French Essayist Blames Multiculturalism for Breivik’s Killing Spree

New essays by French author Richard Millet, which say Anders Behring Breivik's Norwegian massacre was the result of immigration and multiculturalism, have caused an uproar in France

By Bruce Crumley | August 28, 2012 | 1231

Richard Millet is an accomplished figure in French literature. His book Le Sentiment du Langue (The Feeling of Language) won the Académie Française’s 1994 essay award. His work as an editor for celebrated publisher Gallimard, meanwhile, helped produce two recent Prix Goncourt winners — including the 2006 novel Les Bienveillantes (The Kindly Ones) by American author Jonathan Littell. Now, however, Millet is getting attention of an entirely different kind with a new work attacking immigration and multiculturalism, and describing the acts of convicted Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik as “formal perfection … in their literary dimension.”

That bookish qualifier, says newsweekly L’Express in its critique of Millet’s new essay, “Éloge Littéraire d’Anders Breivik” (Literary Elegy of Anders Breivik), is a “gratuitous facade” for an otherwise “vindictive text” and thesis. Indeed, though Millet states he does not approve of Breivik’s murderous actions on July 22, 2011 that left 77 people dead, he does write the slaughter was “without doubt what Norway deserved.” [color="Blue"]That is wonderful he will say this publicly. The reason? Norway, Millet contends, allowed immigration, multiculturalism and the domination of foreign customs, language and religion to become such dominant influences that a self-designated defender of traditional society felt compelled to take decisive action.

“Multiculturalism, as it has been imported from the United States, is the worst thing possible for Europe … and creates a mosaic of ghettoes in which the [host] nation no longer exists,” Millet told France Info radio on Aug. 27. “Breivik, I believe, perceived that and responded to that question with the most monstrous reply.”

Little wonder that such views — published just as Breivik was being sentenced Aug. 24 — have sparked controversy in France. As word of Millet’s writing spreads, so too may the objections it has inspired.

If so, that may only serve to reinforce Millet’s accusations that most of Europe — and indeed the West — is dominated by the same attitudes that motivated Breivik’s attack. Breivik, Millet writes, is “an exemplary product of Western decadence” and a “child of the ideologico-racial fracture that extra-European immigration has introduced in Europe.” Because he sees the resulting “loss of national identity” and “Islamization of Europe” decaying “Christian roots” everywhere, Millet appears to believe acts similar to Breivik’s may be replicated outside Norway as well.

“Within this decadence, Breivik is without doubt what Norway deserved, and what awaits our societies that won’t stop blinding themselves in denial,” Millet writes in “Éloge Littéraire d’Anders Breivik,” one of three essays published under the collective title Langue Fantôme (Ghost Language) on Aug. 24 by publisher Éditions Pierre-Guillaume de Roux. “European nations are dissolving socially at the same time as they’re losing their Christian essence in favor of general relativism.”

After the disclaimer in which he insists he does “not approve of the acts committed by Breivik,” Millet admits being “struck by their ‘formal perfection’ and ‘literary dimension.’” But unimpressed critics contend Millet’s artistic conceit and florid prose rationalizing Breivik’s acts are little more than an apology advancing extreme-right doctrine. In its Aug. 27 review, the daily Le Monde points to his accompanying essay, “De l’Antiracisme Comme Terreur Littéraire” (Antiracism as Literary Terror) as reflecting Millet and his conservative worldview:

The man hates a lot, and [does so] in a refined style that’s sometimes obscure. But it’s sufficiently clear for the objects of his malice to distinctly appear: social democracy (and democracy, full stop), extra-European immigration, the remainders of Marxism and their supposed corollaries of ignorance, political correctness and the weakening of language. All of that is leading to the crumbling of Europe — a decomposing continent where “a civil war is under way.”

Though such views are regularly championed by the extreme right, their association with Breivik’s massacre is something leaders like Marine Le Pen of France’s National Front party have assiduously avoided. Indeed, Le Pen has attacked efforts to explain or justify Breivik’s killing spree as a consequence of extreme-right views put into action. Given the enduring taboo of seeking to explain Breivik’s acts as anything short of madness, Millet’s essay may not only lead Le Pen to deny any ties to the author or his work — but may also force the venerable Gallimard to do likewise.

