BooksAndArticles

Submission: A Novel by Michel Houellebecq

LiterarySummary

I think Houellbecq is one of the more interesting writers. His "whatever" sort of defined the the late-90s gen-x views of the world. 

What his novels generally focus on, is to express the failures of the 60s liberal boomer worldview. Like all good writers he doesn't do that too obviously...most of the time the message is pretty well hidden. 

I remember a few years ago I read this section, where he is complaining about not being able to smoke anywhere in France....having to go outside into the street, instead of being able to smoke in a bar - filled with other willing smokers - meanwhile actually morally abject behaviors are permitted:

>Little by little, and without anyone’s objecting—or even seeming to notice—our civil law has moved away from the moral law whose fulfillment should be its sole purpose. It is difficult and exhausting to live in a country where the laws are held in contempt, whether they sanction acts that have nothing to do with morality or condone acts that are morally abject. But it’s even worse to live among people whom one begins to disdain for their submission to these laws
