D e what Michel Houellebecq is it called? What we are talking about there from book to book? I ask myself the question Badiou since I read it. Ie since its "Extending the field of battle" published in 1994. And I think I found part of the answer in his latest UFO goncourisé literary, "The Map and the Territory," released in this literary season by Flammarion ( read the excellent review here Devarrieux Claire in "Liberation" ). It is there, light in the pages of this black diamond which finally earned him recognition as a writer and witness a major turning point in our century :
"While most species are insignificant thousands, sometimes millions of years to disappear , manufactured goods are removed from the globe within days. We also we will become obsolete " as" cultural products destined to disappear .
O bsolescence ... from Latin obsolescens participates moved from obsolescere: "fall into disuse." Let like the author to clarify, we refer to Wikipedia assuming the plagiarism-collage creative how Perec which he is unjustly accused for his latest book : economics, "obsolescence is done for a product to be exceeded, and thus lose some of its value due to the only technical developments, even if it is in perfect working order ", aptly summed up the 'collaborative online encyclopedia. We're ...
A force of "progress" industrial and high-tech, humanity becomes obsolescent except "s'augmenter" by technology at the risk of dehumanizing us therefore Houellebecq said. In the wake of Paul Virilio and "acceleration of the world" and especially Günther Anders the first to have theorized as early as 50 "man obscolescent" , the writer tells us finally disenchanted not only this: the digital revolution of the XXI century - this new avatar of turbo-capitalism globalized - causes a phenomenon quantum acceleration of the process of obsolescence and dehumanization initiated by the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century .. . Move at the speed of high speed internet and real-time or disappear, that is the question today.
O bsolescence ... from Latin obsolescens participates moved from obsolescere: "fall into disuse." Let like the author to clarify, we refer to Wikipedia assuming the plagiarism-collage creative how Perec which he is unjustly accused for his latest book : economics, "obsolescence is done for a product to be exceeded, and thus lose some of its value due to the only technical developments, even if it is in perfect working order ", aptly summed up the 'collaborative online encyclopedia. We're ...
C e Houellebecq is not who invented it. We all know that. All company executives who want to survive the Darwinian process of the quarry, all human beings in search of love and necessity reproductive have integrated their conscience, without necessarily admitting it, trumpeting the: Today we must improve our ALL PERFORMANCE , as we sell marks. Being rich, handsome, famous, eternally young, lifts, Botox, retouched in Photoshop, bronzed UV graft, pacemaker, blood transfusions, chemotherapy until the terminal stage. To not be alone, DO NOT BE A LOSER , do not die too quickly socially and physically ...
D years the world of work, race speed technology, performance and profitability, the intellectual and physical perfection inevitably connectivity Permanent and information feedback in real time ... With the NETWORK which now irrigates the planet of its fiber optic veins through which flows a stream of digital data, there is no geographic boundaries, private and professional, more space-time, night or day. I was talking about some way in this post: Brotherhood human, what makes us twitter? " .
All this reduces the world, and from there the man, or ANYTHING ELSE ... less human, or worse, trans-human. Ho uellebecq coolly acknowledges in "The Possibility of an Island": " Any civilization can be judged in the way it treats the weak, those who were neither productive nor desirable " . Not to become obsolete, be ejected from our world of production accelerated by the centrifuge digital end up like a homeless man dying in the street pressed indifference of our fellow man should "s'augmenter" ...
Houellebecq had fun in "The Possibility an Island "by immersing his hero in the cult of Rael: " adapted to modern times, civilization of leisure, it imposes no moral restraint, and above all it promises immortality " writes he said. Car "in the modern world could be swingers, bi, trans, bestiality, SM, but it was forbidden to be old" .
M ais not a joke. The prophet of transhumanity Max More urges us to transfer without further Trial: "We challenge the inevitability of aging of death, we seek to gradually improve our mental and physical capabilities, and develop ourselves emotionally. We see humanity as a transitional stage in the evolutionary development of intelligence. We advocate the use of science to accelerate our transition from a human condition to a condition transhuman or posthuman. " transformation of self to blow implants, bodybuilding, cosmetic surgery, Viagra, and soon chips transcutaneous direct neuronal connections with the Network as a fucking film Cronenberg ( see another post about "man up by Google" ).
