Review #7 of 2024: Submission by Michel Houllebecq

A positive view of an Islamic France?

This was the third of my "10 books to read before I die" that I read (and third this year- I promise the Infinite Jest review is coming). Houellebecq was on my list because of how much I related to the themes of The Elementary Particles, but I wanted something that touched on deeper themes than the sexual dysfunction of the modern West. Soumission (Submission) seemed like the perfect fit, especially with the background surrounding its publication (the Charlie Hebedo Massacres). What I got was a lot of Houellebecq: middle-aged literatti protagonist obsessed with sex but with very little else meaningful going on his life, but a lot of surprises: a pretty positive take on an Islamic takeover of France (and other European countries), a new French author to read (Huysmans), and a pretty scathing critique of the right/left political system.

Political Islam as an Attractive Alternative to the West

Let's start with the first point. The people who are calling this book hateful or Islamaphobic clearly have not read it. Houellebecq presents moderate Islam as a clearly positive alternative to decadent secularism, although quite opposed to his own fundamental values of liberty, fraternity, and equality. Islam would establish a more sane familial structure (without the stressed or broken homes that are endemic to the modern west), curtail (but not eliminate) overeducation, especially of women, and provide a higher purpose in service (submission) to God that our societies have lost. By limiting sexual exposure in public, Islam will also bring back the eroticism in private (this last one might be a cope of the MC, but I do think the over-sexualization of the West has honestly made sex too boring).

Now I'm not saying I agree that this is the only, or even a good way forward (nor would Houellebecq, given his statements about Islam), but it is a way. For someone like the main character of this novel, who comes from a rich, but atomized community, it is not hard to see why this might be appealing. Of course there are obvious downsides of such a system namely that polygamy never works long term, and that reducing all women to the status of housewives/sex slaves might not be the most just treatment of those individuals¹. But Houellebecq's version of political Islam does offer a positive vision of the future, something that our secular culture has failed to do for at least fifty years.

Back to Catholicism?

One alternative to the adoption of political Islam would be a reversion to the historical traditional religion of the West: Catholicism. Houellebecq explores this through the narrative foil of Huysmans, who converted to Catholicism and became a practicing lay Dominican, both of which are reflected in his later writings. François (MC) tries to retrace Huysmans' footsteps in an attempt to capture the same feeling that pushed his conversion, but fails completely: finding Christianity too meek and feeble to stand up to the challenges of the modern world.

Obviously I do not completely agree: I am practicing Catholic. However, there is some bite to Houellebecq's critique (which is Nietzsche's as well) that Christianity has become altogether too passive, some might say feminized of a religion. Whereas political Islam will kill non-believers for violating their tenants, political Catholicism cannot even excise the pedophiles from its own ranks, or excommunicate secular leaders who actively campaign against positions of the church. In a larger sense, Christianity has failed to stand up to the tide of modernity and secularism that has engulfed the West: to try and go back to that is merely a slower form of committing suicide. Now I personally think that Christianity does have a way forward, but it's thru a wedding with the occult and pagan traditions that sprang up in the 19th century. More on that in another post.

The Failure of Secular Culture

But Christianity, like Islam, at least offers a vision of what the world should look like. The same cannot be said for our secular culture. Now this didn't always used to be the case: before World War One you had plenty of Europeans and Americans who actually believed deeply in a secular and erudite vision of the future built of republican values and watered with the blood of its citizenry. But the bloodbath of the two world wars sowed the soil with salt, and the subsequent material prosperity has left the tree without watering or guardians. Secular culture used to have something to offer people: the life of culture and the mind was extremely rewarding and worth dying for. But either such values were never really transcendental in the way that religion was, or through lack of struggle, we have forgotten their significance. Instead we have political parties debating trivialities, unable to see past the next election. In Submission, rather than see Le Pen win (and IDK see less immigration and fewer taxes), the left and center-right allowed an Islamic government that would implement Shaira law in the education system into power. Talk about winning the battle only to lose the war.

Of course this novel was not perfect: we didn’t get much of an exploration of the François’ relationship with the rest of his family, and he’s not much of a mover of the plot, rather things tend to just happen to him. However, this last point may be part of the theme of the novel. The citizens of France can’t be bothered to decide the future that they want to see, so someone else decides for them. And of course there’s the bad sex scenes, and constant objectification of women, but that is what you get when you read any Houellebecq. Anyway, if you're gonna read something of his ,read this one. Lots to think about here, more so with our own institutions rather than any real substantial critique of Islam. If you can read it in French do so, I hope to be able to join you sometime soon.

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Josh

1. It is not a caricature of Islam to suggest that this is how women would be treated: this is the case in every country that follows Shaira law, and in many parts of the West where that law is practiced.