The death of God in the West was the prelude to a formidable metaphysical soap opera that continues to this day. Christianity’s masterstroke was to combine a fierce belief in the individual with the promise of eternal participation in the Absolute. When that dream evaporated, various attempts were made to offer the individual a minimum of being. The latest of these attempts is advertising, which seeks to arouse desire and transform the subject into a docile phantom doomed to follow advertising’s every whim. But, like all previous attempts, this skin-deep, superficial participation in the world fails, and unhappiness and depression continue to spread.
However, we can all produce a cold revolution in ourselves by stepping outside the flow of information and advertising. We need to take some time out, unplug the television, turn off our iPhones, stop buying stuff, stop wanting to buy stuff, temporarily detach ourselves and adopt an aesthetic attitude to the world. We just need to stay still for a few seconds.
This is one of the key themes developed by Michel Houellebecq in this collection of his texts and interviews from the last three decades. Here he explains and elaborates his point of view, discusses his novels and addresses a wide range of topics from politics, religion and literature to suicide, euthanasia and paedophilia. An indispensable book for anyone interested in the work of one of the most widely read and controversial novelists of our time.
By:
Michel Houellebecq
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 218mm,
Width: 145mm,
Spine: 28mm
Weight: 476g
ISBN: 9781509549955
ISBN 10: 1509549951
Pages: 314
Publication Date: 25 March 2022
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. Jacques Prévert is a jerk 2. The Mirage by Jean-Claude Guiguet 3. Approaches to distress 4. Staring into the distance: in praise of silent cinema 5. Interview with Jean-Yves Jouannais and Christophe Duchâtel 6. Art as peeling 7. Creative absurdity 8. The party 9. Time out 10. Opera bianca 11. Letter to Lakis Proguidis 12. The question of paedophilia 13. Humanity, the second stage 14. Empty heavens 15. I have a dream 16. Neil Young 17. Interview with Christian Authier 18. I don’t love myself 19. Sky, earth, sun 20. Leaving the twentieth century 21. Philippe Muray in 2002 22. Towards a semi-rehabilitation of the hick 23. Conservatism, a source of progress 24. Prolegomena to positivism 25. I’m normal. A normal writer 26. I have read my whole life long 27. Soil cutting 28. The lost text 29. Interview with Frédéric Beigbeder 30. A remedy for the exhaustion of being 31. Interview with Marin De Viry and Valérie Toranian 32. Interview with Agathe Novak-Lechevalier 33. Emmanuel Carrère and the problem of goodness 34. Donald Trump is a good president 35. Conversation with Geoffroy Lejeune 36. A bit worse. A response to a few friends 37. The Vincent Lambert affair should not have taken place
Michel Houellebecq is a French writer, poet and essayist. His many bestselling books include Platform, The Possibility of an Island, Submission and Serotonin. He won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2010 and, in 2019, he was awarded the Legion d'honneur, France's highest order of merit.
Reviews for Interventions 2020
'The most famous French novelist of his generation.' The New Yorker 'An author who captures the times like no other.' Evening Standard 'Fascinating' Euro News 'The author has a rare power: the ability to predict at least the general form of the future.' Foreign Policy these essays are a good place to get acquainted with that voice, acidic, pitiless, but too full of humor and awareness to shy from The Local Voice boasts an array of subjects of great depth and provocation. Washington Examiner
