106-620: Michel Houellebecq ( French pronunciation: [miʃɛl wɛlbɛk] ; born Michel Thomas on 26 February 1956) is a French author of novels, poems and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker and singer. His first book was a biographical essay on the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft . Houellebecq published his first novel, Whatever , in 1994. His next novel, Atomised , published in 1998, brought him international fame as well as controversy. Platform followed in 2001. He has published several books of poetry, including The Art of Struggle in 1996. An offhand remark about Islam during
212-457: A psychiatric hospital ; even there, he theorizes about his condition being the direct result of the contemporary social configuration, rather than a personal failure or mental illness. Throughout the 1990s, Houellebecq published several books of poetry, including Le sens du combat in 1996 (translated as The Art of Struggle , which, in a 2005 video interview for the magazine Les Inrockuptibles , he cited as his most accomplished book to date,
318-469: A two-round system ; thus, 289 seats are required for a majority. The president of the National Assembly , currently Yaël Braun-Pivet , presides over the body. The officeholder is usually a member of the largest party represented, assisted by vice presidents from across the represented political spectrum. The National Assembly's term is five years; however, the president of France may dissolve
424-465: A "project for a new constitution" based on direct democracy which would render the president of the republic elected for life, but instantly revocable by a simple popular referendum, and would permit the people to elect judges. During his 21 June 2016 appearance on Le Petit Journal , Houellebecq said that he voted for the Socialist Party ticket headed by Anne Hidalgo and Jérôme Coumet in
530-416: A 40-year-old male arts administrator named Michel, who shares many real-life characteristics with the author, including his apathy and low self-esteem, it includes a depiction of life as hopeless, as well as numerous sex scenes, some of which display an approving attitude towards prostitution and sex tourism . The novel's explicit criticism of Islam —the story ends with the depiction of a terrorist attack on
636-591: A German film, Elementarteilchen , directed by Oskar Roehler , starring Moritz Bleibtreu and Franka Potente . The film premiered in 2006 at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival . It was poorly received and generally considered a watered-down take on the novel's bleakness and thought-provoking ideas. The film La Possibilité d'une île , directed by Houellebecq himself and based on his novel, premiered in France on 10 September 2008. It
742-473: A booklet featuring notes by Mishka Assayas and texts by Fernando Arrabal . A recurrent theme in Houellebecq's novels is the intrusion of free-market economics into human relationships and sexuality. The original French title of Whatever , Extension du domaine de la lutte (literally "broadening of the field of struggle"), alludes to economic competition extending into the search for relationships. As
848-550: A chance to arise. In an interview with Front Populaire magazine in November 2022, he stated: "The ' Great Replacement ' is not a theory, it is a fact. There is no conspiracy orchestrated by the elite but there is a 'transfer' of people from poor countries, where the birth rate is high ... What we can already see is that people are arming themselves. There will be acts of resistance, reverse Bataclans , attacks aimed at mosques as well as cafés popular with Muslims ... The objective of
954-548: A contemporary stand-up comedian and movie maker renowned for his extreme causticity, alternating with Daniel 24 and then Daniel 25, neo-human clones of Daniel 1 in a far future; Daniel 1 witnesses dramatic events by which a sect named the Elohimites (based on Raëlism ) changes the course of history, and his autobiography constitutes a canonical account that his clones are compelled to study, both in order to acquaint themselves with their model / ancestor's troubled character (since
1060-540: A convert. He has been critical of attempts to legalise euthanasia in France and Europe, writing in April 2021 in Le Figaro : [W]hen a country — a society, a civilisation — gets to the point of legalising euthanasia, it loses in my eyes all right to respect. It becomes henceforth not only legitimate, but desirable, to destroy it; so that something else — another country, another society, another civilisation — might have
1166-424: A depressed and isolated computer programmer who tries to convince a colleague to murder a young woman who rejected the colleague's sexual advances. A major theme is that the sexual revolution of the 1960s extended capitalism to the sexual market, creating an unattractive sexual underclass. It was adapted into the 1999 film Whatever , directed by and starring Philippe Harel . The unnamed first-person narrator
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#17327983163591272-670: A deputy cannot receive a wage of more than €9,779.11. Deputies' expenses can be scrutinised by a commission; sanctions can be pronounced if expenses were undue. The position of deputy of the National Assembly is incompatible with that of any other elected legislative position (Senator or since 2000, Member of European Parliament ) or with some administrative functions (members of the Constitutional Council and senior officials such as prefects, magistrates, or officers who are ineligible for department where they are stationed). Deputies may not have more than one local mandate (in
1378-452: A first-person narrative, alternating between realistic accounts of the (unnamed) protagonist's bleak and solitary life as a computer programmer , and his idiosyncratic musings about society, some of which are presented in the form of "animal fictions"; he teams up with an even more desperate colleague (he is a virgin at the age of 28) who later gets killed in a car accident, which triggers the narrator's mental breakdown and eventual admission in
