{"id":81170,"date":"2015-01-02T12:09:48","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T17:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=81170"},"modified":"2018-12-05T11:09:58","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T16:09:58","slug":"scare-tactics-michel-houellebecq-on-his-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/02\/scare-tactics-michel-houellebecq-on-his-new-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Scare Tactics: Michel Houellebecq Defends His Controversial New Book"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo by Stef\u00e1n Bianka<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s 2022, and France is living in fear. The country is roiled by mysterious troubles. Regular episodes of urban violence are\u00a0deliberately obscured by the media. Everything is covered up, the public is in the dark … and in a few months the leader of a newly created Muslim party will be elected president. On the evening of June 5, in a second general election\u2014the first having been anulled after widespread voter fraud\u2014Mohammed Ben Abbes handily beats Marine Le Pen with support from both socialists and the right.<\/em><\/p>\n

The next day, women abandon Western dress. Most begin wearing long cotton smocks over their trousers; encouraged by government subsidies, they leave the workplace in droves. Male unemployment drops overnight. In formerly rough neighborhoods, crime all but disappears. Universities become Islamic. Non-Muslim teachers are forced into early retirement unless they convert and submit to the new regime.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the world imagined by Michel Houellebecq in his sixth novel, <\/em>Soumission (<\/em>Submission), which will appear next\u00a0week. Should it be read as a bad Op-Ed, as pulp fiction for an election year, or as the attempt of a great writer to air a social critique through farce? In an exclusive interview\u2014the first he’s given about this novel\u2014Houellebecq explains what led him to write a book that has already created a scandal in France, even before its publication.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why did you do it?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For several reasons, I\u2019d say. First of all, I think, it\u2019s my job, though I don\u2019t care for that word. I noticed some big changes when I moved back to France, though these changes are not specifically French, but rather Western. As an exile you don\u2019t take much of an interest in anything, really, neither your society of origin nor the place you live\u2014and besides, Ireland is a slightly odd case. I think the second reason is that my atheism hasn\u2019t quite survived all the deaths I\u2019ve had to deal with. In fact, it came to seem unsustainable to me.<\/p>\n

The death of your dog, of your parents?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, it was a lot in a short period of time. Part of it may be that, contrary to what I thought, I never was quite an atheist. I was an agnostic. Usually that word serves as a screen for atheism but not, I think, in my case. When, in the light of what I know, I reexamine the question whether there is a creator, a cosmic order, that kind of thing, I realize that I don\u2019t actually have an answer.<\/p>\n

Whereas before you felt <\/strong>\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

I thought I was an atheist, yes. Now I really don\u2019t know. So those are the two reasons I wrote the book, the second reason probably outweighing the first.<\/p>\n

How would you characterize this book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The phrase political fiction<\/em> isn\u2019t bad. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve read many similar examples, but at any rate I\u2019ve read some, more in English literature than in French. <\/p>\n

What books are you thinking of?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a way, certain books by Conrad. Or by John Buchan. And then more recent books, not as good, which are more like thrillers. A thriller can unfold in a political setting, it doesn\u2019t always have to be tied to the business world. But there\u2019s a third reason I\u2019ve written this book\u2014because I quite liked the way it began. I wrote the first part, up to page twenty-six, practically in one sitting. And I found it very convincing, because I can easily imagine a student finding a friend in Huysmans and dedicating his life to him. This didn\u2019t happen to me. I read Huysmans much later, I think when I was almost thirty-five, but I definitely would have liked reading him. I think he would have been a real friend to me. And so, after I wrote those pages, I did nothing for a while. That was in January 2013, and I must have gone back to the text that summer. But my project was very different at the beginning. It wasn\u2019t meant to be called Soumission\u2014<\/em>the first title was La Conversion<\/em>. And in my original project, the narrator converted, too, but to Catholicism. Which is to say, he followed in Huysmans\u2019s footsteps a century later, leaving naturalism to become Catholic. And I wasn\u2019t able to do it.<\/p>\n

