Slouching toward Mecca (Houellebecq)

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

A substantial review, definitely worth reading.

That said, there's a severe mistake in Lilla's plot summary:

 > And so François converts, in a short, modest ceremony at the Grande 
Mosquée de Paris. <

Actually the whole last chapter is not written in indicative but in 
conjunctive! And this is so important on the novel's societal level 
because it's exactly this /qualified ambivalence/ where the remains of 
the humanist tradition are dwelling and by which the nihilistic downfall 
of Europe could perhaps be stopped. Neither racist projections nor 
Western self-hatred help. By formulating the final chapter in 
conjunctive, Houellebecq keeps the door for History open.

I give you the final chapter's first two and a half sentences in German, 
marking all the forms in conjunctive, so this will become clear: "Es 
WÜRDEN noch einige Wochen verstreichen, eine Art Anstandsfrist, während 
der in der Pariser Region die Temperaturen zunehmend milder WÜRDEN und 
der Frühling Einzug HIELTE; und dann WÜRDE ich natürlich wieder bei 
Rediger anrufen./ Vor allem aus Feingefühl WÜRDE er seine innere Freude 
ein wenig überspielen, denn es WÄRE ihm wichtig, sich überrascht zu 
zeigen, um mir das Gefühl zu geben, es SEI mein /freier Wille/; er WÜRDE 
wirklich glücklich über meine Zustimmung sein ..." (p. 268) In English 
the novel's last sentence says: "I WOULDN'T have anything to regret." 
The ambivalence here is crucial.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pynchon people will probably think of Henry Adams when they read 
Francois' vision of the Black Madonna of Rocamadour:

http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://www.marypages.com/Rocamadour1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.marypages.com/Rocamadour.htm&h=436&w=303&tbnid=zA8JDiaGM6TRIM:&zoom=1&tbnh=117&tbnw=81&usg=__6cM8K7bb2GqoqQzbi86Rquwl5ys=&docid=AAe4M6qgYwFwlM&client=ubuntu&sa=X&ei=ZJcKVfTCCsf6PMObgcAP&ved=0CCkQ9QEwAQ


On 19.03.2015 02:35, Dave Monroe wrote:
> http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/apr/02/slouching-toward-mecca/
>
> Submission
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soumission
> -
> Pynchon-l /http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
>

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