Houellebecq Michel: Pokoravanje

Michel Houellebecq: Subjugation

Two prophetic novels marked the last century: Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. Not only because they predicted the future, but because they spoke the truth about the present. According to many critics and writers such as Emmanuel Carrère, Houellebecq's novel The Conquest extends their anticipatory power into the 21st century, and subsequent events have already confirmed part of his predictions. A few days after the release of the novel Platform, which ends with a sudden attack by Islamic terrorists on a summer resort, a fatal attack took place on the New York twins on 9/11. In 2001, on the very day when the novel "Submission" was published, the "Charlie Hebdo" editorial office was massacred, where twelve innocent people were killed; in order for the agreement to be complete, the cover of that satirical magazine also caricatures Houellebecq as Nostradamus. The title of the novel Submission refers to the etymology of the word "Islam", but it begins with a praise of literature. Europe is dying, the main character François is discouraged and tired, but fortunately there is the great literature of Karl-Joris Huysmans to which he is dedicated (the main work: Upside Down, in an excellent translation into Croatian by Ana Buljan, Litteris, 2005) and which alone has the power to maintain a salutary distance. In time for the 2022 presidential election, the Socialist Party is entering into a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood to prevent far-right candidate Marine Le Pen from coming to power. Result? France is becoming a bit Islamized without much gnashing of teeth. On the streets, women are no longer seen in dresses, but in trousers. Religious symbols stand out in schools and universities. Health insurance has been replaced by family solidarity. Polygamy becomes legal. Unemployment has disappeared as women leave the labor market. Order is restored and delinquency disappears in suspicious neighborhoods. This futuristic scenario emphasizes the unbearable ease with which citizens submit to new values. Power does not create submission, but submission creates power (La Boétie). Above all, satirical towards the French society in which the cowardice, servility and political correctness of the ruling and cultural elites reign, and not "Islamophobic" as he was falsely accused even before reading it, Houellebecq's latest novel of political fiction, "vast and subtle, exaggerated and clever, incredible and logical" (Pivot), is a radical critique of Western nihilism, its spiritual and ontological deficits. Michel Houellebecq is a French writer of planetary voice and meaning. His novels Expansion of the Battle Area, Elementary Particles, Platform, Island Possibility and Map and Territory marked the time in which we live.