Houellebecq’s ‘Submission’ Comes to America

Wall Street Journal ^ | Sept. 22, 2015 | TOBIAS GREY

[aquila48]

Publication day is a proud moment for most authors but it turned into a nightmare for Michel Houellebecq. The French writer’s sixth novel, “Submission,” which will be published in the U.S. next month, had been heralded as his most topical. The book imagines France in 2022 under the rule of an Islamic political party headed by a Muslim president.

On Jan. 7, the day “Submission” came out in France, the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo ran a caricature of the author on its cover. Bleary-eyed and sporting a wizard’s hat, the novelist was portrayed as a lugubrious prophet spouting asides like “In 2015 I’ll lose my teeth” or, more pointedly, “In 2022 I’ll observe Ramadan.”

On the same day two gunmen of the Islamic faith attacked the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people. Mr. Houellebecq, who lost a friend—the economist Bernard Maris—in the attack, has been under round-the-clock police protection since.

The 59-year-old author, who declined to be interviewed for this article, first ran afoul of Islam in 2001 when he described it to the French magazine Lire as “the dumbest religion.” After saying this he was taken to court by four Muslim associations “for insulting a group of people due to their religious beliefs.” The charges were dismissed.

[aquila48]

Perhaps the critics of Ben Carson should read this book...

[Calpublican]

{I’d known for years that the widening gap, now a chasm, between the people and those who claimed to speak for them, the politicians and journalists, would necessarily lead to something chaotic, violent and unpredictable}

Sounds familiar.

[aquila48]

The French now have two modern day prophets - Jean Raspail and Houellebecq.

[livius]

I’ve preordered it.

[DUMBGRUNT]

“ It isn’t so much an attack on Islam as an indictment of a two-party French political system which, in his view, has become tired and irrelevant. “I’d known for years that the widening gap, now a chasm, between the people and those who claimed to speak for them, the politicians and journalists, would necessarily lead to something chaotic, violent and unpredictable,” Mr. Houellebecq’s narrator says.

The novel imagines a political scene dominated by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front party. To foil Ms. Le Pen’s presidential bid the mainstream parties join a coalition headed by a charismatic—and fictional—Muslim presidential candidate, Mohammed Ben Abbes. When Ben Abbes, who heads the fictional Muslim Brotherhood party, wins the presidential election he gradually introduces measures in line with Islamic law, particularly in schools. Co-education is stamped out, teachers have to convert to Islam to keep their jobs and instruction in Islam is added to the French curriculum.

Not that far from a nobody, that assumes the office of President, of the greatest power on earth.

Can happen.