Customer Reviews

The Possibility of an Island

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is undoubtedly Houellebecq's most ambitous work to date. The themes of his previous novels, such as the fragmentation of modern society, the masochistic cult of youthful sexuality in an aging society, and the possibility of happiness in a world in which values have been stripped to those of hedonistic individualism at the same time that the satisfaction of those desires has never been harder to obtain, are again explored, but here in a quite novel setting, and to a more thorough conclusion.

The novel is composed of two parallel narratives, both concerning the character of Daniel, a politically incorrect comedian who has made a carreer out of exploiting the cruelty and prejudices of the masses. The first narrative is of the life of the original human Daniel, the second concerns that of his cloned successors. The two narratives have a kind of symmetry. Whereas the human Daniel gradually loses his faith in humanity, the power of love, and his ability to obtain any kind of love, sexual or otherwise, the cloned versions of Daniel gradually emerge from a completely isolated, pain free environment, to awaken to the desire and possibility of human social and sexual contact.

The isolated world of Daniel's cloned existance seems to portray Houellebecq's vision of the logical conclusion to developments in contemporary society. Each clone lives in a secluded bubble of existance, designed to shield him from the pain and suffering that has been declared to be an inherent component of human biological life. Contact with others is made purely by e-mail, whilst outside in the real world, human society has degenerated into the level of animal savagery. The world of the cloned neo-humans is run by the 'Supreme Sister', in other words feminists have fully succeeded in their present agenda of castrating men and divorcing reproduction entirely from sex. In fact, the whole story of the cult from which the neo-humans and Daniel's immortal successors emerge could be read as an allegory of the development of human civilisation out of a primitive society dependent on basic biological needs (something which Houellebecq seems to see as being a state our present society has regressed to), to its transition to a patriarchal society based on moral aspirations, and then to one were the seemingly innate simian sexual rivalry of men is ultimately exploited by women to castrate them and take control of sexual reproduction.

For Houellebecq, human life is a sexual battle. Darwinism should be better described as 'survival of the sexiest', rather than 'survival of the fittest'. He has the honesty and the politically incorrect aptitude to recognise that all our social mores, all our moral codes, ultimately spring from the eternal Darwinian sexual battle to leave as many descendents as possible behind us.

'Contrary to recieved ideas,
Words don't create a world;
Man speaks like a dog barks
To express his anger, or his fear'

Feminism, the latest moral religion to sweep the western world, is no more than another attempt to control sexual reproduction in the interests of one particular social group. The only interesting thing about this particular morality is that this time, it has been invented for the benefit of the reproductive organs of women, or at least certain kinds of women.

Through the possibility of cloning, Houellebecq explores the hope of a human existance that has escaped from this brutal Darwinian war. Can there exist the possibility of an island, where men and women can live in happiness untouched by the brutal biological realities that turn every facet of human life into a savage battle for reproductive survival, fought by nature's cruel weapons of desire and frustration? The grim answer from Houelebecq is a resounding Schopenhaurian negative. We can never escape from our biological, animal existance and find either unconditional love or satisfaction without boredom.

Although obviously stylistically more ambitious than previous works, the writing doesn't seem quite as fluent as before, something which can presumably be accredited to the translation of Gavin Bowd (Frank Wynn haing translated 'Atomised' and 'Platform'). Also, despite having the main character as a comedian, it does seem to lack in humour compared to previous novels. Nevertheless, a briliant book. It might be that Houellebecq sticks to familar themes, but when those themes are the degradation and collapse of modern society, the hypocricy and lies that we base our contemporary society upon, and the very essence of human existance and its possibility of change, then lets hope Houellebecq continues his one man wrecking spree on the politically correct delusions of our age.

A profoundly sad and lyrical book, perhaps the author's masterpiece, in which the Spanish countryside of the mad knight, now modern, disillusioned, and no longer blind, is intertwined with the Spanish countryside of a future millennium that is bleak and all too plausible. If Walter Miller's apocalyptic classic touched us with its ironic depiction of a post-nuclear devastation planet that cycles and recycles its history, Houellebecq shows us the inevitably destructive trajectory of man from within, what has replaced the paradise that was long ago lost, and the animal nature of humans that centuries of culture have camouflaged but cannot eliminate. This book will linger in the reader's memory for a long, long time. Very few contemporary authors have captured the essence of our loneliness as precisely as this one.

