10 October 2010

To Stay Alive (Michel Houellebecq)

"Given the characteristics of the modern era, love can scarcely manifest itself anymore. Yet the ideal of love has not diminished. Being, like all ideals, fundamentally atemporal, it can neither diminish nor disappear."

Michel Houellebecq, Rester vivant (1999)
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5 comments:

  1. Belle de Ville10 October, 2010 20:59

    OK...alright. I'm going to read Houllebecq now.

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  2. K.S.Anthony10 October, 2010 21:37

    Yes. This is excellent.

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  3. A.E.F.11 October, 2010 16:17

    Admiral, On reflection, if one takes the meaning of 'scarcely' to be 'almost not' rather than 'certainly not' or 'probably not' and then disregards one's own experiences of love in the modern era; then yes, I agree Houellebecq's words are words of hope.

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  4. Laguna Beach Fogey11 October, 2010 17:51

    AEF ~ I take it to mean 'barely,' which admits to diminished expression in frequency not necessarily intensity.

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  5. seymourblogger26 October, 2011 17:16

    Rob Pattinson reads Houellebecq and on his promo tour for Breaking Dawn said Houellebecq was one of his favorite authors.

    He is wonderful. Here's my post on Houellebecq on The Art of Struggle his book of poems. Lovely. The book that is. The kind of poems Eric Packer reads in DeLillo's Cosmopolis.

    http://cosmopolisfilm2.blogspot.com/2011/04/rob-pattinson-is-reading-michel.html

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