Le Monde de Houellebecq (review)

Is Houellebecq's world that of academia? Le Monde de Houellebecq is the title of the first academic conference devoted to the author (Edinburgh, 2005) and the resulting conference proceedings. As Gavin Bowd, the editor and conference organizer, remarks, Houellebecq was the attentive, engaging and courteous front-row participant. Furthermore, if Houellebecq's latest book, La Possibilité d'une île (2005), charts the search for eternal life, Bowd concludes his preface with the following declaration from Houellebecq: 'Les études universitaires sont le seul moyen pour moi de survivre à la mort'. As a lecturer enthusiastic and brave enough to put Houellebecq on the first-year syllabus, translator of the latest book, and personal friend of the author, Bowd was particularly well-placed to organize the conference, as is evident from the tone of the preface, with its balance between houellebecquien humour and knowledgeable insight into 'the central problem of someone who is both in and against the world'. The editor has favoured the principle of diversity/inclusiveness with twenty articles in total. As such, the volume perhaps suffers from the drawbacks of any volume of conference proceedings, namely the varied quality of the papers. Nevertheless they offer a diverse and wide range of approaches, covering the whole oeuvre, and are sure to stimulate further discussion. Several of the contributions explore narrative perspective and philosophical/ideological stance (Remy on the critic in and against the world; Baggesgaard on sincerity; St-Onge on referentiality; Viard on ideology; Cruickshank on misogyny and consumerism). Bessard-Banquy gives an informative outline of Houellebecq's publishing career. Houellebecq's oft-neglected poetry is a focus (Evans on metrics; Carlson on the clash of 'discours clinque et pathétique'; Maignan-Claverie on salvation through poetry). A new slant is given by Andrew Hussey's article on rock music's influence on the author and his early career as a music critic for Les Inrockuptibles. The world of dreams is also explored (Clément, Laforest), as is the natural world (Pröll), and the scientific world of space and energy (Koščec). There are some excellent comparative papers tracing Houellebecq's literary heritage: Place-Verghnes on Maupassant and Schopenhauer; Rabosseau on the 'neo-naturalist' novelist; and Schianno-Bennis on the nineteenth-century legacy. Wesemael offers comparisons to the contemporary authors Liberati and Pliskin. An interesting concluding paper by Van Treeck deals with the reception of Houellebecq in Germany and explores a reading of a novel by Kirchhoff that has the fictional author Ollenbeck (Houellebecq?), who has achieved success through scandal and media attention, bump off a dissenting literary critic. Bowd has chosen as epilogue a piece by a friend of Houellebecq's, Antonio Muñoz Ballesta, which stresses Houellebecq's sincerity and the lucidity of his critical vision. He sums up the oft-heard case that Houellebecq is a neo-romantic: 'Le sexe a le pouvoir d'unir l'amour et la mort. Voilà le romantisme implicite dans les œuvres littéraires de Houellebecq et Schopenhauer, bien qu'il soient loin d'être des romantiques classiques'. Sexual intercourse enacts the desire to perpetuate an image of ourselves after death. In conclusion, where this volume is most successful is in charting Houellebecq's literary heritage.