1484-577: A high school at Meaux north-east of Paris, as a boarder. He then went to Lycée Chaptal in Paris to follow preparation courses in order to qualify for grandes écoles (elite schools). He began attending the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon in 1975. He started a literary review called Karamazov (named after Fyodor Dostoevsky 's last novel ) and wrote poetry. He graduated in 1980, married and had
1590-583: A law can originate from the Government ( projet de loi ) or a member of Parliament ( proposition de loi ). Certain laws must come from the Government, including financial regulations. The law proposals may pass through the National Assembly and Senate in an indifferent order, except for financial laws which must go through the Assembly first, or territorial organisational laws or laws for French citizens living in foreign countries, which must first pass through
1696-515: A lengthy autobiographical article published on his website (now defunct), he states that his parents "lost interest in [his] existence pretty quickly", and at the age of six, he was sent to France to live with his paternal grandmother, a communist , while his mother left to live a hippie lifestyle in Brazil with her recent boyfriend. His grandmother's maiden name was Houellebecq, which he took as his pen name . Later, he went to Lycée Henri Moissan ,
1802-510: A major theme is the "disaggregating effects of post-Fordism on the intimate spaces of human affect" The novel is also a satire on late-twentieth century work culture and consumer society. According to Sweeney, "For the new middle management information class in Whatever society is the comfortable frictionless round of eating ready meals, paying bills on time, attending dutiful work farewell parties, buying beds and CDs..." Morrey states that
1908-424: A male colleague named Tisserand in order to conduct training for the ministry staff there. The narrator notes that Tisserand is "extremely ugly. So ugly that his appearance repels women and he never gets to sleep with them". Tisserand tries to become friendly with an attractive female student in a train to Rouen, two "cuties" at the ministry, and several women in a restaurant and a café, but with no success. That night,
2014-432: A member of the military corps on duty, as well as with the exercise of one of the following mandates: regional council executive, Corsican Assembly executive, departmental council executive or municipal council executive in a municipality of a least or more than 3,500 inhabitants. Prefects are also unable to be elected in France in every district they are exercising power or exercised power for less than three years before
2120-434: A municipal, intercommunal, general, or regional council) in addition to their incumbent mandate. Since the 2017 legislative election, deputies cannot hold an executive position in any local government (municipality, department, region). However, they can hold a part-time councillor mandate. In July 2017, 58% of deputies held such a seat. Since 1958, the mandate is also incompatible with a ministerial function. Upon appointment to
2226-425: A new majority which returned the National Assembly to the aforementioned two-round system. Of the 577 elected deputies, 539 represent metropolitan France , 27 represent the overseas departments and overseas collectivities ; 11 represent French residents overseas . The agenda of the National Assembly is mostly decided by the Government, although the Assembly can also enforce its own agenda. Indeed, article 48 of
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#17327983163592332-400: A publicity tour for his 2001 novel Platform led to Houellebecq being taken to court for inciting racial hatred (he was eventually cleared of all charges). He subsequently moved to Ireland for several years, before moving back to France, where he currently resides. He was described in 2015 as "France’s biggest literary export and, some say, greatest living writer." In a 2017 DW article, he
2438-526: A result of population movements, births and deaths inequalities between the less populous rural districts and the urban districts arose. The deputy for the most populous (within Val-d'Oise ), represented 188,000 voters, while that for the other extreme (for Lozère at-large), represented 34,000. That for Saint Pierre and Miquelon serves fewer than 6,000. Most were redrawn in 2009 (boundaries officially adopted in 2010, effective in 2012 ), but this redistribution
2544-413: A seat at the National Assembly is set at 18 years old. The candidate must also have fulfilled his National Civic Day, a special day created to replace the military service. Finally, a candidate under guardianship and curatorship cannot be elected to the assembly. Furthermore, a person cannot be elected if they were declared ineligible following fraudulent funding of a previous electoral campaign. Indeed,
2650-529: A sex tourism venue, later compared to the Bali bombings which happened the following year—together with an interview its author gave to the magazine Lire in which he described Islam as "the dumbest religion," which remark led to accusations of incitement to ethnic or racial hatred against Houellebecq by several organisations, including France's Human Rights League , the Mecca -based World Islamic League as well as
2756-466: A son; then he divorced, and became depressed . He married his second wife, Marie-Pierre Gauthier, in 1998. They divorced in 2010. His third marriage was in September 2018 to Qianyun Lysis Li, a Chinese woman 34 years his junior, and a student of his works. Houellebecq's first poems appeared in 1985 in the magazine La Nouvelle Revue . Six years later, in 1991, he published a biographical essay on