Why not?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t work. In my opinion, the key scene of the book is the one where the narrator takes one last look at the Black Madonna of Rocamadour, he feels a spiritual power, like waves, and all at once she fades into the past and he goes back to the parking lot, alone and basically in despair.<\/p>\n

Is this a satirical novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. Maybe a small part of the book satirizes political journalists\u2014politicians a little bit, too, to be honest. But the main characters are not satirical.<\/p>\n

Where did you get the idea for a presidential election, in 2022, that came down to Marine Le Pen and the leader of a Muslim party?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, Marine Le Pen strikes me as a realistic candidate for 2022\u2014even for 2017 \u2026 The Muslim party is more \u2026 That\u2019s the heart of the matter, really. I tried to put myself in the place of a Muslim, and I realized that, in reality, they are in a totally schizophrenic situation. Because overall Muslims aren\u2019t interested in economic issues, their big issues are what we nowadays call societal issues. On these issues, obviously, they are very far from the left and even further from the Green Party. Just think of gay marriage and you\u2019ll see what I mean, but the same is true across the board. And one doesn\u2019t really see why they\u2019d vote for the right, much less for the extreme right, which utterly rejects them. So if a Muslim wants to vote, what\u2019s he supposed to do? The truth is, he\u2019s in an impossible situation. He has no representation whatsoever. It would be wrong to say that this religion has no political consequences\u2014it does. So does Catholicism, for that matter, even if the Catholics have been more or less marginalized. For those reasons, it seems to me, a Muslim party makes a lot of sense.<\/p>\n

But to imagine that such a party might find itself poised to win a presidential election seven years from now <\/strong>\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

I agree, it\u2019s not very realistic. For two reasons, actually. First\u2014and this is the most difficult thing to imagine\u2014the Muslims would have to succeed in getting along with each other. That would take someone extremely intelligent and with an extraordinary political talent, qualities that I give to my character Ben Abbes. But an extreme talent is, by definition, an unusual occurrence. But supposing he existed, the party could take off, but it would take longer than seven years. If we look at the way the Muslim Brotherhood has done it, we see regional networks, charities, cultural centers, prayer centers, vacation centers, health care, something not unlike what the Communist Party did. If you ask me, in a country where poverty will continue to spread, this party could attract a lot more than just \u201caverage\u201d Muslims, if I can put it that way, because really there is no longer such a thing as an \u201caverage\u201d Muslim since we now have people converting who are not at all of North African origin \u2026 But such a process would take several decades. The sensationalism of the media plays a negative role, really. For example, they loved the story of the guy living in a little village in Normandy, as French as he could be, not even from a broken home, who converted and went off to wage jihad in Syria. But we can reasonably assume that for every guy like that there are several dozen who convert and don\u2019t go off to wage jihad in Syria, who don\u2019t do anything of the kind. After all, one doesn\u2019t wage jihad for the fun of it, that sort of thing only interests people who are strongly motivated by doing violence, which is to say, necessarily a minority.<\/p>\n

You could also say that what really interests those people is going to Syria, rather than converting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I disagree. I think there is a real need for God and that the return of religion is not a slogan but a reality, and that it is very much on the rise.<\/p>\n

That hypothesis is central to the book, but we know that it has been discredited for many years by numerous researchers, who have shown that we are actually witnessing a progressive secularization of Islam, and that violence and radicalism should be understood as the death throes of Islamism. That is the argument made by Olivier Roy,<\/strong> and many other people who have worked on this question for more than twenty years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is not what I have observed, although in North and South America, Islam has benefited less than the evangelicals. This is not a French phenomenon, it\u2019s almost global. I don\u2019t know about Asia, but the case of Africa is interesting because there you have the two great religious powers on the rise\u2014evangelical Christianity and Islam. I remain in many ways a Comtean, and I don\u2019t believe that a society can survive without religion.<\/p>\n

But why did you decide to<\/strong> tell these things in such a dramatically exaggerated way<\/strong> when even you acknowledge that the idea of a Muslim president in 2022 is unrealistic?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That must be my mass market side, my \u201cthriller\u201d side.<\/p>\n

