/lit/ - Literature

>>19585866

>>19585866
I have the power of clairvoyance and can tell you what the book is going to be about. It's going to tell the story of a middle-aged professional being misogynistic and autistic about sex. He will achieve nothing of value and get cucked in some way.

>The controversial writer will be back in bookstores on January 7 with a new novel. After keeping the secret for several weeks, Flammarion reveals the title this Friday: "Annihilate".

>This is the literary event of January. After announcing at the beginning of November the release of Michel Houellebecq's new novel on January 7, Flammarion announces this Friday the title and cover of its 8th book, entitled "Annihilate". Two years after Serotonin, we knew that the writer had things to say since this book will contain 736 pages.

>As with the publication of his previous novel, Michel Houellebecq decided not to grant any interview to the press. We would have loved to hear him explain his work, and of course react to the political news in the run-up to the presidential election. It will therefore be necessary to read it to know his view of France today.

>>19585882
Alas for your prediction powers, Houellebecq said the protagonist would be female.

>>19585866
It just means annihilate, like literally.

One of the few writers in the world where it feels like an event when he drops a new book.

>>19585889
so? A female can still be a he, if he identifies as such

>>19585889
It's going to be an autistic masterpiece. He doesn't seem like a man who can write a woman without making her a brainless whore

Extremely excited for this. Too bad it won't be released in English for who knows how long

>>19585926
so he could not write one unrealistically?

>>19585866
Why does he look like a zombie?

>>19585966
gotem

>>19585971
Trust me, you do NOT want to know.

>>19585971
Perhaps you end up looking like the books you write.

>>19585971
No pussy + french

>>19585913
The literal French translation for "annihilate" is "annihiler".

>>19585924
Would be good actually if Houellebecq cared to tackle the woke/gender fluid delirium of our age. Unfortunately, and despite his "great prophet and observer of Western society" reputation, his books have always struck me as very out of touch with the immediate present. He's essentially an autistic boomer with a limited range.

>>19585997
you can translate it two ways

>>19585997
Yeah, that's called a synonym since aneantir and annihiler mean the same thing: the first is a literal French translation of the etymologically much more Latin annihiler: Latin nihil, nothing. Pretty much exact synonyms.

>>19586005
he would just confirm your opinions by saying trannies are retarded and wokeism is bad. I don't think he would have anything interesting to say aside from bitching about modernity like he did in Submission. He should stick to writing stuff about incels, something he is actually good at

>>19586016
There's a reason synonyms exist, which is that they have different uses and connotations.

Yes, etymologically, "anéantir" is literally "annihilate", but that's not how translation works. Until you know what "anéantir" stands for in the context of Houellebecq's book you cannot be 100% certain how to translate it. Where the French say "anéantir", the English might put it differently.

>>19585994
You can't just leave it like that, you need to elaborate.

>>19586031
In one of his magazine publications Marc-Edouard Nabe (who used to be his neighbour) suggested that Houellebecq was a sort of physical chameleon monster successively copying Céline, Baudelaire, Artaud...

>>19586028
Aneantir is just the vulgar Latin derived form of annihilate: render into nothing. One is low Latin and the other high Latin (classicizing). Think Plautus vs. Cicero. In Spanish it's much the same: nada vs. nulo: anonadar vs. anihilar.

is it a metaphor for his literary talent?

>>19586060
Yes, that's correct. Which doesn't invalidate my point that two words with the same meaning are often used differently, belong to different registers, may have different connotations, etc.

>>19586051
>physical chameleon monster
that nigga looks exactly the same in all of those pictures. French writers just look like dried-up hobos apparently

>>19586078
I mean, Houellebecq went from this :

https://static.fnac-static.com/multimedia/Images/FD/Comete/112392/CCP_IMG_ORIGINAL/1454839.jpg

to this:

https://wikinabia.com/images/thumb/4/4c/Michel_Houellebecq.jpeg/240px-Michel_Houellebecq.jpeg

Clearly going through some sort of physical degeneracy process

>>19586106
he looked like shit before, he just aged badly from all the cigarettes and stopped taking care of himself for that nonchalant writer cred

>>19585913
Translations between languages are seldom, if ever, exact. Or as you out it, literal. Take the example of 'familiar' and swedish 'familjär'. Same word root, and at first glance both words seems to have something to do with family. However, familiar means roughly common or often seen. But swedish familjär translates more towards intimate or confidential. These subtle difference in languages are often lost on people, as yourself.

>>19586005
you know there is more to contemporary life than whatever culture wars bullshit you are swept up in during current year. if anything his work would become extremely dated very fast.