This was my first Houellebecq novel, and I absolutely loved it. In fact, this is one of my all time favorites.

The book addresses issues that are currently relevant in the Western world (and the book is set mostly in France and Spain), and the book often directly refers to things that were recently in the news and refers to current technology.

The book reflects on what it means to be human by comparing humans (mortals with all sorts of desires) with neo-humans
(immortals, with very few desires). Houellebeck addresses the
processes of aging, love and sex, and how these are related. In that sense, the book is very philosophical. And yet, it was also extremely well written and very readable. I loved the story line and the plot, and I had a very hard time putting it down. Finally, I also liked the humor in the book.

I 'd like to compare Houellebecq with Vonnegut, in that both authors are very philosophical, both authors use science fiction as a tool to have a different perspective on current conditions (rather than imagining what the future might look like), and both have a great sense of humor.

I bought this book when it came out but failed to make it beyond page 50. I had no desire to read the diary of the protagonist's 24th clone.

But after reading Public Enemies and teaching Platform this winter--after, in short, imagining myself to be an expert on Houellebecq--I picked it up again and this time read it in short order, rapt.

At the center of the novel is Houellebecq's alter-ego: a famous comic, Daniel, who has arrived at middle-age, lost his interest in the people around him, and set about surviving on sex and alcohol. As in Platform, mere survival is interrupted by the arrival of a young woman, Esther, who restores him to life. But his young love is promptly taken from him--but not by Islamic terrorists, as in Platform, but by the vapid pleasures of Western Civ. (drugs, casual sex, dreams of celebrity).

By linking capitalist hedonism with religious fundamentalism in this way--arguing that they're essentially two sides of the same coin (standing, both of them, in the way of love)--The Possibility of an Island clarifies the source of Houellebecq's hatred for contemporary life:

"To increase desires to an unbearable level while making the fulfillment of them more and more inaccessible: this was the single principle upon which Western society was based."

I admit that I find ridiculous statements like these exciting. So I found the book exciting. Schizophrenic moral outrage drives the narrative: on the one hand, the book is nostalgically conservative, yearning for a time when love meant something, when people had souls; on the other hand, it delights in modern libertinism, in the availability of beautiful girls who bounce into one's bed now and then to casually rescue one from despair. The kids are unleashed, and, my god, isn't it lovely?

But Houellebecq's aware of his schizophrenia: the schizophrenia is the point. He spends some time narrating the rise of a minor California cult that will, we learn, eventually conquer the world. At times it seems pretty clear that his heart's not in all the tedious storytelling. He's at his best--in some respects he's our most interesting working writer--when he's outraged, sparing no one, including himself:

"If you attack the world with sufficient violence, it ends up spitting its filthy lucre back at you; but never, never will it give back joy."

In the not so distant future, Daniel is living out the second half of what he considers an exercise in futility-and the rest of us consider life. Despite having been more than relatively successful as a comedian, Daniel is discontent. It has been his life work to observe humanity and its proclivities. As it turns out, Daniel isn't a big fan of humanity.

At first his observations make for great, borderline subversive, comedy. Eventually Daniel becomes so disgusted by people that the simple act of laughter, of observing other people's response to him, makes him physically ill. Attempting to resolve himself to the present, and find a way to carry on, Daniel may inadvertently aid in the demise of the world he recognizes.

In the very distant future Daniel 24, and eventually Daniel 25, genetic copies of the original Daniel ("Neo Humans"), live in a fortress of solitude. Their life's work is to learn the life history of Daniel 1, consider it, dissect it, comment on it, and add their commentary to those of the previous Daniels. They are engineered to be devoid of feeling, but some ideas are hard to get rid of.

Daniel 1 is both an everyman and completely separate from it. He lives in a time where society has taken everything too far. Sex doesn't just sell anymore, sex is power, and it's not the men who have it. Youth is everything, so much so that when one is beyond the ability to appear young, existence seems futile. Love is virtually mythic. Science has advanced so far that people have almost ceased to be necessary. Disturbing ideas on their own, they are made more frightening when you realize that this is not a wholly inconceivable view of the future. As for what comes after, bleak doesn't go far enough to describe it.

This is existentialism for our generation, and beyond.

While extremely interesting and thought provoking, I found this book to be somewhat inaccessible. The format is confusing at first, though not impossible. The language chosen is difficult and often overly technical, especially for an "everyman" character. Which, I suppose, both proves and desecrates its point.

