Wasn’t Russell, along with most of his set, of the view that those considered unthinking should not be allowed to breed? Or least in no greater number than those required for physical and servile tasks?
Noticed the hostage taker from the uk shot dead in America had a mere 6 children . Obviously he was a super efficient dad with time to worry about busting lady jihadists from prison .
Why are we still droning on about French intellectuals?
It’s over for the French.
Their intellectuals, whom they rely on for guidance, are fraudulent, conformist, overeducated apparatchiks.
They are physical cowards who ran away from threat at critical points rather than stand and fight.
They are morally corrupt because they are lazy and expect immigrants to do their dirty work while denying those immigrants a fair place in society in return.
And they’re all so interminably miserable. I’m guessing there isn’t a French word for craic, which is as much a part of life as all their existential angst.
I agree. Nothing conformist about “Submission”, a highly original yet timely book.
Margaret Tudeau-Clayton
2 years ago
Thanks, Esther, this was a very interesting piece which made me want to read Houellebecq!
Drahcir Nevarc
2 years ago
I speak sub-fluent French and, apart from Edward St Aubyn, Houellebecq is more or less the only living novelist I read. Apart from these two, I deliberately read only dead white mostly males, in an endeavour to “épater les reveillards”.
I image in because he’s the only writer alive today that people might still be reading in 100 years.
rick stubbs
2 years ago
I have a long time interest in Houellebecq which began with Submission. Read all his books and far too many reviews by French or English critics. This the single best review/take, of not just this novel, but all his work I have ever come across. I am not in the lit crit business but IMO the author of this piece certainly should be.
Julie Blinde
2 years ago
Reading Submission was like reading a description of a French stereotype:
intellectuality (the French caste system)
priapic and rough (its always a man)
beautiful Paris (its never the banlieues)
perfect but simple cuisine (no Indian take-aways)
La France profonde (Parisians are stangers to it but profess they belong)
That wasn’t my experience of reading Soumission at all. To me, it was a fairly savage satire of Parisian hipsterism.
Jonathan Andrews
2 years ago
I managed a paragraph but didn’t have the foggiest what it was about.
I thought I’d come to the comments but, ladies and gents, you seem little wiser than I.
Jon Redman
2 years ago
The only thing I find interesting about Houellebecq is that I used to work in a West End street named after him (Welbeck Street; same name). I’ve read a lot of this sort of article about him, but none has ever given me the feeling that I need to read anything he’s written. I suspect his books are like Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, or indeed any literary prize winner, in that quite a lot of people buy them, but famously, almost nobody ever actually reads them.
Au contraire! (See what I did there?) – I’ve read a few of his novels and I liked them all very much. He’s one of the few contemporary writers of literary fiction who it seems to me actually gets read by people who aren’t members of book circles or themselves writers of contemporary fiction. A tad on the gloomy side, but I’m a miserable ba****d.
Jon, try reading Submission, it’s astonishingly good, and not at all hard to read. He’s dark, but he’s also funny. Anyway, don’t comment on him any more till you’ve read him, or at least seriously tried.
Hmm. After a slow start I couldn’t put Mandolin down. Caught the night bus home rather than the train so I had longer to read then carried on reading till 6 am anyway when I had finished the book and got through a loo roll crying.
They’re nothing like that. The sort of bourgeois triumphalist twerp who likes Captain Corelli’s Mandolin would loathe Houellebecq. You should read him.
Jon Redman
2 years ago
De Sade, Reage and Welbeck have pretty much taken ownership of s*domy for the French. I honestly can’t think of any other language in which there is so much written about it. Thank God for Anais Nin otherwise I’d really worry about French literature.
alan Osband
2 years ago
‘Here in America ,at least, there’s plenty of slumming it , reheated -Carver poverty porn and box-checking census -opera ‘
Main Edition
US
FR
Have read the whole article twice and I kept thinking of Monty Python.
Me too
Sodomy, bestiality and ennui. That’s about it. Can I have my doctorate now?
My upcoming dissertation on:
“rum, sodomy, prayers and the lash.”” (from Churchill’s quote, not the Punk song)
is coming along very well, and I expect my PhD any day….
Fabulous article – probably the best writer on UnHerd at the mo.
Wow, you understood it, you must be well clever
Give me an Englishman* any day. “Most people would rather die than think, and most do”.
(*Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970.)