30 years ago it was only middle aged church ladies who ever gave a shit about any of this stuff. but now due to social media everyone is completely consumed with being a culture warrior at all times. "Houellebecq is on my side and he would sure show them sjw!" it's all so tiresome.

>>19585866
Will this ugly faggots ever write a fun book?

>>19586303
They’re all black comedy

>>19586303
has he ever not written a fun book?

>>19585971
Ever read the Picture of Dorian Gray?
>>19586005
Except multiple novels of his have anticipated real-world manifestations of the themes he talks about.

>>19585872
>>19585888
Those editions are so nice-looking.

>>19585888
i thought release was the 11th, not the 7th

English when?

>>19586720
Probably fall 2022.

>>19586720
>>19586732
I will buy the translation but if it's the same as all his other books this will be my last Houellebecq, dude needs to get a new shtick besides repeating Whatever over and over again.

>>19586732
Wow, talk about being behind. It's old news by the time it's translated. Why don't they do it before the book is released?

Anyway, how can I learn French in one month?

>>19586747
>It's old news by the time it's translated.

To the French, who are old news themselves. Nobody will really care or start talking about it until it's in English anyway.

>>19586739
Houellebecq's unveiled contempt for modernity is like a security blanket for me. I only hope that he never broaches the subject I'm currently writing my novel about.
>>19586747
Such is life. Having to wait for Serotonin didn't take away from the reading of it in my experience.

>>19586811
>I only hope that he never broaches the subject I'm currently writing my novel about.
Yeah man I'm sure you're on the same level as he is. He's your real competitor.

>>19586828
No, idiot. It's because he would obviously do it way better, and before me, so would completely take the wind out of my sails.

>>19585926
Yes, that is how most Tumblrinas who have never read him like to imagine his writing to be.

>>19586755
All of Europe will be talking about it. Anglos are slowpokes.

>>19585866
Probably a reference to this?
>In particle physics, annihilation is the process that occurs when a subatomic particle collides with its respective antiparticle to produce other particles, such as an electron colliding with a positron to produce two photons.[1] The total energy and momentum of the initial pair are conserved in the process and distributed among a set of other particles in the final state. Antiparticles have exactly opposite additive quantum numbers from particles, so the sums of all quantum numbers of such an original pair are zero. Hence, any set of particles may be produced whose total quantum numbers are also zero as long as conservation of energy and conservation of momentum are obeyed.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annihilation_(physique)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annihilation

>>19586016
anéantir is slighly more powerful of a term than annihiler. The difference is subtle.

>néant
>Probably from Latin ne gentem ("no person, no one")

>gentem
>accusative singular of gēns

>gens
>gēns, gentis, f.: a family stock or gens; a race; a clan or tribe

Makes you think

>>19587091
See: >>> 19587039

>>19587029
Right, as other than the other in a non formal (rigid) system it will not have pure identicality of meaning. That's why there's only one word for "water" in English, because the meaning is as unique and essential as the term used to name it and vice versa, but not so for "destroy" which admits of variation, because nothing can ever be destroyed in an unqualified way: all destructions are approximations. Not so for water: there is no approximation of water, it either is or is not water.

>>19585866
Thoughts on the title? Translation of pic related:
>Religious ("The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite", Pascal), tragic ("Every captive has in his hand the means of annihilating his servitude", Shakespeare), funny (Clémenceau at the death of F. Faure: "By entering nothingness, he must have felt at home")

>>19587124
Just an obvious reference to Sartre, who was both philosopher and litterateur (oblique reference to Nausee). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_and_Nothingness

Opening lines:
Some Mondays at the very end of November, or the beginning of December, especially if you are single, you feel as if you are on death row. The summer holidays are long forgotten, the new year is still far away: the proximity of nothingness is unusual.

>>19585889
Source? I really hope it isn’t. I don’t want to read about some dumb whore.

/lit/ translation group?

>>19587185
Basically the dude's been binging on Sartre: very old school. But also the possibility of annihilation overcoming the French state and even its civilization obviously.

>>19587185
Yeah I’m thinking he’s back

>>19585866
>a word that can't be satisfactorily translated into English.
Houellebros....I don't feel too good....

>>19587230
It's just annihilate, the most extreme form of flattening in the atomic sense. It's an apocalyptic term, but also an existential one: "I am the destroyer of worlds" "look on ye mighty and despair" (Heidegger/Heisenberg). To render into is both extremely violent and extremely peaceful; extremely Nazi and extremely Zen...and always the twain shall meet.

