François is a professor of Letters at Sorbonne IV University of Paris, who has dedicated his studies to Huysmans, a decadent writer who, at the end of his life, submitted to Catholicism. As a kind of parallelism the protagonist is destined for a similar fate: in the dystopian novel “Submission” writed by Michel Houellebecq the story sets in an unpleasant society of a near future – France in 2022 – in which comes to power the Islamic party led by Ben Abbes, an apparently moderate politician – if compared with the National Front of Marine Le Pen, came out defeated in the elections.
The protagonist is presented to us as an intellectual middle-aged, bored and unenthusiastic towards his profession. His life runs unflappable, shaken only by amorous encounters with young female students. François doesn’t seem to pay attention to the world around him, even to the rise of the Islamic party which, for an atheist as he seems to be, should interest him closely. The use of the conditional is a must: the professor in fact will convert to Islam in order to continue his career, a choice that will bring him to enjoy even polygamy, to a wage increase and an early pension.
What does it leave me a bit puzzled?
The women world, namely the fact that it seems not exist.
Sciltian Gastaldi, writer of the italian newspaper “Il Fatto Quotidiano”, comes out clearly about: “In the France of “Submission” there are no intellectual women, there are no women professors at the university, there are no feminists, writers, political, female students, the leftists or the right, the young, the old. Rien. Women don’t exist. “
What makes “Submission” worth reading?
This book’s a gift received from one of my dear friends; sometimes reading something different gives you a gift of time that you wouldn’t have ever taken, of reflection and deepening of a reality closer to us than you can imagine; because it remains – in my humble opinion – the proof of a capable writer.
You can read for several reasons: to get an idea of what happens in the world, deal with others and learn to do it in order to train the mind to open up is one of these.
Time of reading: one week
Photography: Sara Cartelli.
© Immagini The Eat Culture.