Wasn’t Russell, along with most of his set, of the view that those considered unthinking should not be allowed to breed? Or least in no greater number than those required for physical and servile tasks?
Yes, precisely. Were they wrong?
Are you available to chair the ‘breeding’ committee? Mass compulsory sterilisation will be ‘interesting’.
Noticed the hostage taker from the uk shot dead in America had a mere 6 children . Obviously he was a super efficient dad with time to worry about busting lady jihadists from prison .
Nothing to do with Islam though…
Why are we still droning on about French intellectuals?
It’s over for the French.
Their intellectuals, whom they rely on for guidance, are fraudulent, conformist, overeducated apparatchiks.
They are physical cowards who ran away from threat at critical points rather than stand and fight.
They are morally corrupt because they are lazy and expect immigrants to do their dirty work while denying those immigrants a fair place in society in return.
And they’re all so interminably miserable. I’m guessing there isn’t a French word for craic, which is as much a part of life as all their existential angst.
Gosh, Houellebecq is probably the funniest writer in the world, and he is certainly no conformist intellectual. Try ‘Submission’.
Agreed. Serotonine is also an absolute classic.
He is funny and that is overlooked .The woke disapproval of him is as you said ‘lazy’. I would add facile..
I agree. Nothing conformist about “Submission”, a highly original yet timely book.
Thanks, Esther, this was a very interesting piece which made me want to read Houellebecq!
I speak sub-fluent French and, apart from Edward St Aubyn, Houellebecq is more or less the only living novelist I read. Apart from these two, I deliberately read only dead white mostly males, in an endeavour to “épater les reveillards”.
Why this Unherd’s obsession for Houellebecq ?
Because he writes good click-bait
Having clocked the photo of Esther Manov I read that as chick-bait.
I image in because he’s the only writer alive today that people might still be reading in 100 years.
I have a long time interest in Houellebecq which began with Submission. Read all his books and far too many reviews by French or English critics. This the single best review/take, of not just this novel, but all his work I have ever come across. I am not in the lit crit business but IMO the author of this piece certainly should be.
Reading Submission was like reading a description of a French stereotype:
Do the French really aspire to this still ?
I remember some American Film Critic describing all French Movies:
‘Two couples each have adulterous affairs with each other spouse – then go to dinner and talk about it for 3 hours.’
Cope
That wasn’t my experience of reading Soumission at all. To me, it was a fairly savage satire of Parisian hipsterism.
I managed a paragraph but didn’t have the foggiest what it was about.
I thought I’d come to the comments but, ladies and gents, you seem little wiser than I.
The only thing I find interesting about Houellebecq is that I used to work in a West End street named after him (Welbeck Street; same name). I’ve read a lot of this sort of article about him, but none has ever given me the feeling that I need to read anything he’s written. I suspect his books are like Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, or indeed any literary prize winner, in that quite a lot of people buy them, but famously, almost nobody ever actually reads them.
Touche
Touché surely?
Touchy if referring to T Hopp.
Smartypants1
Interesting – I reread Nineteen Eighty-Four every few years and it just gets better and better.
Au contraire! (See what I did there?) – I’ve read a few of his novels and I liked them all very much. He’s one of the few contemporary writers of literary fiction who it seems to me actually gets read by people who aren’t members of book circles or themselves writers of contemporary fiction. A tad on the gloomy side, but I’m a miserable ba****d.
Jon, try reading Submission, it’s astonishingly good, and not at all hard to read. He’s dark, but he’s also funny. Anyway, don’t comment on him any more till you’ve read him, or at least seriously tried.
Nothing like Mandolin thank God. Try Atomised.
Hmm. After a slow start I couldn’t put Mandolin down. Caught the night bus home rather than the train so I had longer to read then carried on reading till 6 am anyway when I had finished the book and got through a loo roll crying.
They’re nothing like that. The sort of bourgeois triumphalist twerp who likes Captain Corelli’s Mandolin would loathe Houellebecq. You should read him.
De Sade, Reage and Welbeck have pretty much taken ownership of s*domy for the French. I honestly can’t think of any other language in which there is so much written about it. Thank God for Anais Nin otherwise I’d really worry about French literature.
‘Here in America ,at least, there’s plenty of slumming it , reheated -Carver poverty porn and box-checking census -opera ‘
You mean My name is Lucy Barton ?
What a convoluted article. KISS.