>>19587205
I'm sure there will be an english translation available within months anyways.

>>19587252
Unfortunately, annihilate will make English speakers think of Science Fiction.

>>19585866
>anglos waiting on mincel houellebecq latest novel like the newest marvel
c'est chaud. complètement matrixé par la marchandise

French language chads RISE UP

>>19587826
Kys

>>19587826
They just love the fact that the French publishing industry, unlike the US, has the balls to celebrate and promote a nazgul whose very physical appearance is the *impulse & instinct* of rape taken human masculine form.

>>19587864
funny, has the person who made this image never heard of verlan?

>>19587864
jej

>>19585971
He's a sin eater.

>>19587879
Houellebecq turned into a nazgul specifically to cater to the sensationalist anglo and intl audience. He's always well kept and nicely dressed for french TV and interviews. He understands books don't sell abroad and anglos don't read.

>>19587960
That may be true, but his face remains the same.

>Il s’est impliqué dans la fabrication du volume en indiquant que son modèle était les livres imprimés en Allemagne, plus lourds, rigides et solides, et avec un papier qui reste durablement blanc.

>He was involved in the making of the volume, indicating that his model was the books printed in Germany, which are heavier, stiffer and stronger, and with paper that remains permanently white.

Is this a provocation?

>>19587985
fucking kek

>>19587960
The anglo countries are not that far behind frogland in reading hours
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-countries-that-read-the-most.html

Really the spread within a country is much more dramatic than between countries.

>>19587985
It means he wants the book, qua physical object, to have the beauty and purity that he so evidently lost ages ago or that in his innermost mind he's a trans virgin lolita aching to be raped by his own grotesque physical masculine shell.

>>19585996
>No pussy
he gets mad pussy, he just writes about incels a lot. probably was one in his youth

>>19588057
That's a lie, have you seen his current girlfriend?

>>19588078
Eh, that's his wife. Houellebecq is a known swinger. If you don't think he fucks whores and models all the time, you haven't been paying attention.

>>19588086
Duh, he's an inveterate perv whose always relied on prostitution, to the point that it's shriveled his soul and made him into a nazgul.

>>19585866
Pardon my French, but how the fuck is he still alive?

>>19586533
I know what he means with German books, the quality and aesthetics of (older) books are great. There's a lot of trash coming out today and it's getting worse like it does everywhere but Houellebecq is a famed writer and his German editions are really high quality with nice heavy good paper. Hmmmm. sniff

>>19588279
The serpentine demons who've been feeding off every surface of his body have finally met their match.

i've only read one of his books but isn't one of his themes the suicide of the west and, basically, the self-annihilation of white europeans and their culture? it seems like an obvious title for his themes.

>>19588396
It's pretty obvious that it's a reference to Sartre: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/973089-l-tre-et-le-n-ant#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIt%20is%20therefore%20senseless%20to,%2C%20or%20what%20we%20are.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CI%20exist%2C%20that%20is%20all,and%20I%20find%20it%20nauseating.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CNothingness%20lies%20coiled%20in%20the,being%20%2D%20like%20a%20worm.%E2%80%9D

>>19586067
Yes, both words with the same sense but used in different occasions. People would use anéantir rather than annihiler if they're speaking of a village being destroyed. Annihiler is used for more subtle things, closer to Cancellation. A legal document can be annihilated. Anyway, it's hard to guess if the choice of that word over the other means Houellebecq is going to talk about the destruction of an old man's life by a young girl, or the fall of an european civilization after a disastrous presidential election.

>>19587826
Yeah pretty much, they're the kind of people who talk about the heart like they talk about the nose.

https://youtu.be/kcy07suSi7U

>>19585866
>modern lit
Ishygdd

>>19590082
It's good.

>>19585866
He looks like a mess

>>19591033
This is what he looked like before he got redpilled

>>19591033
And now...

>>19591048
Wew

>>19585933
being EOL must be painful

>>19591048
How do you go from this..

>>19592632
by realizing the only way to cater to the anglo audience is to play dress up and turn into this >>19591061

it's a marketing ploy, the only thing the anglosphere comprehends. and it works

>>19592661
Nah, he's become a genuine Gollum, let it be a lesson for porn-addicted incels everywhere.

>>19592661
fucking yourself up is quite the commitment

>>19592684
2 weeks old interview (entretien du 2 décembre 2021 à l'amphithéâtre Richelieu de la Sorbonne )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6LPvPFHqfY

The french audience is interested in content and reading books; the anglo audience isn't. Houellebecq knows it and plays dress up accordingly. Accept it and move on.