2862-551: A spirited defense: Houellebecq may despair of love in a free market, but he takes love more seriously, as an artistic problem and a fact about the world, than most polite novelists would dare to do; when he brings his sweeping indignation to bear on one memory, one moment when things seemed about to turn out all right for his characters, and didn't, his compassion can blow you away. Ten years later, Houellebecq responded to critical reviews: First of all, they hate me more than I hate them. What I do reproach them for isn't bad reviews. It
2968-404: A theme of "depressive lucidity" in the face of the struggle against the rules of modern society. The narrator does not believe in self-improvement and social progress. According to Morrey, "he too feels sorry for his fellow humans but there is nothing he can do ...The consequence of Houellebecq’s (narrators’) depressive lucidity, in other words, is a chronic inability to act." Sweeney states that
3074-408: Is Everyman. Houellebecq's reputation as a visionary rests on his depiction of what we have instead of the old bourgeois social order. Houellebecq's novels are often classified as satire . Whatever (novel) Whatever ( French : Extension du domaine de la lutte , literally "extension of the domain of struggle") is the debut novel of French writer Michel Houellebecq . The plot concerns
3180-407: Is a 30-year-old analyst-programmer working for a Paris-based computer software company. He is lonely, subject to depression and has not had sex since he broke up with his girlfriend two years earlier. He also writes "animal stories", extracts from which are included in the novel. He has dinner with a friend from his student days who is now a priest. His friend tells him that that the media exaggerates
3286-450: Is a lesser evil. Its values are contemptible, but nevertheless less destructive, less cruel than those of Islam. He faced trial on charges of racial hatred after calling Islam "the dumbest religion" ("la religion la plus con") in the same interview. He told a court in Paris that his words had been twisted, saying: "I have never displayed the least contempt for Muslims [but] I have as much contempt as ever for Islam." The court acquitted him. He
Michel Houellebecq - Misplaced Pages Continue
3392-458: Is dubbed the "undisputed star, and enfant terrible, of modern French literature". In 2010, he published The Map and the Territory , which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt . In 2015, his next novel, Submission , sparked another controversy for its depiction of Islam. He was also recently accused of plagiarism concerning Submission . Annihilation was published in 2022. Houellebecq
3498-527: Is seldom exercised. In 1997, President Jacques Chirac dissolved the National Assembly due to the lack of popularity of Prime Minister Alain Juppé . However, the plan backfired, as the newly elected majority was opposed to Chirac. The National Assembly can dismiss the executive government (that is, the prime minister and other ministers) by a motion of no confidence ( motion de censure ). For this reason, prime ministers and their government are necessarily from
3604-458: Is that they talk about things having nothing to do with my books—my mother or my tax exile—and that they caricature me so that I've become a symbol of so many unpleasant things—cynicism, nihilism, misogyny. People have stopped reading my books because they've already got their idea about me. To some degree of course, that's true for everyone. After two or three novels, a writer can't expect to be read. The critics have made up their minds. According to
3710-400: Is up to something different. He places his characters in front of specific, vivid, contemporary challenges, often humiliating and often mediated by technology: Internet pornography, genetic research, terrorism, prescription drug addiction. This technological mediation can make his characters seem isolated, and yet it is an isolation with which any contemporary can at least empathize. The Outsider
3816-412: The 2000 referendum ) and are elected in the same year. While motions de censure are periodically proposed by the opposition following government actions that it deems highly inappropriate, they are purely rhetorical; party discipline ensures that, throughout a parliamentary term, the Government is never dismissed by the Assembly, at least when the governing party/coalition holds a working majority in
3922-479: The 2014 Paris municipal election . In 2017, Houellebecq explained that he "doesn't believe in an ideological vote, but a vote based on class" and that "there is a class which votes for Le Pen , a class which votes for Mélenchon , a class which votes for Macron , and a class which votes for Fillon . I am part of the France which votes for Macron, because I am too rich to vote for Le Pen or Mélenchon." In 2002, during an interview about his book Platform published in
4028-609: The Fifth Republic greatly increased the power of the executive at the expense of Parliament, compared to previous constitutions ( Third and Fourth Republics), following the May 1958 crisis . The president of the Republic can decide to dissolve the National Assembly and call for new legislative elections. This is meant as a way to resolve stalemates where the Assembly cannot decide on a clear political direction. This possibility
4134-557: The Fifth Republic , the upper house being the Senate ( Sénat ). The National Assembly's legislators are known as députés ( [depyte] ), meaning "delegate" or "envoy" in English; etymologically , it is a cognate of the English word deputy , the standard term for legislators in many parliamentary systems. There are 577 députés , each elected by a single-member constituency (at least one per department ) through
4240-525: The International Dublin Literary Award in 2002. In 2000, Houellebecq published the short fiction Lanzarote (published in France with a volume of his photographs), in which he explores a number of the themes he would develop in later novels, including sex tourism and fringe religions . His subsequent novel, Plateforme ( Platform , 2001), was another critical and commercial success. A first-person romance narrated by
