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| Before Paris Shooting, Authors Tapped Into Mood of a France ‘Homesick at Home’ | Before Paris Shooting, Authors Tapped Into Mood of a France ‘Homesick at Home’ |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| PARIS — The cover of this week’s Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper that was the target of a massacre on Wednesday by masked gunmen, featured a cartoon depicting Michel Houellebecq, whose polemical — some say prophetic — new novel, “Submission,” imagines a Muslim becoming president of France in 2022. | |
| Under the headline “The predictions of the Great Houellebecq,” the celebrated novelist, wearing a magician’s hat and holding a cigarette, says, “In 2015, I will lose my teeth. In 2022, I will celebrate Ramadan.” | Under the headline “The predictions of the Great Houellebecq,” the celebrated novelist, wearing a magician’s hat and holding a cigarette, says, “In 2015, I will lose my teeth. In 2022, I will celebrate Ramadan.” |
| Even before its official release on Wednesday, “Submission” had already set off intense debates in France — about the line between satire and Islamophobia and between fantasy and realpolitik, about the novelist’s (and Islam’s) treatment of women, and about the political mainstream’s struggles to keep pace with the rise of both Islam and the far right — a debate that the attacks are certain to intensify. | Even before its official release on Wednesday, “Submission” had already set off intense debates in France — about the line between satire and Islamophobia and between fantasy and realpolitik, about the novelist’s (and Islam’s) treatment of women, and about the political mainstream’s struggles to keep pace with the rise of both Islam and the far right — a debate that the attacks are certain to intensify. |
| Earlier this week, before the attack in Paris, President François Hollande said he would read it. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the right-wing National Front, whom the fictional Muslim leader defeats in the novel, cashed in, calling it “a fiction that could one day become a reality.” Late Thursday, Agence France-Presse reported that Mr. Houellebecq (pronounced WELL-beck) had stopped promoting the book. | |
| With an ambitious initial print run of 150,000 copies, “Submission” is already the No. 1 seller on Amazon in France. It is likely to join another book with a similar theme on best-seller lists: “The French Suicide,” a 500-page essay in which the journalist Éric Zemmour, 56, argues that immigration, feminism and the 1968 student uprisings set France on a path to ruin. The top seller in France, the book has sold 400,000 copies since its release in October, according to its publisher, Albin Michel. | With an ambitious initial print run of 150,000 copies, “Submission” is already the No. 1 seller on Amazon in France. It is likely to join another book with a similar theme on best-seller lists: “The French Suicide,” a 500-page essay in which the journalist Éric Zemmour, 56, argues that immigration, feminism and the 1968 student uprisings set France on a path to ruin. The top seller in France, the book has sold 400,000 copies since its release in October, according to its publisher, Albin Michel. |
| Though Mr. Zemmour’s is a work of reactionary nostalgia and Mr. Houellebecq’s a futuristic fantasy, both books have hit the dominant note in the national mood today: “inquiétude,” or profound anxiety about the future. | Though Mr. Zemmour’s is a work of reactionary nostalgia and Mr. Houellebecq’s a futuristic fantasy, both books have hit the dominant note in the national mood today: “inquiétude,” or profound anxiety about the future. |
| Fueling this anxiety for many French are the fears of non-Muslims about Muslims, the threat posed by groups like the Islamic State and their recruiting in Europe, and rising anti-Semitism. More broadly, concern has grown that the political center is eroding and that extremes are rising in a way reminiscent of the 1930s, along with a sense that France, which prides itself on its republican tradition and strong, centralized state, has ceded too much power to the European Union. | Fueling this anxiety for many French are the fears of non-Muslims about Muslims, the threat posed by groups like the Islamic State and their recruiting in Europe, and rising anti-Semitism. More broadly, concern has grown that the political center is eroding and that extremes are rising in a way reminiscent of the 1930s, along with a sense that France, which prides itself on its republican tradition and strong, centralized state, has ceded too much power to the European Union. |
| “I think this anxiety is the idea of seeing France give up on itself, of changing to the point of no longer being recognizable,” said the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, whose much-debated 2013 book, “L’identité Malheureuse,” or “The Unhappy Identity,” discussed the problems immigration poses for French identity and cultural integration. “People are homesick at home,” he added, speaking two days before the attacks. | “I think this anxiety is the idea of seeing France give up on itself, of changing to the point of no longer being recognizable,” said the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, whose much-debated 2013 book, “L’identité Malheureuse,” or “The Unhappy Identity,” discussed the problems immigration poses for French identity and cultural integration. “People are homesick at home,” he added, speaking two days before the attacks. |
