Platform (novel)

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Platform is a 2001 published novel by the French writer Michel Houellebecq . As in Houellebecq's previous novels, the theme in Platform is a frustrated protagonist's desperate search for happiness and sexual fulfillment - here against the backdrop of sex tourism . Houellebecq's third novel was again received controversially, the literary criticism rated it partly as "prophetic", partly as "sexist and anti-religious".

action

The book is divided into three parts, each with several chapters:

First part: Tropic Thai

The 40-year-old Michel works as a civil servant in the Paris Ministry of Culture. In fact, culture and art have no meaning in his life. He spends his free time watching entertainment programs on television and peepshows or using prostitutes .

When his unloved father is slain by a Muslim in an argument because he was having an affair with his sister, who was his housekeeper, Michel gives in to the idea of ​​blood revenge for only a moment. He inherits a not inconsiderable sum, as well as his father's house and car, and flies with a tour group to Thailand in order - following the advice of his colleague Marie-Jeanne - to relax on a round trip. There he also socializes with prostitutes - and tells his fellow travelers about it with astonishing frankness. Although he also begins to be interested in the 27-year-old French woman Valérie, he cannot make contact with her or his fellow travelers, as he has already become severely estranged from his fellow human beings and suffers from fear of attachment. The thought of marriage gives him more stomach ache than that of a funeral.

Part two: competitive advantage

When Michel and Valérie met again immediately after their return in Paris, they slept together - and did so very often and intensively in the months that followed. Above all, the - sometimes clearly described - physical passion connects the two at first. They quickly fall in love and move in together. Valérie - as Michel only found out in Paris - is a successful tourism manager . Together with her boss Jean-Yves, she should lead the loss-making chain of Eldorador holiday resorts to success again.

Michel, Valérie and Jean-Yves visit one of the holiday clubs in Cuba as a test . Michel and Valérie live sexually both in a ménage à trois with a housekeeper and with another couple. Jean-Yves has fun with a prostitute. After Michel's critical analysis of modern civilized society, which lacks nothing and which, despite or because of it, does not find sexual satisfaction, he makes a suggestion to Jean-Yves: One should offer a sex club vacation that can be booked from the catalog by offering the Prostitutes and prostitutes in the area granted free access to the club premises.

Together with Valérie, Jean-Yves set about realizing the idea and was able to convince the German tourism group TUI of the new club concept Eldorador Aphrodite . Even the high expectations that Jean-Yves and Valérie have are being exceeded by the actual demand for their sex club vacation.

The three travel to Krabi, Thailand, to open a new resort . Valérie and Michel decide to stay in Krabi forever with Valérie taking over the running of the club. Michel, who a year ago seemed doomed to lifelong frustration and depression, believes he is finally happy.

But by an Islamist terrorist attack on the "sinful" holiday complex, the couple is suddenly torn from their dreams. Valérie was one of the 117 fatalities, while Michel survived the assassination completely unharmed.

Third part: Pattaya Beach

Mentally, Michel Valéries cannot cope with the loss. He is released after four months in hospitals and mental institutions . Michel travels back to Thailand and settles in Pattaya , the capital of sex tourism in Asia. The happiness with Valérie remains an exception for him, for which he can find no explanation. What use is it to him to have understood the rest (of life) if he has not understood love: "Et si je n'ai pas compris l'amour, à quoi me sert d'avoir compris le reste?" .

Without any residual will to live, he writes down his story - and waits for death.

classification

In Platform, Houellebecq ties in with the provocative thesis of sex as a commodity in postmodern society, developed in expanding the battle zone and elementary particles . While the solution to the unbearable competitive situation on the sexual market in elementary particles is the abolition of sexuality through eugenic reproductive medicine, an organized sex tourism is designed in the platform that frees the sexual fulfillment of the individual from the dependency on appearance and character, which is mostly depressing for Houellebecq's characters power.

As in Houellebecq's two previous novels, the protagonist in Platform often expresses controversial views on current social issues and conflicts, but behind the uncouth provocation this novel is also interspersed with intertextual allusions and references to sociology, philosophy and literary history. Even more than before, Houellebecq takes the platform in the extensive and realistic to naturalistic description of sexual acts, which tend to have less tender than pornographic character.

Jens Jessen attributes a programmatic quality to the provocative topic: “Aesthetically, the novel is rather awkward. The sophisticated, also really intelligent, aims rather to have an effect outside of the novel. The real work of art, related to a performance, consists in the public reception. The books are only the almost carelessly handled medium with which the author appears as a person. "

theatre

A stage version of the novel premiered in 2019 at the Schauspielhaus Bochum under the direction of Johan Simons . It was partly played as a double performance with a stage version of submission .

literature

expenditure

Secondary literature

  • Julie Delorme: “You guide touristique au roman. Plateforme de Michel Houellebecq ", in: Murielle Lucie Clément (ed.): Michel Houellebecq sous la loupe , Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007, ISBN 978-90-420-2302-4 , pp. 287-300.
  • Maude Granger Remy: “Le tourisme est un posthumanisme. Autour de Plateforme ”, in: Murielle Lucie Clément (ed.): Michel Houellebecq sous la loupe , Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007, pp. 277–286.
  • John McCann: "La Lutte des discours: Plateforme de Michel Houellebecq", in: Murielle Lucie Clément (ed.): Michel Houellebecq sous la loupe , Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007, 367–378.
  • Jörn Steigerwald: "Histoires d'outre-tombe: Plateforme de Michel Houellebecq", in: Jörn Steigerwald / Agnieszka Komorowska (ed.): Michel Houellebecq: Questions du réalisme d'aujourd'hui . Lendemains 142/143 (2011), 50-69.

Web links

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  1. ↑ Collection of reviews on perlentaucher.de
  2. ^ "Platform for extremes: Michel Houellebecq provokes with sex tourism and religious abuse"
  3. ↑ "The excitement of the tourism winners"
  4. ↑ Jens Jessen: The great misery . In: ZEIT ONLINE . February 7, 2002 ( zeit.de [accessed November 20, 2018]).