4346-782: The Yellow Vests movement . Extension du domaine de la lutte has been adapted into a film with the same title by Philippe Harel , and later adapted as a play in Danish by Jens Albinus for the Royal Danish Theatre . The English translation of his novel Platform was adapted as a play by the theatre company Carnal Acts for the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London in December 2004. A Spanish adaptation of
Michel Houellebecq - Misplaced Pages Continue
4452-467: The hippie movement , New Age ideology and the May 1968 generation, especially in Atomised , echoes the thesis of Marxist sociologist Michel Clouscard . His novel La Carte et le Territoire ( The Map and the Territory ) was released in September 2010 by Flammarion and finally won its author the prestigious Prix Goncourt . This is the tale of an accidental art star and is full of insights into
4558-465: The horror writer H. P. Lovecraft , a teenage passion, with the programmatic subtitle Against the World, Against Life . A short poetical essay named Rester vivant : méthode ( To Stay Alive ) appeared the same year, dealing with the art of writing as a way of life – or rather, a way of not-dying and being able to write in spite of apathy and disgust for life (a film adaptation was made in 2016). It
4664-401: The "bourgeois" social order is knit together—marriages, schools, jobs, piety, patriotism. But in our time, relationships fail to take root. Institutions fall apart. The visible social order seems not to be the real one. Many novelists limit their vision to those narrow precincts where the world still makes sense (or can be made to make sense) in the way it did to Balzac or Flaubert ... Houellebecq
4770-772: The 1998 Prix Novembre (which was renamed Prix Décembre, following the resignation of its founder who disapproved of the prize being given to Houellebecq), missing the more prestigious Prix Goncourt for which it was the favourite. The novel became an instant " nihilistic classic" and was mostly praised for the boldness of its ideas and thought-provoking qualities, although it was also heavily criticized for its relentless bleakness and vivid depictions of racism, paedophilia, and torture, as well as for being an apology for eugenics . ( Michiko Kakutani described it in The New York Times as "a deeply repugnant read".) The novel won Houellebecq (along with his translator, Frank Wynne )
4876-469: The Assembly to pronounce itself in one vote only with the amendments proposed or accepted by the Government itself. Projects of propositions of laws will be examined succinctly by the two chambers of Parliament (National Assembly and Senate) until the text is identical. After two lectures by the two chambers (or just one if the Government chooses to engage an acceleration of the text adoption, which can happen only in certain conditions) and without any accord,
4982-562: The Austrian feature-writer Anne-Catherine Simon, Houellebecq's oeuvre shows "great continuity: as a long story of western decadence ". In an interview with Agathe Novak-Lechevalier Houellebecq characterised himself as "the author of a nihilistic era and the suffering that goes along with nihilism ". Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi has criticised Houellebecq's stance on Lovecraft. An essay by Todd Spaulding makes
5088-515: The Chamber (which was no longer the case following the 2022 election ). Since the beginning of the Fifth Republic , there has only been one single successful motion de censure , in 1962 in hostility to the referendum on the method of election of the President of the Republic; President Charles de Gaulle dissolved the Assembly within a few days. The Government (the prime minister and
5194-483: The Constitution guarantees at least a monthly session decided by the Assembly. A law proposal is a document divided into three distinct parts: a title, an exposé des motifs and a dispositif . The exposé des motifs describes the arguments in favour of a modification of a given law or new measurements that are proposed. The dispositif is the normative part, which is developed within articles. A proposal for
5300-521: The Elohimites' chief scientist's purported project of mind uploading turned out to be a failure) and to distance themselves from the flaws of humans. Houellebecq later adapted and directed a movie based on this novel , which was a critical and commercial failure. In 2008, Flammarion published Public Enemies: Dueling Writers Take on Each Other and the World ( Ennemis publics ), a conversation via e-mail between Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Lévy , in which both reflected on their controversial reception by
5406-707: The French legislature at the time was called the Chamber of Deputies . Under the Second French Empire , the term National Assembly was not in use for any French government organ. The lower house of the French legislature at the time was called the Corps législatif . Initially, the National Assembly of the French Third Republic was a unicameral constituent assembly . Following the enactment of
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#17327983163595512-547: The French literary intelligentsia, with generally positive international critical response, though there have been poor reviews in The New York Times by Michiko Kakutani and Anthony Quinn, in the London Review of Books by Perry Anderson , as well as mixed reviews from The Wall Street Journal . However, without ignoring the book's grotesqueries, Lorin Stein from Salon , later editor of The Paris Review , made
5618-415: The Government, the elected deputy has one month to choose between the mandate and the office. If they choose the second option, then they are replaced by their substitute . Since a change validated by the National Assembly in 2008, deputies can return to their seat in the assembly one month after the end of their cabinet position. Previously, a special election had to be held. To be eligible to be elected to