| Mr. Zemmour and Mr. Houellebecq wade into similar swampy waters, but reach different shores. “It’s the same book, in that both talk about the same subject: the irreversible rise of Islam in society and in politics,” said Christophe Barbier, the editor in chief of the newsweekly L’Express. | Mr. Zemmour and Mr. Houellebecq wade into similar swampy waters, but reach different shores. “It’s the same book, in that both talk about the same subject: the irreversible rise of Islam in society and in politics,” said Christophe Barbier, the editor in chief of the newsweekly L’Express. |
| For the pessimistic Mr. Zemmour, “the final prognosis is civil war. One day there will be a clash between the French who aren’t Muslim and the French who think that a Muslim should be president of the republic,” Mr. Barbier said. Mr. Houellebecq “takes the opposite tack: the rise of Islam is not civil war, it’s civil peace,” Mr. Barbier added. | For the pessimistic Mr. Zemmour, “the final prognosis is civil war. One day there will be a clash between the French who aren’t Muslim and the French who think that a Muslim should be president of the republic,” Mr. Barbier said. Mr. Houellebecq “takes the opposite tack: the rise of Islam is not civil war, it’s civil peace,” Mr. Barbier added. |
| “Submission,” Mr. Houellebecq’s sixth novel, paints France as a vision of economic stability under the reassuring presence of Mohammed Ben Abbes, the son of a Tunisian grocer and graduate of the elite École Nationale d’Administration. He wants to emulate the Roman emperor Augustus and bring parts of the Maghreb and Turkey into Europe. | “Submission,” Mr. Houellebecq’s sixth novel, paints France as a vision of economic stability under the reassuring presence of Mohammed Ben Abbes, the son of a Tunisian grocer and graduate of the elite École Nationale d’Administration. He wants to emulate the Roman emperor Augustus and bring parts of the Maghreb and Turkey into Europe. |
| With investment from the Middle East, the economically troubled France is in the black again. Shariah has come to the country of laïcité, where church and state are strongly separated. Polygamy is legal and women, now covered in public, take on the role of housewives. | With investment from the Middle East, the economically troubled France is in the black again. Shariah has come to the country of laïcité, where church and state are strongly separated. Polygamy is legal and women, now covered in public, take on the role of housewives. |
| The protagonist is François, a specialist on the 19th-century fin-de-siècle French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans, a convert to Catholicism. François converts to Islam to keep his job teaching at the Sorbonne. (With France under Islamic law, his sometime girlfriend, Myriam, who is Jewish, emigrates to Israel, echoing a very real trend among French Jews today.) | The protagonist is François, a specialist on the 19th-century fin-de-siècle French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans, a convert to Catholicism. François converts to Islam to keep his job teaching at the Sorbonne. (With France under Islamic law, his sometime girlfriend, Myriam, who is Jewish, emigrates to Israel, echoing a very real trend among French Jews today.) |
| Mr. Houellebecq, 58, is no stranger to controversy. He was tried on defamation charges after he called Islam “the most stupid religion” in a 2001 interview. His 1998 novel “The Elementary Particles,” was about the dark side of sexual liberation, while “Platform” (2001) explored sex tourism and anti-Muslim sentiments. In 2010, his novel “The Map and the Territory” won France’s prestigious Goncourt Prize. | Mr. Houellebecq, 58, is no stranger to controversy. He was tried on defamation charges after he called Islam “the most stupid religion” in a 2001 interview. His 1998 novel “The Elementary Particles,” was about the dark side of sexual liberation, while “Platform” (2001) explored sex tourism and anti-Muslim sentiments. In 2010, his novel “The Map and the Territory” won France’s prestigious Goncourt Prize. |
| This week, before the attack, some critics said the novelist was playing with fire, that “Submission,” its title a play on the literal meaning of the word Islam, was more than a literary exercise in that it could have an impact on French politics and civil life. | This week, before the attack, some critics said the novelist was playing with fire, that “Submission,” its title a play on the literal meaning of the word Islam, was more than a literary exercise in that it could have an impact on French politics and civil life. |
| “Houellebecq uses his talent, if I may say so, to exalt or to highlight this aspect of a collective fear that is descending upon us,” the philosopher Malek Chebel, who is Muslim, said on France 2 television this week. “I reproach him for it, all the more so that he is a great writer, and when you are a great writer, you have more responsibilities.” | “Houellebecq uses his talent, if I may say so, to exalt or to highlight this aspect of a collective fear that is descending upon us,” the philosopher Malek Chebel, who is Muslim, said on France 2 television this week. “I reproach him for it, all the more so that he is a great writer, and when you are a great writer, you have more responsibilities.” |