You wouldn<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t call it your \u00c9ric Zemmour side?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know, I haven\u2019t read his book. What does he say, exactly?<\/p>\n

He and a number of other writers overlap, despite their differences, in describing a contemporary France, which strikes me as essentially fantastical, where the menace of Islam looms over French society and is one of its principal features. In the plot of your novel, it seems to me, you accept this as a premise and you promote the same description of contemporary France that we find in the work of those intellectuals today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know, I only know the title of Zemmour\u2019s book [Le Suicide fra<\/em>n\u00e7ai<\/em>s<\/em>], and this is not at all the way I see things. I don\u2019t think we are witnessing a French suicide. I think we are seeing practically the opposite. Europe is committing suicide and, in the middle of Europe, France is struggling desperately to survive. It is almost the only country that is fighting to survive, the only country whose demographics allow it to survive. Suicide is a matter of demographics, it\u2019s the best and most effective way to commit suicide. That\u2019s why France is not committing suicide at all. What\u2019s more, for people to convert is a sign of hope, not a threat. It means they aspire to a new kind of society. That said, I don\u2019t think people convert for social reasons, their reasons for converting are deeper\u2014even if my book contradicts me slightly, Huysmans being the classic case of a man who converts for reasons that are purely aesthetic. Really, the questions that worry Pascal leave Huysmans cold. He never mentions them. I almost have trouble imagining such an aesthete. For him, beauty was the proof. The beauty of rhyme, of paintings, of music proved the existence of God.<\/p>\n

This brings us back to the question of suicide, since Baudelaire said of Huysmans that the only choice he could make was between suicide or conversion <\/strong>\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, it was Barbey d\u2019Aurevilly who made that remark, which is fair enough, especially after reading\u00a0\u00c0 r<\/i>ebours<\/em>. I reread it closely and, in the end, it really is Christian. It\u2019s astonishing.<\/p>\n

To go back to the question of your <\/strong>unrealistic exaggerations<\/strong>, in your book you describe, in a very blurry and vague way, various world events, and yet the reader never knows quite what these are. This takes us into the realm of fantasy, doesn<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t it, into the politics of fear.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, perhaps. Yes, the book has a scary side. I use scare tactics.<\/p>\n

Like imagining<\/strong> the prospect of Islam taking over the country?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Actually, it\u2019s not clear what we are meant to be afraid of, nativists or Muslims. I leave that unresolved.<\/p>\n

Have you asked yourself what the effect might be of a novel based on such a hypothesis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

None. No effect whatsoever.<\/p>\n

You don<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t think it will help reinforce the image of France that I just described, in which Islam hangs overhead like the sword of Damocles, like the most frightening thing of all?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In any case, that\u2019s pretty much all the media talks about, they couldn\u2019t talk about it more. It would be impossible to talk about it more than they already do, so my book won\u2019t have any effect.<\/p>\n

Doesn<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t it make you want to write about something else so as not to join the pack?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, part of my work is to talk about what everyone is talking about, objectively. I belong to my own time.<\/p>\n

You remark in your novel that French intellectuals tend to avoid feeling any responsibility, but have you asked yourself about your own responsibilities as a writer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

But I am not an intellectual. I don\u2019t take sides, I defend no regime. I deny all responsibility, I claim utter irresponsibility\u2014except when I discuss literature in my novels, then I am engaged as a literary critic. But essays are what change the world.<\/p>\n

Not novels?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course not. Though I suspect this book by Zemmour is really too long. I think Marx\u2019s Capital<\/em> is too long. It\u2019s actually the Communist Manifesto<\/em> that got read and changed the world. Rousseau changed the world, he sometimes knew how to go straight to the point. It\u2019s simple, if you want to change the world, you have to say, Here\u2019s how the world is and here\u2019s what must be done. You can\u2019t lose yourself in novelistic considerations. That\u2019s ineffectual.<\/p>\n

