Sorry, the review will be long because the novel is profound and offers a lot to think about.
When my students pout that I “hurt their feelings” or “made them feel stupid” by correcting their Spanish grammar in class or in their papers, they exhibit the typical consumerist philosophy of life. A consumer believes that if s/he paid for education (with money or the fact of enrollment), this purchase, just like any other object of consumption, should bring nothing but uniform, unbroken pleasure. When a purchase results in anything other than pleasure, consumers revolt.
Consumers bring the same approach to interpersonal relationships. It’s impossible to create a profound, meaningful bond with another human being without exposing oneself to a certain amount of unpleasantness, conflict, incomprehension, compromise, anger, pain, etc. Profound relationships can’t be built with objects, only with human beings whose full humanity you are willing to accept and accommodate.
Consumers, however, can’t tolerate compromise or conflict with their purchases. They flit from one lover, friend, boss, co-worker, etc. to another in search of a uniformly pleasing, ego-stroking relationship. All they manage to encounter is a series of superficial, disappointing contacts that never manage to provide them with the Hallmark tableau of endless bliss that they seek.
François, the protagonist of Michel Houellebecq’s best-selling novel Submission is precisely this kind of pouty consumer. At the age of 44, he feels useless, lonely and sad because all he has in his life is a long procession of indifferent, uncaring lovers with whom he fails to establish any sort of a fulfilling bond.
Like a typical consumer, François never conceives of the possibility that the reason for his loneliness might lie inside himself. If the goods – that is, women in his life – fail to satisfy, there must be a design flaw in the goods. François decides that the reason why women can’t provide him with a family, love, a strong emotional bond, great sex and wonderful cooking is that. . . they work and working exhausts them so much that they have no energy left to fulfill all these functions.
François is not an idiot. He is a university professor and a very well-read man. However, he is so overpowered by consumerism that he fails to observe how bizarre his explanations of his own unhappiness are. For instance, François argues that the only truly sexual women are those who live in Saudi Arabia because they really don’t have to work and can save all their energy for sex.
When life doesn’t work out the way commercials promise it should, consumers begin to look for a “happy pill” that they can buy to make themselves feel better. François searches for his “happy pill” everywhere he can: at a Catholic convent, in the apartments of prostitutes he hires, at the house of his polygamous Muslim colleague, in an endless succession of restaurants and bars, etc.
The real tragedy of the novel is not that the pill which François buys is called “Islam” (as opposed to “Christianity”, “nation-state”, “humanism” or “pink elephants with blue spots”), as many of this book’s reviewers suggested, but that his incapacity to awaken from the consumerist slumber of reason prevents François from abandoning the search for a “happy pill” altogether.
Clarissa's Blog 
I’m not certain that the consumerist-attitude is the correct analogy for what you are describing. When at the university, I considered myself a “consumer”. The “product” I am buying is the knowledge you are teaching. If, for example, I’m paying a $1,000 per credit to take your class on Spanish language, I expect you to challenge and make it hard for me. This is the only way I can learn the language, and as a consumer, I am paying you to teach me the language. How do you learn the language? Its like getting into Carnegie Hall. Practice, practice, and more practice. In the case of engineering classes, its lots of lab projects along with the classroom instruction. In the case of learning a language, its classroom instruction coupled with memorizing and reciting a dialog EVERY SINGLE DAY, no matter how badly one is hung over from the night before.
Your students who whine about their feelings being hurt or being made to feel bad are an insult to consumers. If they are not putting forth the effort to learn from you, they are throwing away their money for nothing.
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There isn’t that much difference between these consumer models, to be honest. Neither presupposes a dialogue, a compromise, a conversation among equals. The students I describe decided unilaterally that for their “money” they have to get A. You have decided that for your money you have to get B. In both cases, the teacher is a gadget that should deliver according to expectations when a button is pressed.
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I stand by my point. Being in a customer/supplier relationship does imply a dialog between equals, a mutual exchange of value. There is work on both sides. In my business, I deal with customers all the time and keep them happy. I listen to their concerns and objectives and try to find a way to meet them. This is the essence of both engineering and technical sales. If I stop listening to customers, my business will quickly disappear.
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Neither presupposes a dialogue, a compromise, a conversation among equals.
Anecdotal consumerist attitude time:
I once wrote a lengthy paper full of citations and received a B, without any comments. So I went back and politely asked the professor, “What would make this an A paper?” or “What is the difference between this and an A paper?”I just wanted to know so I could edit it for the required portfolio. The professor just took the paper back and changed the grade to an A, which interestingly enough, was not what I wanted. Perhaps he read any kind of questioning of the grade as “I want an A, change my grade?
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He dealt with the situation exactly like a customer service representative engaged with me at Home Depot last week when I wanted to exchange a purchase. That professor must have been very experienced in dealing with consumer-students. 🙂
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The problem in education is credentialism (historically low in the US but increasing drastically in recent years).
The need for pieces of paper certifying a qualification has become more important than the process of getting it. They’re not buying an education in your model they’re buying a degree and you’re just an impediment they have to get by (a pushy salesman trying to sell a service warranty after they’ve agreed to buy the product).
It’s part of a larger phenomenon of goal-oriented education (where evaluation is oriented toward test-taking and graduation rates) taking precdence over process-orientation (where evaluation is a lot harder which is why it’s falling out of favor).
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It is a pity that interesting books you mention recently are not by English or American authors since I am still searching for the modern great coming-of-age novel. Have you read “We Are Not Ourselves” by Matthew Thomas? I am after ~ 150 pages out of the novel’s 656 pages and so far it is very interesting. I thought you may like it. The main heroine is a woman from a poor Irish family, who decided to turn an American dream into reality, got education, married a scientist instead of a truck driver, etc. Her husband is an university professor who loves research and declines to become an administrator despite larger salary. Their family life is problematic in many aspects, yet she loves her husband and son. I don’t want to say more in order not to spoil you. Googled to find the teaser from the back cover of my edition and was spoiled myself. 😦 If you read it, did you like the novel?
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Houellebecq’s novel is definitely not coming of age. It’s more coming of middle age. 🙂 But you’d like it, it’s very sympathetic towards European Jews who leave for Israel because of growing anti-Semitism.
I never heard of Matthew Thomas.
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