Armchair Interviews says: Heed the reviewer's comments to see if the book is right for you.

Michel Houellebecq switched translators for his latest novel. Gavin Bowd fails to translate idiomatically, resulting in endless repititon of the English cliche 'at the end of the day'. My limited high school French leads me to imagine that an acceptable French idiom (au jourd'hui?)has been abused to create maximum irritation. In spite of this, the essential Houellebecq comes through. The notion of the human race being replaced by a line of relationally challenged genetically modified clones who photosynthesise and develop personalities based on cultural transmission via the reading of their predecessors life narratives is troublingly immediately pertinent. The similarity of the novel's Elohim sect to the Raelians will be apparent to any reader familiar with the claims of that group to have succeeded at human cloning. The novel left me hoping that Michel is plugging away at his keyboard at this moment, and that he either take personal responsibility for the English translation of the next novel, or else persuade his publisher to get Frank Wynne back on the team.

when in concluding his review of The Possibility of an Island, collected in Due Considerations, john updike asks, 'But how honest, really, is a world-picture that excludes the pleasures of parenting, the comforts of communal belonging, the exercise of daily curiosity, and the moral responsibility, widely met, to make the best of each stage of life, including the last?' i'm left feeling that mr updike was force feeding readers a novel different than the novel before him; a novel of ideas far more reaching than any of the novels he himself had written with their bright beads of adulteries deliciously, casually, strung along the pleasures of parenting, the comforts of communal belonging, and moral responsibility of daily life. it should suffice to note that the protagonist of houellebecq's novel lives in a different zip code, one listed outside, or above, suburbia, where things are done differently.

for awhile daniel is married, and then he's divorced, and when he's divorced he's fortunate to attract the sexual attention of a younger woman. the woman is not so young as to be a pubescent girl -- and there is much talk about the erotics of pubescent girls in this novel.

self described as a `cutting observer of contemporary reality', daniel, as a highly successful professional comedian, captures within his routines the 'incestuous temptations of mid-career intellectuals aroused by their daughters' ... bare belly buttons and thongs showing above their pants', and the advertising world that serves men by providing erotic fashions increasingly more revealing and enticing as represented by models who work in conjunction with, and part of, `a bizarre product positioning.'

isabelle, his wife, when they first meet, is an editor for the magazine Lolita, a magazine directed at tween girls and their sexuality, a concept of such interest to older women who want to feel young, that the reader demographic becomes the twenty eight year old woman.

daniel is pretty much jaded by how much society has out distanced his comedy by the time he becomes involved with the cult elohim, a quasi religion with the goal of achieving immortality through cloning and controlling an environment free of sexual restrictions and constraints between consenting adults -- adults defined as persons above puberty.

he's made a lot of money as a shock comedian, affording him opportunities to pursue his sexual quest where it takes him within the parameters of the society and mores up for grabs of which he as a western man is a citizen of privilege. what could be called the moral of houellebecq's highly intelligent and brilliant story is described from the future by daniel's clones.

This is a strikingly original work. The man can write and he can think. But his thought is most often misanthropic and negative. He can be humorous and his blunt analysis often bring a bitter smile. His telling the story of a human and what comes to be his non- human clones is in a tone of anger, disappointment, condemnation. For him it would seem all human relationships are secondary to sexual ones. And he seems to preclude any kind of warm non- sexual human relationships. The man is an island who knows what Paradise is only when he is in physical relations with a much younger woman. But essentially this too cannot free him from the deep loneliness which is his soul and consciousness.
All this leaves the reader with a sense of both appreciation and reservation at the brutally honest crude and yet highly original voice and style of this work.
This is the kind of book it is very interesting to visit but one will feel not alright staying with for long.

A lot of people don't like this novel and some parts of it are indeed pointlessly offensive. But while it isn't as good as The Elementary Particles or Whatever, it is still a very good book, much better than Platform.

Its not optimistic, or happy book. But its showing what its like to be a human. And we all know that's not an easy task. Some would say the book is about sax and sex only, but I strongly disagree. Author is showing all aspects of the life using sex as a tool, a weapon. Through it he shows love, desperation, fears. If you wanna see that you're not alone in your dark thoughts you should read this book. It helps in its strange, awkward ways