The Possibility of an Island in français

Oct 27, 2021 Théo d'Or added it · review of another edition

" Who, among us deserves eternal life ? "

A question that - placed out of a well-defined context - can create controverses..
Houellebecq wrote this book at 49, and the chosen theme leads me to believe that the anguish of aging haunted him from a fairly young age. The concept of immortality, or more precisely - the condition of ordinary immortal - is debated here in the form of a SF, in which Houellebecq paroxysms his social critique of modern man, his complaint about aging, and cult of youth and " Who, among us deserves eternal life ? "

A question that - placed out of a well-defined context - can create controverses..
Houellebecq wrote this book at 49, and the chosen theme leads me to believe that the anguish of aging haunted him from a fairly young age. The concept of immortality, or more precisely - the condition of ordinary immortal - is debated here in the form of a SF, in which Houellebecq paroxysms his social critique of modern man, his complaint about aging, and cult of youth and of the future, for that his memoirs are read by the " isotopes " of the future, ( if the narrator of the memoirs is Daniel 1, these memoirs will be read - in learning and taking over the memory - by the posthuman isotopes Daniel 20, 21, etc ) .
Thus the chain does not break , and immortality is at our feet, but an asexual, gray immortality, devoid of lusts, passions, and almost everything that guides us in life and can destroy us.
Arriving here, I wondered why Houellebecq did not transposes himself into a character, as he did in " The Map and the Territory ". I suspect that if he had done that here, he would have transposed himself into a Daniel 69. Connoisseurs can guess why..
Houellebecq succeeds here in an absolute forcing of all limits and the creation of a temple of excess, in the purest sadian way. If in " Les Particules Élémentaires " - his thinking develops dichotomously, here, the mechanism of this thinking is embodied in a philosophical comedian, in fact, H' s novel is not valuable so much as a SF, but as a philosophical manifesto.
Houellebecq becomes downright sadistic in his analysis of aging, and the sentiment of love. Love between two human animals is not possible in the absence of sexual attraction. You may ask how, in the case of a true love ? Through the aging of the woman. Quite cinic, isn't that ?
I have to add, though, one thing in this regard : I don't know a writer more dedicated to women than Houellebecq.
Lack of desire, in contact with the aging of one of the partners excludes the eternity of happiness . This does not exclude, however, short-term happiness, the only one accesible to man.
Houellebecq's characters are lucid pessimists, yet they are marked by the lack of love. So will be the isotope Daniel 25, which breaks the silence and aseptic isolation that ensures the perpetuation of the species into immortality. His search is nothing but the pursuit of the community of rebellious fellows against immortality, a search that ends in total isolation.
" The future was empty. The future was the mountain ".
Above all, Houellebecq's conclusion is, and is not pessimistic. More importantly, is that I do not see a continuation of this path. ...more

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Jun 26, 2017 P.E. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: utopia-dystopia, diary

Probably the most unsparing among Houellebecq's unsparing novels.

Matching Soundtrack :
Her OST - Loneliness #3 - Arcade Fire

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Sûrement le roman le plus désespérant parmi les romans désespérés de leur auteur.

Fond musical :
Her OST - Loneliness #3 - Arcade Fire ...more

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Aug 27, 2007 jackie marked it as to-read

Shelves: toreadornottoread

hmm. this book looks like it would be interesting, but i'm not quite sure i'd be able to stomach it. i'm not much of a deep thinker either... =P ...more

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