The cover of my copy of Houellebecq’s Submission is draped in white with a single slit of red running vertically down the page and crosses through a quote, attributed to Time, which says ‘The most relevant book of the year.’ We can affirm this statement to be true (how many good books were published in 2012 anyways? It’s a safe enough assumption), if only by the nearly prophetic (ominous?) timing of its arrival. On the exact day of its publication, with themes detailing a swift and cunning political invasion of Islam in French politics, several innocents were murdered by Muslim terrorists. What would’ve been a likely provocative enough launch turned into a hotbed of issues—in a democracy, is provocation enough of a defense against charges of violence? For now, we at least presume that violence is de facto inappropriate (a sentiment which, by the year, seems to be falling more and more into a state of disrepair, as Antifa/BLM riots luxuriate in nonchalant, and at times fervent, mainstream media coverage), which, at a minimum, puts the preponderance of religious violence, or Jihad, at odds with Western ideals at a fundamental level.
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