Submission

by Michel Houellebecq

People like to be listened to, as every researcher knows – every researcher, every writer, every spy.

Hidden all day in impenetrable black burkas, rich Saudi women transformed themselves by night into birds of paradise with their corsets, their see-through bras, their G-strings with multicoloured lace and rhinestones. They were exactly the opposite of Western women, who spent their days dressed up and looking sexy to maintain their social status, then collapsed in exhaustion once they got home, abandoning all hope of seduction in favour of clothes that were loose and shapeless.

He wanted a good little cook who could also turn herself into a whore, and he wanted this on a fixed schedule.

the summit of human happiness resides in the most absolute submission.

People don’t really care all that much about their own death. What they really worry about, their one real fixation, is how to avoid physical suffering as much as possible.