Public Libraries of Suffolk County, New York

Interventions 2020, Michel Houellebecq ; translated by Andrew Brown

eng

Includes bibliographical references

no index present

non fiction

Interventions 2020

bibliography

Michel Houellebecq ; translated by Andrew Brown

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

Jacque Prévert is a jerk -- The Mirage by Jean-Claude Guiguet -- Approaches to distress -- Staring into the distance: in praise of silent cinema -- Interview with Jean-Yves Jouannais and Christophe Duchâtelet -- Art as peeling -- Creative absurdity -- The party -- Time out -- Opera Bianca -- Letter to Lakis Proguidis -- The question of paedophilia -- Humanity, the second stage -- Empty heavens -- I have a dream -- Neil Young -- Interview with Christian Authier -- Technical consolation -- Sky, earth, sun -- Leaving the twentieth century -- Philippe Muray in 2002 -- Towards a semi-rehabilitation of the hick -- Conservatism, a source of progress -- Prolegomena to positivism -- I'm normal, a normal writer -- I have read my whole life long -- Soil cutting -- The lost text -- Interview with Frédéric Beigbeder -- A remedy for the exhaustion of being -- Interview with Marin De Viry and Valérie Toranian -- Interview with Agathe Novak-Lechevalier -- Emmanuel Carrère and the problem of goodness -- Donald Trump is a good president -- Conversation with Geoffroy Lejeune -- A bit worse, a response to a few friends -- The Vincent Lambert affair should not have taken place