5724-415: The National Assembly, one must be at least 18 years old, of French citizenship, as well as not subject to a sentence of deprivation of civil rights or to personal bankruptcy . Eligibility conditions 1. Eligibility due to personal requirements The essential conditions to run for elections are the following. First, a candidate must have French citizenship. Secondly, the minimum age required to run for
5830-509: The Prime Minister or the two presidents of the chambers, conjointly with first, can convoke a special commission composed by an equal number of members of Assembly and Senators to reach a compromise and propose a new text. The new proposition has to be approved by the Government before being re-proposed to the two chambers. No new amendments can be added except on the Government's approval. If the new proposal of law fails to be approved by
5936-531: The Senate. For an ordinary proposition of law, texts must be first reviewed by a permanent parliamentary commission, or a special commission designated for this purpose. During the discussion in the commission, or in plenary sessions in the assembly, the Government and Parliament can add, modify or delete articles of the proposal. The text is thus amended. Amendments proposed by a parliamentarian cannot mobilise further public funding. The Government has to right to ask
6042-476: The address read by the presidents of both chambers of Parliament, with no subsequent debate. Following a tradition started by the first National Assembly during the French Revolution , the left-wing parties sit to the left as seen from the president's seat and the right-wing parties to the right; the seating arrangement thus directly indicates the left–right political spectrum as represented in
6148-427: The assembly, thereby calling for early elections, unless it has been dissolved in the preceding twelve months. This measure has become rarer since the 2000 French constitutional referendum reduced the presidential term from seven to five years; in the four elections between 2002 and 2017 , the president of the Republic has always had a coattail effect delivering a majority in the assembly election two months after
6254-696: The assembly. The official seat of the National Assembly is the Palais Bourbon on the Rive Gauche of the Seine in the 7th arrondissement of Paris . The Assembly also uses other neighbouring buildings, including the Immeuble Chaban-Delmas on the Rue de l'Université, Paris . Like most institutions of importance in Paris, it is guarded by Republican Guards . The Constitution of France in
6360-454: The best of his recording endeavours, as handwritten in the libretto ). Présence humaine (released in 2000 on Bertrand Burgalat 's Tricatel label, and featuring musical arrangements by Burgalat himself), has a rock band backing him, and has been compared to the works of Serge Gainsbourg in the 1970s; it was re-released in 2016 with two additional tracks arranged by Jean-Claude Vannier (who famously worked on Histoire de Melody Nelson ) and
6466-513: The book says, a free market has absolute winners and absolute losers, and the same applies to relationships in a society that does not value monogamy but rather exhorts people to seek the happiness that always eludes them through the path of sexual consumerism, in pursuit of narcissistic satisfaction. Similarly, Platform carries to its logical conclusion the touristic phenomenon, where Westerners of both sexes go on organized trips to developing countries in search of exotic locations and climates. In
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#17327983163596572-457: The candidate's place if during tenure incapacitated or barred – if the deputy becomes a government member, most notably. The organic law of 10 July 1985 established a system of party-list proportional representation within the framework of the département . It was necessary within this framework to obtain at least 5% of the vote to elect an official. However, the legislative election of 1986 , carried out under this system, gave France
6678-438: The caption "The Predictions of Wizard Houellebecq," eerily ironic in retrospect. For the second time, his fictional work appeared to echo real events involving Islamic terrorism, although Submission does not feature acts of terrorism and eventually presents conversion to Islam as an attractive choice for the protagonist, a typically "houellebecquian" middle-aged man with a fixation for young women. A friend of his, Bernard Maris ,
6784-420: The case for why Houellebecq portrayed Lovecraft as an "obsolete reactionary" whose work was based largely on "racial hatred." However, Christopher Caldwell defends Houellebecq for his overall depictions of technological loneliness and cultural alienation: Certain basic things that important novelists do, Houellebecq does not. Great novels usually concern the relationships, institutions, and ideals out of which
6890-452: The client's staff in the software. His primary contact at the ministry is Catherine Lechardoy, a woman of about the narrator's age whom he describes as "not very attractive". At a social function at the ministry he contemplates making a sexual advance to her. He has no desire for sex with her but "feels up to making the necessary gestures". He decides against it because he doesn't think she would have accepted. The narrator travels to Rouen with
6996-528: The contemporary art scene. Slate magazine accused him of plagiarising some passages of this book from French Misplaced Pages . Houellebecq denied the accusation of plagiarism, stating that "taking passages word for word was not stealing so long as the motives were to recycle them for artistic purposes," evoking the influence of Georges Perec , Lautreamont or Jorge Luis Borges , and advocated the use of all sorts of raw materials in literature, including advertising, recipes or mathematics problems. On 7 January 2015,