Though the famous Paris publisher has no involvement with or responsibility for Millet’s controversial essays, it’s nevertheless coming under pressure to sever its relationship with a man airing such controversial views. On Monday, francophone Moroccan author Tahar Ben Jelloun called Millet’s essay a “ridiculous, useless and, above all, disgusting provocation.” Ben Jelloun told France Info that Gallimard, publisher of Ben Jelloun’s books, had to realize Millet “can’t be part of this organization and, elsewhere, propose such horrible things.”

Author Annie Ernaux agreed, telling Le Monde on Monday that Millet’s writing represents “a dangerous political act” by a Gallimard employee that “engages the responsibility of the company.” She said “a collective reaction from all Gallimard writers” to force action on Millet’s case is now under consideration.

But even as he echoed the “indignation over such cretinous and notorious statements,” Gallimard author Jean-Marie Laclavetine nevertheless told France Info that people protesting Millet’s essays must “be careful about [becoming] thought police”

“Everyone has the right to think as he wishes and write what he wants,” Laclavetine said. “I think it would be very bad for Gallimard to fire him. I too wish Richard didn’t think what he thinks and wrote what he wrote, but that’s his right.”

Neither the controversy surrounding his essays nor calls for his ouster from Gallimard seem to bother Millet. Indeed, the man who described Breivik’s 77 victims as “mixed-raced, globalized, uncultivated, social-democrat petit bourgeois,” appears to take a certain pride in the anger and consternation his essays have provoked.

“I’m one of the most hated French authors,” he told France Info on Monday. “It’s an interesting position that makes me an exceptional being.”

Given his previous accomplishments as an editor, Millet could have made that literary boast before publishing his essays. Now that they’re out, he can add peerless polemicist — and possibly leading ideologue — of Europe’s extreme right to that list of distinctions.

Showing 20 of 1211 comments

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Bravo Monsieur Richard Millet! Bravo!!

You're absolutely right.. Thank you for speaking the truth about Europe.
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1 day ago
31 Likes

Heterotic

What he wrote is absolutely correct, though he did it in an insensitive manner. Multi-culturalism is a disease eating away at the West.
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1 day ago
62 Likes

bcfred

Disagree completely - multiculturalism without expectation of assimilation is what drives the perpetuation of immigrant slums in France, not the simple arrival of those immigrants. The American ideal of multiculturalism invites people to celebrate their heritages while striving to become part of broader society, the result being that within a generation or two the only noticeable difference is skin hue.
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1 day ago
in reply to Heterotic
59 Likes

garreth33

I agree that ghetto-ization is not healthy. Sometimes it is not by choice- consider some of the neighborhoods in places like Dorchester, Harlem etc. Here people have been locked in a cycle of poverty for generations. They are not recent immigrants.

North American multiculturalism does invite people to celebrate their heritages but society also changes with each wave of immigration. Consider the Protestants, then the Irish, Italians, Jews. Currently moslems are at the bottom rung. With each cycle there is angst and hatred.

(Edited by author 1 day ago)
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1 day ago
in reply to bcfred
12 Likes

Octavion

The only problem with Islam is there is no reciprocity. Americans of every other race may tolerate them (eventually) but they will not tolerate anyone other than members of their own Islamic ideology.
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22 hours ago
in reply to garreth33
35 Likes

FactorrX

Replying to Octavion.... If you really studied Islam you know that they accept any other religion as well as their own. They regard and accept J.C, Moses, David and lots of others as prophets and they wrote of them in Quran. It is just the extremists that see that the other nonbelievers or believers of other religions should be destroyed or whatever. If you really looked it up, Being a muslim is being nice to others. There are many extremists but they represent Islam very incorrect and the U.S media just likes to show the bad side.... If you...
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10 hours ago
in reply to garreth33
7 Likes

FactorrX

Replying to Octavion.... If you really studied Islam you know that they accept any other religion as well as their own. They regard and accept J.C, Moses, David and lots of others as prophets and they wrote of them in Quran. It is just the extremists that see that the other nonbelievers or believers of other religions should be destroyed or whatever. If you really looked it up, Being a muslim is being nice to others. There are many extremists but they represent Islam very incorrect and the U.S media just likes to show the bad side.... If you...
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10 hours ago
in reply to garreth33

worleyeoe

Um, bro, in case you haven't looked around lately, a lot of the people who move to the U.S. legally and illegally do not aspire to your "so called" vision of American multiculturalism. Just because we think that is the way it's supposed to be doesn't mean that it becomes reality.

