The Possibility of an Island
Encyclopedia
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
novelist Michel Houellebecq
Michel Houellebecq
Michel Houellebecq , born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1958—or 1956 —on the French island of Réunion, is a controversial and award-winning French author, filmmaker and poet. To admirers he is a writer in the tradition of literary provocation that reaches back to the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire;...
, set within a cloning
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
cult that resembles the real-world Raëlians.
Plot summary
There are three main characters, Daniel, and two of his clones.Daniel is a successful comedian who can't seem to enjoy life despite his wealth. He gets bored with his hedonist lifestyle, but can't escape from it either. In the meanwhile he is disgruntled with the state of current society, and philosophizes about the nature of sex and love.
His two clones live an uneventful life as hermits, in an apocalyptic background far away in the future. They live in a time where the human species is on its last legs (alternatively, on its first legs: hunter-gatherer tribes), destroyed by climate change and nuclear war. The two clones are confronted with the life of the first Daniel and have different views about their predecessor. Scattered around are the remnants of tourist resorts, cities and consumer items and some natural humans living in small tribes without any knowledge of the past or of civilization.
Related media
A film based on the novel, La Possibilité d'une îleLa Possibilité d'une île (film)
La Possibilité d'une île is a 2008 film directed by Michel Houellebecq, loosely based on his 2005 novel The Possibility of an Island.-Plot:...
, premiered in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
on September 10, 2008. The film was directed by Houellebecq himself.
An excerpt from the novel is featured on the music album Comme si de rien n'était
Comme si de rien n'était
Comme si de rien n'était is the third album of Italian singer and first lady Carla Bruni. It was released on July 11, 2008, in continental Europe, and on July 14 in the United Kingdom, and on August 5 in the USA....
by Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is an Italian-French songwriter, singer, actress, and former model...
(track 2).
In 2009, Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
released the music album Préliminaires
Préliminaires
Préliminaires is a 2009 album by Iggy Pop, released on June 2, 2009, and inspired by Michel Houellebecq's novel La Possibilité d'une île ....
which was based on the novel.