7102-446: The couple in the narrator's car. The couple go to the sand dunes to have sex, and Tisserand follows them, holding the steak knife the narrator has given him. Tisserand soon returns, stating, "I had no wish to kill them; blood changes nothing." That night, Tisserand dies in a car accident while driving back to Paris. Back in Paris, the narrator has a depressive episode and calls a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist treats him for depression and
7208-562: The date of the Charlie Hebdo shooting , the novel Submission was published. The book describes a future situation in France, set in 2022, when a Muslim party, following a victory against the National Front , is ruling the country according to Islamic law , which again generated heated controversy and accusations of Islamophobia . On the same date, a cartoon of Houellebecq appeared on the cover page of Charlie Hebdo with
7314-498: The date of the election. Since 31 March 2017, being elected deputy is incompatible with most executive local mandates such as mayors, president of a regional council or member of the departmental council. In 1795, 1797 & 1798, only part of the legislature was elected. Under the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy , the term National Assembly was not in use for any French government organ. The lower house of
7420-441: The domain of the struggle". He reflects on his former girlfriend Véronique, whom he regrets having ever met. He reflects that psychoanalysis turned her into a woman with a complete lack of moral sense and that "he regrets not taking a knife to her ovaries". The narrator buys a steak knife and convinces Tisserand to go with him to a disco on Christmas Eve. At the disco, Tisserand starts a conversation with an attractive young woman who
7526-406: The dominant party or coalition in the assembly. In the case of a president of the Republic and National Assembly from opposing parties, this leads to the situation known as cohabitation ; this situation, which has occurred three times (twice under François Mitterrand , once under Jacques Chirac ), is likely to be rarer now that terms of the president and Assembly are the same length (5 years since
7632-427: The fate of two half brothers who grew up in the troubled 1960s: Michel Djerzinski, who became a prominent biologist, highly successful as a scientist but utterly withdrawn and depressed, and Bruno Clément, a French teacher, deeply disturbed and obsessed by sex; Djerzinski eventually triggers what is labelled as the "third metaphysical mutation" by retro-engineering the human species into immortal neo-humans. The book won
7738-408: The first round, those who account for in excess of 12.5% ( 1 ⁄ 8 ) of the registered voters are entered in the second round of voting. If no three or more meet such conditions, the two highest-placing candidates automatically advance to the second round of voting – at which, the candidate who receives the most votes is elected. Each candidate is enrolled along with a substitute , who takes
7844-569: The largest group) or "opposition" group (having officially declared it did not support the Government). Legislators of the assembly can ask written or oral questions to ministers. The Wednesday afternoon 3 p.m. session of "questions to the government" is broadcast live on television. Like Prime Minister's Questions in the United Kingdom, it is largely a show for the viewers, with members of the majority asking flattering questions, while
7950-432: The literary magazine Lire , Houellebecq remarked: Islam is a dangerous religion, and has been from the moment it appeared. Fortunately, it is doomed. On one hand, because God does not exist, and even if someone is an idiot, he will eventually realize that. In the long run, the truth will triumph. On the other hand, Islam is undermined from the inside by capitalism. We can only hope that it will triumph rapidly. Materialism
8056-692: The local French population is not for Muslims to assimilate, but for them to stop robbing and attacking them or another possibility, that they go away." He also blamed the US for importing " woke " culture into France. He went on to add: "Our only chance of survival would be for white supremacy to become trendy in the United States." Literary critics have labelled Houellebecq's novels "vulgar", "pamphlet literature" and "pornography"; he has been accused of obscenity, racism, misogyny and Islamophobia. His works, particularly Atomised , have received high praise from
8162-416: The mainstream media, and elaborated on their tastes and influences in literature, among other topics. Houellebecq has also released three music albums on which he recites or sings selected excerpts from his poetry. Two of them were recorded with composer Jean-Jacques Birgé : Le sens du combat (1996, Radio France ) and Établissement d'un ciel d'alternance (2007, Grrr Records , which Houellebecq considers
8268-400: The minister in charge of relations with Parliament) used to set the priorities of the agenda for the Assembly's sessions, except for a single day each month. In practice, given the number of priority items, it meant that the schedule of the assembly was almost entirely set by the executive; bills generally only have a chance to be examined if proposed or supported by the executive. This, however,
8374-528: The mosques of Paris and Lyon . Charges were brought to trial, but a panel of three judges, delivering their verdict to a packed Paris courtroom, acquitted the author of having provoked 'racial' hatred, ascribing Houellebecq's opinions to the legitimate right of criticizing religions. The huge controversy in the media subsided following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 . His next novel, La Possibilité d'une île ( The Possibility of an Island , 2005), cycles between three characters' narratives: Daniel 1,
8480-535: The narrator is struck by acute pericarditis and is hospitalised for two weeks. After recovering in Paris, the narrator leaves for La Roche-sur-Yon to train the ministry staff there. Tisserand tells him that he is 28 years old and still a virgin. Later, the narrator muses that just as economic liberalism produces extremes of wealth and poverty, a society based on sexual liberalism also produces extremes of sexual gratification and sexual impoverishment. Economic liberalism and sexual liberalism both represent "extensions of