But you don<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t need me to tell you how a novel can be used as an epistemological tool. That was the subject of The Map and the Territory<\/em>. In this book, I feel that you have adopted categories of description, oppositions, that are worse than dubious\u2014the sort of categories relied on by the editors of Causeur<\/em>, or by Alain Finkielkraut, \u00c9ric Zemmour, even Renaud Camus. For example, the \u201copposition\u201d between antiracism and secularism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One cannot deny there is a contradiction there.<\/p>\n

I don<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t see it. On the contrary, the same people are often militant <\/strong>antiracists<\/strong> and fervent defenders of secularism, with both ways of thinking rooted in the Enlightenment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Look, the Enlightenment is dead, may it rest in peace. A striking example? The left wing candidate on Olivier Besancenot\u2019s ticket who wore the veil, there\u2019s a contradiction for you. But only the Muslims are in an actually schizophrenic situation. On the level of what we customarily call values, Muslims have more in common with the extreme right than with the left. There is a more fundamental opposition between a Muslim and an atheist than between a Muslim and a Catholic. That seems obvious to me.<\/p>\n

But I don<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t understand the connection with racism <\/strong>\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s because there is none. Objectively speaking, there is none. When I was tried for racism and acquitted, a decade ago, the prosecutor remarked, correctly, that the Muslim religion was not a racial trait. This has become even more obvious today. So we have extended the domain of \u201cracism\u201d by inventing the crime of islamophobia.<\/p>\n

The word may be badly chosen, but there do exist forms of stigma toward groups or categories of person, which are forms of racism <\/strong>\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, islamophobia is not a kind of racism. If anything has become obvious, it\u2019s that.<\/p>\n

Islamophobia serves as a screen for a kind of racism that can no longer be expressed because it<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s against the law.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s just false. I don\u2019t agree.<\/p>\n

You rely on another dubious dichotomy, the opposition between anti-Semitism and racism,\u00a0<\/strong>when actually we can point to many moments in history when those two things have gone hand in hand.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think anti-Semitism has nothing to do with racism. I\u2019ve spent time trying to understand anti-Semitism, as it happens. One\u2019s first impulse is to connect it with racism. But what kind of racism is it when a person can\u2019t say whether somebody is Jewish or not Jewish, because the difference can\u2019t be seen? Racism is more elementary than that, it\u2019s a different skin color \u2026<\/p>\n

No, because cultural racism has been with us for a long time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But now you\u2019re asking words to mean something they don\u2019t. Racism is simply when you don\u2019t like somebody because he belongs to another race, because he hasn\u2019t got the same color skin that you do, or the same features, et cetera. You can\u2019t stretch the word to give it some higher meaning.<\/p>\n

But since, from a biological point of view, <\/strong>\u201c<\/strong>races<\/strong>\u201d<\/strong> don<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t exist, racism is necessarily cultural.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But racism exists, apparently, all around us. Obviously it has existed from the moment when races first began mixing \u2026 Be honest, Sylvain! You know very well that a racist is someone who doesn\u2019t like somebody else because he has black skin or because he has an Arab face. That\u2019s what racism is.<\/p>\n

Or because his values or his culture are <\/strong>\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, that\u2019s a different problem, I\u2019m sorry.<\/p>\n

Because he is polygamous, for example.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ah, well, one can be shocked by polygamy without being the least bit racist. That must be the case for lots of people who are not the least bit racist. But let\u2019s go back to anti-Semitism, because we\u2019ve gotten off topic. Seeing as how no one has ever been able to tell whether somebody is Jewish just by his appearance or even by his way of life, since by the time anti-Semitism really developed, very few Jews had a Jewish way of life, what could antisemitism really mean? It\u2019s not a kind of racism. All you have to do is read the texts to realize that anti-Semitism is simply a conspiracy theory\u2014there are hidden people who are responsible for all the unhappiness in the world, who are plotting against us, there\u2019s an invader in our midst. If the world is going badly, it\u2019s because of the Jews, because of Jewish banks \u2026 It\u2019s a conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n

