Subject
Fwd: Re: French novelist Houellbech on VN
From
Date
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Dear Don,
Your correspondent is unable to understand why Michel
Houellebecq is France's 'best known French writer
world-wide'. Perhaps I can help. In common with most
media and much popular culture, Houellebecq's method
trades on banality, informational glitter and the
stylishly sentimental. He is unwavering, almost
heroic, in his focus on the dull and uneventful, be it
casual death, onanistic sex, beach scenes in tropical
resorts or office politics. He is one of the few
contemporary writers to use (without embarrassment)
the Internet as source for his novels' philosophical
gestures and moral lessons. His language is enormously
easy on the eye and staggeringly uninteresting. (See
Martin Amis's _Yellow Dog_ for a belle lettrist
version of the same.) He is not in the least bit
complex, clever or unreadable. This is why Houellebecq
is France's best known French writer world-wide.
Thousands buy into his work without any sense of
inadequacy or threat.
Best wishes,
Piers Smith
--- "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net> wrote:
> EDNOTE Maurice Couturier is the leading French
> Nabokov scholar and editor of
> the Pleiade edition of VN.
> ----------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <ms.couturier@tiscali.fr>
> To: "Chtodel" <Chtodel@cox.net>
> Sent: Monday, August 29, 2005 7:57 AM
> Subject: re Houellbech
>
>
> Dear Don,
> >Michel Houellbech, the notorious French novelist
> who is apparently the
> >best-known French writer world-wide (for reasons
> that I can't understand)
> >is publishing another novel entitled "La
> Possibilité d'une île" (a bad
> >novel, judging
> from the exerpts I have read) in which he considers
> Nabokov as a "mediocre
> and affected pseudo poet". Almost a compliment
> coming from a writer like
> him.
>
> Best,
>
> Maurice
>
> ********** L'ADSL A 20 EUR/MOIS**********
> Tiscali propose l'ADSL le moins cher du marché : 20
> EUR/mois et le modem
> ADSL offert !
> Pour profiter de cette offre exceptionnelle, cliquez
> ici :
> http://register.tiscali.fr/adsl/
> Offre soumise à conditions.
>
___________________________________________________________
How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday
snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com
----- End forwarded message -----
Your correspondent is unable to understand why Michel
Houellebecq is France's 'best known French writer
world-wide'. Perhaps I can help. In common with most
media and much popular culture, Houellebecq's method
trades on banality, informational glitter and the
stylishly sentimental. He is unwavering, almost
heroic, in his focus on the dull and uneventful, be it
casual death, onanistic sex, beach scenes in tropical
resorts or office politics. He is one of the few
contemporary writers to use (without embarrassment)
the Internet as source for his novels' philosophical
gestures and moral lessons. His language is enormously
easy on the eye and staggeringly uninteresting. (See
Martin Amis's _Yellow Dog_ for a belle lettrist
version of the same.) He is not in the least bit
complex, clever or unreadable. This is why Houellebecq
is France's best known French writer world-wide.
Thousands buy into his work without any sense of
inadequacy or threat.
Best wishes,
Piers Smith
--- "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net> wrote:
> EDNOTE Maurice Couturier is the leading French
> Nabokov scholar and editor of
> the Pleiade edition of VN.
> ----------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <ms.couturier@tiscali.fr>
> To: "Chtodel" <Chtodel@cox.net>
> Sent: Monday, August 29, 2005 7:57 AM
> Subject: re Houellbech
>
>
> Dear Don,
> >Michel Houellbech, the notorious French novelist
> who is apparently the
> >best-known French writer world-wide (for reasons
> that I can't understand)
> >is publishing another novel entitled "La
> Possibilité d'une île" (a bad
> >novel, judging
> from the exerpts I have read) in which he considers
> Nabokov as a "mediocre
> and affected pseudo poet". Almost a compliment
> coming from a writer like
> him.
>
> Best,
>
> Maurice
>
> ********** L'ADSL A 20 EUR/MOIS**********
> Tiscali propose l'ADSL le moins cher du marché : 20
> EUR/mois et le modem
> ADSL offert !
> Pour profiter de cette offre exceptionnelle, cliquez
> ici :
> http://register.tiscali.fr/adsl/
> Offre soumise à conditions.
>
___________________________________________________________
How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday
snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com
----- End forwarded message -----