Good Friday and Easter Sunday are amongst the holiest days of the year for Christians. They represent two opposite poles of suffering and hope, of death and new life. Besides contemplating the Paschal mysteries, I spent these days contemplating the works of Michel Houellebecq, the French troubled literary genius. After finishing his novel Submission last year toward the end of Lent, I anxiously awaited the release of the English translation of his latest novel Aneantir (Annihilate), which was initially set for the summer of 2022 but has been pushed back indefinitely.
What business does a devoted believer like myself have reading novels written by an agnostic Frenchman — which consist of irreverent humour and flagrantly pornographic sex scenes — during the most sacred moments of the year? Well, Christ’s “submission” to God the Father’s will and his readiness to be “annihilated” by his detractors forged a paradoxical unity between these seemingly irreconcilable, markedly Houellebecqian poles.
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