The Map and the Territory

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The fundamental trade-off between accuracy and usability of a map, particularly in the context of modelling, is known as Bonini's paradox, and has been stated in various forms, poetically by Paul Valéry: "Everything simple is false. Everything which is complex is unusable."

There's a lot of name-dropping -- of both personal names (not only a party attended by French movers and shakers, but Carlos Slim (the world's richest man), showing up at Jed's vernissage) and product names. Michel Houellebecq is the subversive satirist supreme. The diffident misanthrope who takes humanity to task for our natures, our systems, our ridiculous aspirations and our delusions. But he does so with light touch. He doesn't have to beat us around the head with our own foolish failings. Then, he meets Michel Houellebecq, a writer as reclusive and despondent as he is, and feels immediately a connection with the man, almost a form of sympathy. Jed is working on a series of portraits defining people by their work, and the last painting he completes is a portrait of the author, which he makes a present of to Houellebecq (the character), even though he could sell it on the art market for nearly a million euros.

In the press

Olga -- who works for Michelin -- helps arrange this first success (which includes helping to introduce him to all the right people), and he makes enough money off these pictures that when he decides to stop he can live comfortably without much worry for quite a while.

Le père de Jed, qui travaille comme membre d'un cabinet d'architecte, est aussi créateur en rêve d'architectures utopiques, qui restent au stade d'esquisses et d'ébauches, refusées par tous les commanditaires. Il défend une conception organique et recluse de l'architecture, au rebours des écoles fonctionnalistes dominantes. The Map and the Territory is a meditation on the relationship between art and the world it seeks to depict, but it is much more besides. Peppered with references to, and appearances by, figures from French cultural life – egregious literary critics, showy television presenters and, most notably, the novelist Frédéric Beigbeder – it anatomises France's preoccupation with its past and its traditions. It deftly skewers the current obsession with the notion of " terroir" – the link between land and identity – by projecting forwards to an imagined future in which wealthy Chinese immigrants make the French countryside more "authentic" than it has ever been through their excessive respect for local customs. The Romani people’s relationship with the land, established over centuries, poses a radical challenge to one idea that modern nation-states have imposed on the world. The story develops into a halfhearted murder mystery, but the real meat of the book isn't in the plot. It's in this gifted author's point of view, which while convincing is rarely uplifting. Life in Houellebecq's world can be bleak. His prose is anything but. Spending time in both can be a difficult pleasure, and when you step away, you realize, with gratitude, that there are other ways of seeing things." - Thomas Chatterton William, San Francisco ChronicleThe Map and the Territory received the Prix Goncourt on 8 November 2010 on the first ballot with seven votes against two for Apocalypse bébé by Virginie Despentes. [4] Synopsis [ edit ] It is noteworthy, however, that financial success proves unsatisfying to Jed's father, while both the fictional Houellebecq and Jed don't strut their success but rather use it to withdraw from society and live simply in the comfort (or, in Houellebecq's case, the mess) they would like.)

Les Nymphéas noirs, avec son duo policier, le milieu de l'art, l'étrange abolition du temps qui est commune aux villages de Souppes et de Giverny His characters are as indifferent to their good times as they are to their bad. Even Houellebecq (the character) seems slightly autistic, not just depressed. These people are simply living in a completely different mental space than most, and the common tasks and events of daily life are intrusions that wake them from the real world inside their minds. It’s the portrayal of this inner life that interest Houellebecq (the author) even if he is precise about models, brands and shades of paint. He makes explicit mention of “nineteenth century French novels in which men make their way in society through their women” — which is perhaps why he shies away from Olga. But the novel does recall of Maupassant’s Bel Ami, which fits this description precisely, in the clean and uncluttered way he matter-of-factly moves through the social environment, in the naming and describing of things exactly in the manner of a Naturalist.It was public knowledge that Houellebecq was a loner with strong misanthropic tendencies: it was rare for him even to say a word to his dog. Enfin, des pronostics sur l'avenir de la France que Jed prophétise comme un pays où l'économie serait de plus en plus essentiellement agricole et touristique.