Submission - Houellebecq's book about an Islamic France

[ChildofOldLeech]

Ah, well then; I guess it's just fortunate that I am not the sort of hypersensitive, thin-skinned ideologue who seemingly takes another's difference in opinion as a paranoid personal attack upon themselves, or such remarks just might have forced me to immediately ban and block their writer like a hysterical high-schooler defriending their former clique on facebook so as to eliminate the possibility of even again being confronted by a dissenting thought that could damage and corrupt my strongly-held convictions. . .

Unfortunately Mr "ChildofOldLeech" you are at a titanic disadvantage. All my actions and reputation are fully accountable since everyone knows who I am. You, however, continually hide your libels behind a pseudonym.

Until you remedy that aspect, you're as nothing. You're a spectre.

Empty words, accusations, ranting and nothing more.

Mark S.

[Justin Isis]

Quote Originally Posted by ChildofOldLeech

as far as bad-boy french novelists are concerned, I think I'll stick with Jonathan Littell myself.

[Frater_Tsalal]

Hell, I'm just happy to see a modern-day writer extolling Huysmans... seems so few do these days. I might check this book out if only for that: to be honest, the only Houellebecq I've read is The Elementary Particles and I'd be lying if I said it did all that much for me. I suppose one of these days I should read his Lovecraft book as well...

[ChildofOldLeech]

- While I fail to see how who I am or am not is relevant to the matter at hand, I don't especially care for sniggering insinuations that I am a liar. After being friended by the TLO member around a year ago, there was no personal contact between us, until, apropos of nothing, I received this levelling of accusations, the first and only message exchanged, earlier this winter. Since there hadn't been any communication between us, the only thing I could think of that might have triggered such a response was the addition of a quote from Andre Breton as my post signature, which, as a number of other TLO users have similarly added quotes they find inspiring from personal heroes, I didn't see this as being a source of controversy or something worthy of punishment. Being 'unfriended' didn't hurt my feelings or upset me; I did find it to be a rather surprising reaction, but it's well within anyone's rights to do so as a matter of personal choice. What I don't care for is after being blocked and left unable to inquire or learn why the blocking had occurred, the blocker is free to make any comments he wants concerning me. While apparently my personal opinions were so odious that he had to completely cut off the means of communication between us and remove my presence from the site, the blocker has no problem responding to my comments with a variety of snide remarks and then denies any knowledge of the matter and behaves like the aggrieved party. This strikes me less as an example of 'accountability' and more like 'hypocrisy', so the following is included as verification against insulting accusations of libel and the like.

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[qcrisp]

Incidentally, I forgot to say - Happy New Year, everyone!

YouTube

Once again, on the threshold of another year on a planet whose destiny apparently hangs by the most tenuous of threads, with the incomparable help of Houellebecq, the dead spirit of Huysmans, and the usual cast of friends and enemies, I am sure that we will, as Damon Albarn says, "get through it".

[MadsPLP]

Houellebecq may be a poseur, but thris thread proves again that there's nothing like a debate about Houellebecq to get people riled up.

Regarding Enlightenment, it seems that while he's saying he's an enemy of Enlightenment, it seems more like it has, from his point of view, failed to produce happiness for people in general. That's the way I read it, anyway.

I always look forward to a new novel by Houllebecq; The Map and the Territory was his finest yet, utterly brilliant (despite of the flaw in the realism of letting his main character become a succesful artist with only two exihibitions at a small gallery and no participation in major art festivals and exhibitions - but there's always that lack of realism in integral parts of his novels, and it seems to me they're sometimes placed there willfully?), and this sounds interesting as well (Edit: and here, too, the premise is flawed as realism given that the party he describes is highly unlikely to win an election so early, if ever; something which he concedes gladly in the interview/Edit end).


Houellebecq has never struck me as a poseur or willfully misanthropic or out to provoke as part of a persona more than any other writers cultivate a persona. He has always struck me as sincere, saying some things a lot of people will disagree with (I occassionally do), all the while being, as a novelist, a highly interesting observer of where society at large is headed, how his characters react to society, while maintaining a high degree of compassion for humanity; there is a great sadness and melancholy for the human condition in his novels. I have always had a hard time seeing Houellebecq the writer as the misanthrope the media tends to paint him as.

[Coa]

Quote Originally Posted by Hell-Ghost

I do not care one jot for politics or religion, nor do I care for atheists, cynics, and materialists. I have a wealth of respect for Mark Samuels the author; but as for Mark Samuels the man I am highly uncertain. Far be it from me to clype on anyone, especially someone who I greatly admire and has permanently enriched weird fiction, but when one sees the following private message: ''Welcome to my ignore list. And goodbye. Mark S.'' One can only remain in a state of polarisation. Sadly, even in the welcome and infinite world of phantasy and the weird the ugly political, humanocentric, and religious element must always intrude, alas. Like many I imagine, I joined Thomas Ligotti Online for my passion for the fantastic, the horrific, and the weird (hence my signature picture), and I like it when others with similar interests join, hence I can be quite vexed when stupid ''spammers'' or idiot individuals who simply wish to sell us their trash or log on only to remark ''This is very nice post, thanks!'' appear. I have nothing against those who wish to share with us their knowledge in the esoteric (SpookyDread) or appear simply to settle a dispute (Bata), but cretins like Jerry M-- who think we are interested in cooking really exasperate me.

I was with you until you said Bata... that guy was (and still is) sick psycho-pathological case. He's got fixation on True Detective as greatest show ever - mostly because it's ending which he considers best thing that ever happened.
Do you know what has he been doing lately one another forum ? he's writing review for Conspiracy, utterly negative of course, basically claiming that TL is an idiot and everything in the book nonsense, for no other reason but to defend dumb True Detective ending. He became expert on every topic mentioned in it. He couldn't spam this forum so he's now doing it on another one.
As they say - BOLID.

[Coa]

Quote Originally Posted by qcrisp

Incidentally, I forgot to say - Happy New Year, everyone! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaHrqKKFnSA Once again, on the threshold of another year on a planet whose destiny apparently hangs by the most tenuous of threads, with the incomparable help of Houellebecq, the dead spirit of Huysmans, and the usual cast of friends and enemies, I am sure that we will, as Damon Albarn says, "get through it".

Happy New Year !

[qcrisp]

Just for the record, I've referenced Houellebecq in at least two unpublished things I've written, and thought I'd take the opportunity to quote one of those references here, from a novel I'm currently working on, called Graves. This is the quote:

Quote

His preferred contemporary author was Houellebecq, for the sting of angst and the consolation his work gave, as if years of anger and bitterness had just been released from a slingshot stretched by the mechanisms of intolerable contradiction as far as it would go.

This is elaborated on a little, but I picked something sound-bitey.

I've also just finished reading a book by Scruton that discusses Islam a little, and contains some interesting observations. I might write about them here later, if I get the time.