tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post6921449793101833795..comments2024-03-27T13:13:25.164-04:00Comments on johnshaplin: Michel Houellebecqjohnshaplinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-37227286019515102302010-02-18T08:20:36.603-05:002010-02-18T08:20:36.603-05:00"Romance of the Sans Culottes"; the '..."Romance of the Sans Culottes"; the 'commune' as a fictional paradox e.g.<br /><br />Alexis De Tocqueville observed that when the bourgeois monarchy was overthrown on February 24, 1848, the Deputies compared themselves consciously to the Girondins and the Montagnards of the National Convention of 1793:<br /><br />" The men of the first Revolution were living in every mind, their deeds and words present to every memory. All I saw that day bore the visible impress of those recollections; it seemed to me throughout as though they were engaged in acting the French Revolution rather than continuing it."<br /><br />They men of 48 were infected with the Romance of the Revolution. It might be worth considering that "The Coming Insurrection" is infected with the Romance of the Commune of 1870- often considered the first modern revolt of the working class though its leaders were often, like the Sans Culotte, from the skilled artisan classes ( anonymous academics?). But also "the spirit of 68" which "transposed the total (and totally politicized) activity of May 68 into depoliticized pseudo-activity (new lifestyles etc), the very form of social passivity" ["First as Tragedy, Then as Farce", page 60]: the paradox of 'The Coming Insurrection" in which the concept of commune is atomized as a fiction, and the dialectic of the current social situation is laid bare.johnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-29839260769523653742010-02-16T06:11:12.038-05:002010-02-16T06:11:12.038-05:00The "Coming Insurrection" could be chara...The "Coming Insurrection" could be characterized as romance of the Sans Culottes, or epitome of modern iconoclasm, Houellebecq's oeuvre. Even the idea of "the commune" is atomized in "Insurrection", more like a metaphysical condition than than a concrete social arrangement: a fictional paradox.johnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.com