1. Michel Houellebecq has published several books of poetry, including The Art of Struggle in 1996.
19 Facts About Michel Houellebecq
1. 2.
An offhand remark about Islam during a publicity tour for his 2001 novel Platform led to Michel Houellebecq being taken to court for inciting racial hatred.
3.
Michel Houellebecq subsequently moved to Ireland for several years, before moving back to France, where he currently resides.
4.
Houellebecq was born Michel Thomas on the French island of Reunion, the son of Lucie Ceccaldi, a French physician born in Algeria of Corsican descent, and Rene Thomas, a ski instructor and mountain guide.
5.
Michel Houellebecq's official date of birth is 26 February 1956, although he has sometimes stated that he may have actually been born in 1958.
6.
Michel Houellebecq lived in Algeria from the age of five months until 1961, with his maternal grandmother.
7.
Michel Houellebecq then went to Lycee Chaptal in Paris to follow preparation courses in order to qualify for grandes ecoles.
8.
Michel Houellebecq began attending the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon in 1975.
9.
Michel Houellebecq started a literary review called Karamazov and wrote poetry.
10.
Michel Houellebecq graduated in 1980, married and had a son; then he divorced, and became depressed.
11.
Michel Houellebecq married his second wife, Marie-Pierre Gauthier, in 1998.
12.
Michel Houellebecq later adapted and directed a movie based on this novel, which was a critical and commercial failure.
13.
Michel Houellebecq has released three music albums on which he recites or sings selected excerpts from his poetry.
14.
Michel Houellebecq denied the accusation of plagiarism, stating that "taking passages word for word was not stealing so long as the motives were to recycle them for artistic purposes," evoking the influence of Georges Perec, Lautreamont or Jorge Luis Borges, and advocated the use of all sorts of raw materials in literature, including advertising, recipes or mathematics problems.
15.
In January 2019, Michel Houellebecq was made a Chevalier of the Legion d'honneur.
16.
In 2014, Michel Houellebecq drew up a "project for a new constitution" based on direct democracy which would render the president of the republic elected for life, but instantly revocable by a simple popular referendum, and would permit the people to elect judges.
17.
Michel Houellebecq faced trial on charges of racial hatred after calling Islam "the dumbest religion" in the same interview.
18.
Michel Houellebecq was sued by a civil-rights group for hate speech and won on the grounds of freedom of expression.
19.
Michel Houellebecq has been critical of attempts to legalise euthanasia in France and Europe, writing in April 2021 in Le Figaro:.