8586-489: The narrator takes sick leave from work. The narrator admits himself into a rest home where he observes the other patients and concludes that they are not at all deranged but merely lacking in love. After several months he leaves the clinic and takes a trip to Saint-Cirgues-en-Montagne . He cycles into the Forest of Mazan, where he feels, "with impressive violence, the possibility of joy". Carole Sweeney states that
8692-452: The narrator thinks looks like Véronique. The woman, however, breaks off the conversation and starts dancing with "a black guy, or rather half black". The narrator tries to convince Tisserand to embark on a career of murder by killing the young woman, but Tisserand replies that he would rather murder the black man. The young woman and the man leave the disco and drive to a secluded beach on the man's motor scooter. The narrator and Tisserand follow
8798-438: The novel a "troubling, unstable tone". Morrey states that the narrator's use of "alien, inappropriate remarks that seem to come out of nowhere" makes the reader unsure whether he should be taken seriously. French National Assembly Opposition (364) Vacant (2) The National Assembly ( French : Assemblée nationale , [asɑ̃ble nɑsjɔnal] ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under
8904-535: The novel by Calixto Bieito , performed by Companyia Teatre Romea, premiered at the 2006 Edinburgh International Festival . Houellebecq and Bieito appeared together that same year in a TV program named Au cœur de la nuit / Durch die Nacht ( Through the night ) for the French-German channel Arte . Along with Loo Hui Phang , Houellebecq wrote the screenplay for the film Monde extérieur (2002) by David Rault and David Warren . Atomised has been made into
9010-509: The novel is "part-essay, part-satire, arguably by most principles of literary convention, Whatever barely qualifies as a novel at all." The tone of the novel has been described as blank and compared to that of Camus' The Stranger . Morrey, however, states that Houellebecq's frequent use of "sudden exclamations, dark ironies, hyperbole and hysterical outbursts" distinguish the tone from Camus'. The novel frequently switches between literary and colloquial registers, which, according to Morrey, gives
9116-532: The novel may be considered a type of roman à thèse (thesis novel). The French title of the novel alludes to the Marxist theory of class struggle and the narrator's thesis is that the liberalisation of sexuality has led to the extension of struggle to the sexual domain. According to The Independent , Houellebecq's thesis is "that the sexual revolution of the Sixties created not communism but capitalism in
9222-465: The novel, a similar popular demand arises for sex tourism, organized and sold in a corporate and professional fashion. Sex tourists are willing to sacrifice financially to experience the instinctual expression of sexuality, which has been better preserved in poor countries whose people are focused on the struggle for survival. Although Houellebecq's work is often credited with building on conservative , if not reactionary , ideas, his critical depiction of
9328-399: The office, as well as a total of €8,949 per month to pay up to five employees. They also have an office in the assembly, various perquisites in terms of transport and communications, social security , a pension fund and unemployment insurance . Under article 26 of the Constitution, deputies, like Senators, are protected by parliamentary immunity. In the case of an accumulation of mandates,
9434-713: The one he would usually choose if compelled to read whatever he wanted among his published works), and articles in magazines (such as Les Inrockuptibles ) or more confidential literary publications (such as L'Infini edited by Philippe Sollers ). Most of those texts were later collected in Interventions (1998, expanded in 2009 and 2020). At that time, he lived at the same address as fellow writer Marc-Édouard Nabe , at 103, rue de la Convention in Paris. Nabe wrote about this proximity in Le Vingt-Septième Livre (2006), comparing both neighbours' careers and
9540-474: The opposition tries to embarrass the government. Since 1988, the 577 deputies are elected by direct universal suffrage with a two-round system by constituency , for a five-year mandate, subject to dissolution. The constituencies each have about 100,000 inhabitants. The electoral law of 1986 specifies their variance of population within a department should not exceed 20%, when conducting any redistribution. However, none were redrawn between 1982 and 2009. As
9646-655: The presidential election, and it was accordingly of little benefit to dissolve it. In 2024 , it was dissolved following the announcement of the results of the European Parliament election . Due to the separation of powers , the president of the Republic may not take part in parliamentary debates. They can address the Congress of the French Parliament , which meets at the Palace of Versailles , or have
9752-491: The role of sex in society and that this has led to "vital exhaustion". His friend advises him to re-find God or go into psychoanalysis. Later, the narrator muses that human relationships have become "increasingly impossible" as information technology has reduced them to an exchange of information. The narrator learns that his company has sold a software program to the Ministry of Agriculture and that he will be required to train
9858-451: The sexual market, that the unattractive underclass is exiled while the privileged initiates are drained by corruption, sloth, and excess." Adam Kirsch of The New York Times has called the character Tisserand a "proto-incel" and states that the novel predicted the modern incel movement. Other themes of the novel include the link between "the 'economisation' of sexuality" and violence, depression, psychiatry and euthanasia. Morrey identifies