One can make the very strong argument that multiculturalism is at the very root of America's current divisiveness: blacks against whites, whites against Hispanics, Hispanics against blacks - oh, and the 99% vs. the 1%.

(Edited by author 1 day ago)
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1 day ago
in reply to bcfred
35 Likes

rdl114

And your source for this brainless conclusion is what? African Americans have been here since European settlement began. It has been white racism against them that caused divides, not some phony multiculturalism charge. Black culture is "our" culture as much as classical learning, Bach, Beethoven, Tolstoy, Hemingway and so forth. Just the mere fact that you see African-American culture as separate tells volumes about your own racism. Without some of the more reviled "others" that we have included in our society - among them African Americans, Jews, Italians, Asians, and now Hispanics - America would be so much less...
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15 hours ago
in reply to worleyeoe
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worleyeoe

So you think that a "mixing of the pot" so to speak is better than having one type of thing (i.e., race) in the pot? Are you for real? Can you not see how elementary the whole idea that multiculturalism causes more good than good really is? If not how is it that countries like Norway, Sweden, Japan, and China, all of which are highly single races, perform so well in education? Likewise, do you honestly think America would be as divisive as it is today, if she were 99% Ango-Saxon?
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4 hours ago
in reply to rdl114
3 Likes

WomaninCT

rdl114: Essentially, white Christian social and cultural norms are often violent, debased, and exclusionary.

What?!?!?!? Christianity originated from the Middle East where Jesus was from so white Christians are relatively new. What the heck are you talking about?
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8 hours ago
in reply to worleyeoe
4 Likes

morn0

all the indigent white thrash in us will probably not be deported back to europe, and they are a bunch of christians
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23 hours ago
in reply to bcfred
10 Likes

22259152

There is no ideal of multiculturalism in America. Where in the world did you come up with that? What you describe is a utopian dream without any basis in anthropology or psychology.

When you become an "African- American" , "Mexican- American" or "State your origin here-American" you become not an American, but something else. You are the something else and identify with the something else first and foremost. America be damned because you hold no allegiance to the secondary position holder.

You can continue to lie to yourself, but Richard Millet is right. Many do not want...
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9 hours ago
in reply to bcfred
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bcfred

My point is that while what you say may be true of first-generation immigrants, whether for language reasons, fear of an unfamiliar society, etc., but the next generation almost always begins to reject its parents' culture and assimilate as Americans. How surprised were you the first time you heard Bobby Jindal speak? He looks 100% Asian Indian but sounds like a Cajun (well, moderately) and obviously has a mind of his own. This isn't me making things up, there are innumerable socioligical studies charting that exact trajectory. And as I note, THAT is the problem in many European nations...
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6 hours ago
in reply to 22259152

rdl114

The intermingled societies of the West - Europe, North and South America, Australia, and the westernized societies of Asia (Japan, S. Korea) and Africa are scarcely under threat. In fact, the domination economically, militarily and culturally by the West is breathtaking in its expansiveness. Anyone who can't see the enormity of the domination is either a fool, a racist, or in denial for some twisted reason. decline? 78% of the world pie with 20% of the population? Give it up already.
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15 hours ago
in reply to Heterotic
8 Likes

Baramos x

I could say the same thing about white supremacy...
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4 hours ago
in reply to Heterotic
1 Like

omegafrontier
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1 day ago
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garreth33

Too bad you can't write in English.
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1 day ago
in reply to omegafrontier
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garreth33

Too bad you can't write in English. You have not assimilated quite right.
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1 day ago
in reply to omegafrontier
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Adnan7631
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1 day ago
in reply to omegafrontier
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