| Mr. Houellebecq rejected the idea that literature could alter events. | Mr. Houellebecq rejected the idea that literature could alter events. |
| “I don’t have other examples of a novel changing the course of history,” Mr. Houellebecq said on the same program. “Other things change the course of history. Essays, ‘The Communist Manifesto,’ things like that, but not novels. That has never happened.” | “I don’t have other examples of a novel changing the course of history,” Mr. Houellebecq said on the same program. “Other things change the course of history. Essays, ‘The Communist Manifesto,’ things like that, but not novels. That has never happened.” |
| Through a spokeswoman for his publisher, Flammarion, Mr. Houellebecq declined to be interviewed for this article. Farrar, Strauss & Giroux has acquired the book in the United States but has not set a publication date yet. In an interview with The Paris Review, Mr. Houellebecq called the novel “a political fiction,” in the same vein as those of Joseph Conrad or John Buchan. | |
| Some commentators see the book as a brilliant commentary on France’s collaborationist tendencies. | Some commentators see the book as a brilliant commentary on France’s collaborationist tendencies. |
| In Le Figaro on Thursday, the writer Chahdortt Djavann asked, “Is it out of misogyny that he makes all women submit to the veil and polygamy and expulsion from public spaces, without their offering the least resistance, or does he really think that Frenchwomen will be less courageous than Egyptian and Tunisian women?” | In Le Figaro on Thursday, the writer Chahdortt Djavann asked, “Is it out of misogyny that he makes all women submit to the veil and polygamy and expulsion from public spaces, without their offering the least resistance, or does he really think that Frenchwomen will be less courageous than Egyptian and Tunisian women?” |
| There are few such distinctions in “The French Suicide,” in which Mr. Zemmour argues that women should stay home and have more children. His essay examines moments in French culture since the death of Gen. Charles de Gaulle in 1970, with an unrepentant nostalgia for a past with strong leaders, and the peace and prosperity of “Les Trente Glorieuses,” or the 30 years from the end of World War II until the mid-1970s. | There are few such distinctions in “The French Suicide,” in which Mr. Zemmour argues that women should stay home and have more children. His essay examines moments in French culture since the death of Gen. Charles de Gaulle in 1970, with an unrepentant nostalgia for a past with strong leaders, and the peace and prosperity of “Les Trente Glorieuses,” or the 30 years from the end of World War II until the mid-1970s. |
| There are complex dissonances at work. Mr. Zemmour, the grandson of Algerian Jews, is fairly apologetic for Vichy France, and argues that people in France should give their children French names. | There are complex dissonances at work. Mr. Zemmour, the grandson of Algerian Jews, is fairly apologetic for Vichy France, and argues that people in France should give their children French names. |
| Through an assistant, Mr. Zemmour declined to comment. | Through an assistant, Mr. Zemmour declined to comment. |
| In his daily editorial on the popular French radio station RTL, on Thursday, Mr. Zemmour called the attacks on Charlie Hebdo France’s Sept. 11. “We aren’t fighting a war for free expression, we’re fighting a war, period,” he said. The peace of postwar France had been a rare parenthesis. “France has always been a country of civil wars and wars of religion,” he added. | In his daily editorial on the popular French radio station RTL, on Thursday, Mr. Zemmour called the attacks on Charlie Hebdo France’s Sept. 11. “We aren’t fighting a war for free expression, we’re fighting a war, period,” he said. The peace of postwar France had been a rare parenthesis. “France has always been a country of civil wars and wars of religion,” he added. |
| Commentators said that both “The French Suicide” and “Submission” would ultimately shore up the political fortunes of the National Front, a growing if incoherent mix of anti-establishment nativism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and anti-NATO and anti-European Union fervor. | Commentators said that both “The French Suicide” and “Submission” would ultimately shore up the political fortunes of the National Front, a growing if incoherent mix of anti-establishment nativism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and anti-NATO and anti-European Union fervor. |
| “The left has nothing to propose or to respond, and Zemmour and Houellebecq profit from this absence,” said Eric Naulleau, Mr. Zemmour’s more left-leaning co-host on a weekly television program and the author of a 2005 essay critical of Mr. Houellebecq. | “The left has nothing to propose or to respond, and Zemmour and Houellebecq profit from this absence,” said Eric Naulleau, Mr. Zemmour’s more left-leaning co-host on a weekly television program and the author of a 2005 essay critical of Mr. Houellebecq. |
| “One flees to the past and the other flees to the future,” Mr. Naulleau added of the two authors, “but neither offers any answers.” | “One flees to the past and the other flees to the future,” Mr. Naulleau added of the two authors, “but neither offers any answers.” |