9964-554: The singer merely reading a passage from the book over a musical accompaniment.). The author considered it a great honour, as he was himself deeply affected as a teenager by Iggy Pop's music with The Stooges , even going so far as to say that he was, for once, "completely happy". In 2016 he participated, together with Iggy Pop and several others, in Erik Lieshout's documentary To Stay Alive: A Method , based on his 1991 essay. Defunct Defunct In 2014, Houellebecq drew up
10070-399: The two chambers' proposal, can submit every law proposal as a referendum if it concerns the organisation of public powers, reforms on the economy, social and environmental measures, or every proposition that would have an impact on the functioning of the institutions. A referendum on the previous conditions can also be initiated by a fifth of the membership of Parliament, supported by a tenth of
10176-402: The two chambers, the Government can, after a new lecture by the National Assembly and the Senate, ask the National Assembly to rule a final judgement. In that case, the National Assembly can either take back the text elaborated by the special commission or the last one that they voted for – possibly modified by several amendments by the Senate. The president of the Republic, on the Government or
10282-500: The voter could be considered as highly influenced and their decision making could be impacted. The sincerity of the results could thus not be regarded as viable and legitimate. 2. Eligibility due to positions that a person may occupy The deputy mandate cannot be cumulated with a mandate of Senator, MEP, member of the Government or of the Constitutional Council. The deputy mandate is also incompatible with being
10388-512: The voters inscribed on the electoral lists. Finally, the laws are promulgated by the president of the Republic's signature. The officeholder may call for a new legislative deliberation of the law or one of its articles in front of the National Assembly, which cannot be denied. Assembly legislators receive a salary of €7,043.69 per month. There is also the "compensation representing official expenses" ( indemnité représentative de frais de mandat , IRFM) of €5,867.39 per month to pay costs related to
10494-763: The way their writings were met by critics and audiences. His second novel, Les Particules Élémentaires (translated by Frank Wynne and published in the English-speaking world as Atomised in the UK, or The Elementary Particles in the US) was a breakthrough, bringing him national and soon international fame and controversy for its intricate mix of brutally honest social commentary and pornographic depictions (two years earlier, in 1996, while working on that novel, being interviewed by Andrew Hussey, he had presciently said: "It will either destroy me or make me famous.") It narrates
10600-524: Was a critical and commercial failure, sometimes even considered one of the worst films ever made in France, alongside Bernard Henri Levy's Le Jour et la Nuit , although some authors found him intriguing and recognized redeeming qualities. American rock singer and "godfather of punk" Iggy Pop released in 2009 the unusually quiet album Préliminaires , which he described as influenced by his reading of Michel Houellebecq's novel The Possibility of an Island (one track 'A Machine for Loving' even consists in
10706-405: Was amended on 23 July 2008. Under the amended Constitution, the Government sets the priorities for two weeks in a month. Another week is designated for the Assembly's "control" prerogatives (consisting mainly of oral questions addressed to the Government). The fourth one is also set by the Assembly. Furthermore, one day per month is set by a "minority" (group supporting the Government but which is not
10812-520: Was born Michel Thomas on the French island of Réunion , the son of Lucie Ceccaldi, a French physician born in Algeria of Corsican descent, and René Thomas, a ski instructor and mountain guide. Houellebecq's official date of birth is 26 February 1956, although he has sometimes stated that he was born in 1958. He lived in Algeria from the age of five months until 1961, with his maternal grandmother. In
10918-408: Was controversial, such as the creation of eleven constituencies for French residents overseas without increasing the number of seats. The electoral map is drawn by an independent commission. To be elected in the first round of voting, a candidate must obtain at least 50% of the votes cast, with a turnout of at least 25% of the registered voters on the electoral rolls. If no candidate is elected in
11024-553: Was followed by his first collection of poetry, La poursuite du bonheur ( The pursuit of happiness ). Meanwhile, he worked as a computer administrator in Paris, including at the French National Assembly , before he became the so-called " pop star of the single generation", starting to gain fame in 1994 with his debut novel Extension du domaine de la lutte , published by Maurice Nadeau (translated in English by Paul Hammond and published as Whatever ). It reads as
11130-497: Was killed in that shooting. In an interview with Antoine de Caunes after the shooting, Houellebecq stated he was unwell and had cancelled the promotional tour for Submission . In January 2019, Houellebecq was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur . His novel Sérotonine was published (translated as Serotonin ) in the same month. This time, one of the novel's main themes, a violent revolt from desperate farmers, appeared to echo
11236-442: Was sued by a civil-rights group for hate speech and won on the grounds of freedom of expression. Houellebecq extended his critique to monotheistic religions in general: "The fundamental monotheistic texts preach neither peace nor love nor tolerance. From the start, they were texts of hatred." In what he has said will be his last novel, Aneantir , Houellebecq has seemingly softened his view on Christianity, though by no means seems to be
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