The toponymical Odyssey of Rastignac, a Hero of Our Time

Abstract

           In 1994, Michel Houellebecq, already a skilled poet and experienced filmmaker, finally found a suitable artistic form for his thoughts and feelings: he published a novel called «Whatever» (literally «Extension of the domain of struggle») The novel, rejected by other publishers, became the basis for Houellebecq's universal recognition. This literary text represents the confession of a 30-year-old analyst-programmer, telling about the thoughts of the unnamed protagonist, his worldview and the process of searching for his own identity.

           Houellebecq, who is criticized for his lack of style, admits that he is inspired by the works of Balzac and Dostoevsky. Pity for the hero of Houellebecq's literary text, exhausted by his mediocrity and inability to change anything, will not be alien to Dostoevsky's readers.

           In Houellebecq’s literary text the battlefield is, at first glance, the urban Paris that has become a monster, which the character of the «Human Comedy», Rastignac, had tried to conquer a century earlier: «It's between you and me now!» – this is how the hero of Balzac’s novel responded to the challenge when he chose to be a wolf rather than sacrifice himself as a lamb.

           From the nineteenth century onwards, the boundaries of Paris expanded even further. As if in response, Rastignac of the second half of the 20th century chose the opposite path, not in the direction of the center, but in the direction of the regions. The nameless character of Houellebecq combines the Rastignac instinct of self-preservation with the cynicism of his mentor Vautrin, and the unwitting object of the experiment of the «capitalism of desires» himself adapted the role of the white rodent to someone else.

           The commitment to the traditions of a modern French writer does not exclude Houellebecq's interest in the media, even in the headlines of the yellow press: the work contains a lot of fashionable philosophy, psychoanalysis, unanswered questions, and allusions that serve as a guide in the literary urban jungle.

           «In the middle of Marcels» is the title of the second chapter. This chapter mentions the streets of Marcel Sembat and Marcel Dassault in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. At the beginning of the novel, the protagonist searches for his lost car on these streets. Here begins the Odyssey of the character symbolically deprived of a means of transportation.

           The subtitle of the literaly text also connects us with Marcel Proust, and the magic of Madeleine's tasting makes us delve into the meaning of the mention of two other streets named after Marcel. So why these two streets, and in this order, when the scene of the action has not been seen before? At the beginning of the modern era, Marcel Sembat, a representative of the socialist camp, chaired the Committee for the Protection of Human Rights. And the aeronautical engineer and politician Marcel Dassault built his financial empire thanks to capitalist production. The Rastignac of our time also stands at the crossroads of two ideologies; The middle-class analyst-programmer does not dream of the upper echelons of society, nor of financial well-being, nor of the protection of his rights, but of human relationships, which he, a software specialist, lacks in the era of technology that he himself supports.

           The Odyssey, which begins in the suburbs of Paris, also implies movement, so the character of Houellebecq's novel moves from left to right, from the center to the regions, from north to south and back to the center ... by metro, bus, train. The reader also travels from Rousseau to Camus or from Sartre to Michel Clouscard. Unlike Rastignac, the protagonist of Houellebecq's novel does not choose anything: he can only accept the solitude dictated by applied philosophy and psychology, imposed by political ideologies, established by social anthropology and... move around, even if only on a bicycle.

References:

1. უელბეკი, მ., ბრძოლის ველის განვრცობა, გამომცემლობა ,,აგორა’’, თბილისი, 2012, 2016
2. Balzac, O. de., Le père Goriot, La Bibliothèque électronique du Québec, Édition de reference: Alexandre Houssiaux, Éditeur, Paris, 1855
3. Clouscard, M., Le capitalism de la seduction, https://archive.org/details/1981LeCapitalismeDeLaSeductionMichelClouscard/page/n5/mode/2uu
4. Houellebecq, M., Extention du domaine de la lutte, Editeur «J’ai lu», (EPUB), Paris, 2005
5. Houellebecq de A à Z: B comme Balzac, ვიდეოინტერვიუ, https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6pegh, 2005