usual for Houellebecq - with a pessimist undertone. There are intelligent reflections about French politics, industrial politics, global terrorism, old age and more.
No Direct Contact With Matter
Here some examples:
"Lawyers and journalists were pretty much the same thing, in fact they both seemed to belong in the same disreputable world, in close touch with lies, with no direct contact with matter, reality, or any form of work".
Baby boomers "weren`t only more energetic, more active, more creative and broadly speaking more talented that us in every point of view".
In the 1980s "things still moved quickly in those days, much less quickly than in the 1960s, of course, or even in the 1970, the deceleration and immobilization of the West, heralding its annihilation, had been progressive".
"The French economy had become powerful and a big exporter, but the level of productivity had increased to insane proportions, and unqualified jobs had almost completely disappeared"
"Paris was a city with a weak level of social control and a high rate of delinquency".
"By granting greater value to the life of a child - when we have no idea what he will become, whether he will be intelligent or stupid, a genius, a criminal or a saint - we deny all value to our real actions. Out deeds, whether heroic or generous, all the things he have managed to accomplish, the things we have made, none of that has the slightest worth in the eyes of the world any longer... Devaluing the past and the present in favor of times to come, devaluing the real and preferring a virtual reality located in a vague future, are symptoms of European nihilism."
The Roots Of Nihilism
Houellebecq is inclined to believe "that the nihilism "began with Christianity, the tendency to become resigned to the present world, however unbearable it might be, as we wait for a saviour and a hypothetical future, the original sin of Christianity".
"The liberal doxa persisted in ignoring the problem, in the naive belief that the lure of material gain could be substituted for any other human motivation, and could on its own supply the mental energy necessary for maintaining of a complex social organization".
"We always communicate, more or less, within a particular age range; people who belong to a different age range, to whom you are not otherwise connected by a direct family relationship; the billions of people with whom we share the planet, have no real existence in your eyes".
What Made Great Kings Great
"It`s probably normal for old people to take an interest in history, which contextualizes their own passing by retracing the fates of important, illustrious and sometimes even all-powerful people who had nonetheless returned to dust."
Why the kings of France had gone down in history as great kings: "Not reducing the territory of the kingdom, on the contrary increasing it if possible, either through purchases or more often through wars, while at the same time avoiding increasing the costs of mercenaries to excess, and more generally avoiding any unnecessary fiscal pressure. Avoiding civil wars within the kingdom, in particular religious wars, they had always been the deadliest, which had been achieved by unambiguously designation a single dominant region .....Perhaps increasing the prestige of the kingdom by erecting monuments and supporting the arts. For some centuries this ideal programme had ensured the prestige of the curious partnership of Richelieu and Louis XIII; no one really knew how it worked, but the fact remained that it had".
"When one is dealing with a pure opportunistic demagogue like Jacques Chirac, or other local personalities on a lesser intellectual scale, who sometimes won certain elections by virtue of their popularity among the very stupid, and who thus saw themselves as being elevated much higher than their normal level via a regrettable fate".
Houellebecq also adds descriptions of rivers, cityscapes, the taste of pussies, the therapeutic influence of escape literature like Conan Doyle´s Sherlock Holmes stories and much more.
The image above is taken from the book and refers to parts of the plot.
Read it!