A ppliquée gender and love this race performance is even more desperate in Houellebecq: "Youth, beauty, strength: the criteria for physical love are exactly the same as those of Nazism," he quips in the book. Our little thing has theorized sexuality "As a system of social hierarchy" upon "Extending the field of battle" with an extra-lucidity hurts:
"In our society, sex is indeed a second system of differentiation quite independent of money, and it behaves as a system of differentiation at least as ruthless. The effects of these two systems are strictly equivalent elsewhere. Just as unbridled economic liberalism, and for reasons like, sexual liberalism produces effects of absolute poverty. Some make love every day, others five or six times in their lives, or never. Some have sex with dozens of women, others with none. This is called the law of the market (...). In perfectly liberal economic system, some accumulate vast fortunes, while others languish in unemployment and poverty. In perfectly liberal sexual system, some have a varied and exciting erotic life; others are reduced to masturbation and solitude (...)". See this post on shocking reality-TV show " Love is blind "Made in TF1, which has been worse since with" Who wants to marry My Son ".
O ui, houellebecquienne vision of humanity is pessimistic. But it can illuminate the dark light we perceive the world and society . We must go beyond the polemical and provocative accents Celinian of the author, go fast on the "bitches karma" of "Elementary Particles" (published in 1998), young Thai whores in narrow con "Platform" (2001) Raelian and delirium of "The Possibility of an Island" (2005). Peel the shell which he wraps his cynical About to read the bottom. Hear and understand about it for what it is: ie clinical philosophy (counter refractory tell the bad guys), but mostly public morals in the sense intended Montaigne who first wanted "spectator of life". Houellebecq is it our "contemporary capital" Gide and Sartre in their time? The writer Emmanuel Carrère the firmly believes . And I must say too, since all his earlier books.
P o proof, we must also read the essays of "Interventions" published by Flammarion in 1998 but unfortunately out of print. Preview:
"The animal and human societies set up different systems of hierarchical differentiation, which may be based on birth (aristocratic system), fortune, beauty, physical strength, intelligence, talent ... All these criteria seem equally despicable indeed, I refused; the only superiority which I recognize is the goodness. Currently, we are moving in two dimensions: the attractiveness and erotic money. The rest, happiness and misery of people, follows. For me, this is not a theory: we do live in a simple society, including these few sentences are enough to give a complete description " .
YES you read correctly: e assumed the Misanthrope Michel Houellebecq aspires only to goodness and simply only true condition of happiness in this world. The only way to remain human, not just become obsolete in an era where immorality, greed and survival of the fittest are built into virtues. Houellebecq no longer believes the cynical, but it sucks like we all love. And he is adhering to the philosopher Alain Badiou I quoted at the beginning of this post and wrote this nice sentence:
"The conviction is widespread today as each follows only interest. So love is a cons-test. Love is the confidence placed at random "
(Eloge de L'Amour, Flammarion 2009)
F inally Houellebecq is a great moralist. It does not resolve to see it disappear humanity in us when the time invites us . It gives us no key to not becoming obsolete, except the withdrawal from the world. "The world is tired of me and likewise me of him" : this quote from Charles d'Orleans opens "The map and territory". Jed and Martin, the hero of the book devoted his artistic life to "a nostalgic meditation on the end of the industrial age in Europe, and more generally on the perishable and transitory nature of all human industry" . In the end, "everything is calm" , Man is more "the triumph of the vegetation is total" ...
Desperate Houellebecq? Surely. But it is mainly the powerless witness stubborn and dehumanization process technology at work in our Western societies the 2000s. He could have summarized his position but Virilio says that for him (and him) this interview with "Liberation : " I am an escort-boy evidence, I accompany evidence that does not! It's more as boring, but at the point where I am, I continue. "
Yes, we must continue. But also believe in man (and his better half;) and HOPE.
Jean-Christophe Féraud
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