But in Soumission<\/em>, isn<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t there a conspiracy theory\u2014the idea that a \u201cgreat replacement,\u201d to use the words of Renaud Camus, is underway, that Muslims are seizing power?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know much about this \u201cgrand replacement\u201d theory, but I gather it has to do with race. Whereas in my book, there is no mention of immigration. That\u2019s not the subject.<\/p>\n

It<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s not necessarily racial, it can be religious. In this case, your book describes the replacement of the Catholic religion by Islam.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. My book describes the destruction of the philosophy handed down by the Enlightenment, which no longer makes sense to anyone, or to very few people. Catholicism, by contrast, is doing rather well. I would maintain that an alliance between Catholics and Muslims is possible. We\u2019ve seen it happen before, it could happen again.<\/p>\n

You who have become an agnostic, you can look on cheerfully and watch the destruction of Enlightenment philosophy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. It has to happen sometime and it might as well be now. In this sense, too, I am a Comtean. We are in what he calls the metaphysical stage, <\/strong>which began in the Middle Ages and whose whole point was to destroy the phase that preceded it. In itself, it can produce nothing, just emptiness and unhappiness. So yes, I am hostile to Enlightenment philosophy, I need to make that perfectly clear.<\/p>\n

Why did you choose to set your novel in the world of academia? Because it embodies the Enlightenment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is it all right to say I don\u2019t know? Because really, I don\u2019t think I do. The truth is that I wanted there to be a long subplot dealing with Huysmans, that\u2019s where I got the idea of making my character an academic.<\/p>\n

Did you know from the beginning that you would write the novel in the first person?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, because it was a play on Huysmans. It was like that from the beginning.<\/p>\n

Once again, you<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ve written a character who is partly a self-portrait, not entirely, but <\/strong>\u2026<\/strong> there is the death of his parents, for example.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I have used things, even if the details are really quite different. My main characters are never self-portraits, but they are always projections. For example, what if I\u2019d read Huysmans when I was young, if I\u2019d studied literature and become a professor? I imagine lives that I haven\u2019t led.<\/p>\n

While allowing actual events to insert themselves in your fictional lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I use moments that have struck me in real life, yes. But more and more I tend to transpose them. In this book, all that\u2019s left of reality is the theoretical element\u2014the death of the father\u2014but actually everything about it is different. My father was very different from this guy, his death didn\u2019t happen that way at all. Life just gives me the basic ideas.<\/p>\n

In writing this book did you feel you were a Cassandra, a prophet of doom?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t really describe this book as a pessimistic prediction. At the end of the day, things don\u2019t go all that badly, really.<\/p>\n

Not so badly for the men, but for the women <\/strong>\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, that\u2019s a whole other problem. But it seems to me that the project of rebuilding the Roman empire isn\u2019t so stupid, if you reorient Europe toward the south the thing starts to make a kind of sense, even if it doesn\u2019t make sense right now. Politically, one might even welcome this development\u2014it\u2019s not really a catastrophe.<\/p>\n

And yet the book is extraordinarily sad.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, it has a strong underlying sadness. In my opinion, the ambiguity culminates in the last sentence\u2014\u201cI would have nothing to mourn.\u201d Really, one could come away feeling exactly the opposite. The character has two things to mourn\u2014Myriam and the Black Madonna. But he happens not to mourn them. What makes the book sad is a sort of ambience of resignation.<\/p>\n

How would you place this novel in relation to your other books?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You might say I did several things that I\u2019d wanted to do for a long time, things I\u2019d never done before. Like having a very important character whom one never sees, namely Ben Abbes. I also think it\u2019s the saddest ending to a love plot that I\u2019ve ever written, because it\u2019s the most banal\u2014out of sight, out of mind. They had feelings. In general, there is a much stronger feeling of entropy than in my other books. It has a somber, crepuscular side, which accounts for the sadness of its tone. For example, if Catholicism doesn\u2019t work, that\u2019s because it\u2019s already run its course, it seems to belong to the past, it has defeated itself. Islam is an image of the future. Why has the idea of the Nation stalled out? Because it\u2019s been abused too long.<\/p>\n

There is no trace of romanticism here, much less lyricism. We<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ve moved on to decadence.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s true. The fact that I started with Huysmans must have something to do with this. Huysmans couldn\u2019t go back to romanticism, but for him it was still possible to convert to Catholicism. The clearest point of connection with my other books is the idea that religion, of some kind, is necessary. That idea is there in many of my books. In this one, too, only now it\u2019s an existing religion.<\/p>\n

Whereas earlier one might have invented a religion, along Comtean lines.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Auguste Comte tried in vain to create a religion and, indeed, I have sometimes created religions in my books. The difference is that this one really exists.<\/p>\n

What is the place of humor in this book?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are comic characters here and there. I would guess that it\u2019s about the same as usual, really, with the same number of ridiculous characters.<\/p>\n

We haven<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t spoken much about women. Once again you will attract criticism on that front.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Certainly a feminist is not likely to love this book. But I can\u2019t do anything about that.<\/p>\n

And yet you were shocked when people described Whatever<\/em> as misogynistic. This book won<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t help your case.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I still don\u2019t think I\u2019m a misogynist, really. I would say that this isn\u2019t the crucial thing, in any case. The thing that may rub people the wrong way is that I show how feminism is demographically doomed. So the underlying idea, which may really upset people in the end, is that ideology doesn\u2019t matter much compared to demographics.<\/p>\n

This book is<\/strong> not<\/strong> meant as a provocation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I accelerate history, but no, I can\u2019t say that the book is a provocation\u2014if that means saying things I consider fundamentally untrue just to get on people\u2019s nerves. I condense an evolution that is, in my opinion, realistic.<\/p>\n

While you were writing or rereading the book, did you anticipate any reactions to its publication?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I still can\u2019t predict these things, not really.<\/p>\n

Some might be surprised that you chose to go in this direction when your last book was greeted as such a triumph that it silenced your critics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The true answer is that, frankly, I didn\u2019t choose. The book started with a conversion to Catholicism that should have taken place but didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Isn<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t there something despairing about this gesture, which you didn<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t really choose?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The despair comes from saying good-bye to a civilization, however ancient. But in the end the Koran turns out to be much better than I thought, now that I\u2019ve reread it\u2014or rather, read it. The most obvious conclusion is that the jihadists are bad Muslims. Obviously, as with all religious texts, there is room for interpretation, but an honest reading will conclude that a holy war of aggression is not generally sanctioned, prayer alone is valid. So you might say I\u2019ve changed my opinion. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t feel that I\u2019m writing out of fear. I feel, rather, that we can make arrangements. The feminists will not be able to, if we\u2019re being completely honest. But I and lots of other people will.<\/p>\n

You could replace the word <\/strong>feminists<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0with <\/strong>women<\/em>,<\/strong>\u00a0no?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, you can\u2019t replace the word feminists with women. Really you can\u2019t. I make it clear that women can be converts, too.<\/p>\n

Sylvain Bourmeau is a producer at France Culture and an associate professor at the \u00c9cole des hautes \u00e9tudes en sciences sociales in Paris.<\/em><\/p>\n

Translated from French by Lorin Stein.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 2022, and France is living in fear. The country is roiled by mysterious troubles. Regular episodes of urban violence are\u00a0deliberately obscured by the media. Everything is covered up, the public is in the dark … and in a few months the leader of a newly created Muslim party will be elected president. On the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[907],"tags":[865,15942,16467,822,16466,2426,16465,1279],"class_list":["post-81170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-work","tag-france","tag-french-literature","tag-french-novels","tag-michel-houellebecq","tag-muslims","tag-politics","tag-soumission","tag-sylvain-bourmeau"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMichel Houellebecq Defends His Controversial New Novel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An interview with Michel Houellebecq about his new novel, Soumission, which has caused a scandal in France even before its publication.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/02\/scare-tactics-michel-houellebecq-on-his-new-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scare Tactics: Michel Houellebecq Defends His Controversial New Book by Sylvain Bourmeau\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"January 2, 2015 \u2013 It\u2019s 2022, and France is living in fear. The country is roiled by mysterious troubles. 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