Alain Soral

Alain Soral
Alain Bonnet de Soral Born October 2, 1958 (age 55) Aix-les-Bains, France

Occupation

Essayist, journalist, film maker

Nationality

French, Swiss

Alma mater

cole des hautes tudes en sciences sociales

Subjects

Capitalism, communitarianism, feminism, zionism

Alain Bonnet de Soral a.k.a. Alain Soral (French: ; born October 2, 1958) is a Franco-Swiss essayist, and film maker, as well as being the author of several polemical essays. He is the brother of the actress Agns Soral. Soral lives in the French Basque Country. Since June 2004, he has been a boxing coach. Alain Soral considers himself to be in the political "avant garde" of French society, claiming that his remarks and comments are always at first condemned and later widely accepted by the mainstream French public.[1]

Contents

1 Life and career 2 Views 3 Controversy o 3.1 Alain Soral and "gay communitarianism" o 3.2 Alain Soral and feminism o 3.3 Accusations of anti-Semitism o 3.4 Break-up of Yugoslavia and France 4 Bibliography 5 Filmography o 5.1 Actor o 5.2 Director 6 References 7 External links

Life and career

Soral was born in Aix-les-Bains, Savoie and grew up in the suburbs of Annemasse (department of Haute-Savoie), where he attended a local primary school. When Soral was about 12, his family moved to Meudon so that he could go to a reputable private Catholic high school, the Collge Stanislas de Paris.[2] Soral spent two years doing small jobs before being accepted into the cole Nationale Suprieure des Beaux-Arts at 20, where he studied for two years. Soral was then taken in by a family of academics, who encouraged him to enrol at the cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales, where he attended lectures given by Cornelius Castoriadis. Following his studies, and working with Hector Obalk and Alexandre Pasche, Soral wrote a book on the sociology of trendiness: Les mouvements de mode expliqus aux parents, as well as a fictionalised autobiography: Le Jour et la nuit ou la vie d'un vaurien. The latter work sold badly, and this led Soral to turn away from writing for a time. Soral then focussed on cinematic techniques, and after 2 promotional films, wrote and directed his first short film: Chouabadaballet, une dispute amoureuse entre deux essuieglaces. After a stint as a reporter in Zimbabwe, Soral wrote and directed his second short film: Les Rameurs, misre affective et culture physique Carrire-sur-Seine. In the mean time, Soral had joined the French Communist Party. He became interested in the works of Karl Marx and other Marxist thinkers such as Georg Lukcs, Henri Wallon, Lucien Goldmann and Michel Clouscard. He published Sociologie du Dragueur ("sociology of the womaniser"), his most successful sociological essay to date. Soral performed in Catherine Breillat's 1996 film Parfait Amour !, in the role of Philippe. He then published another polemical essay: Vers la fminisation ? - Dmontage d'un complot antidmocratique ("Towards feminisation? analysis of an antidemocratic plot"), and spent the following couple of years writing and directing his first full-length movie: Confession d'un dragueur ("Confessions of a womaniser"), which was a commercial and critical failure. Disgusted by what he called "a lynching", Soral gave up cinema altogether and returned to writing. He published Jusqu'o va-t-on descendre? - Abcdaire de la btise ambiante ("Down to where are we descending? ABC of ambient stupidity"), followed by Socrate Saint-Tropez (2003), and Misres du dsir (2004). Soral's penultimate book, CHUTe ! loge de la disgrce (subtitled Roman (novel)), was published in France on 6 April 2006. In the 2007 he became part of the central committee of Front National, trying to place social issues in the program of the party. He left the party in the 2009. His latest essay Comprendre l'Empire[3] was published in France on February 10, 2011.

Views
Besides the sociological Marxist analysis of the modern-day society, Soral's books tend to focus on seven main themes.

criticism of communitarianism

criticism of feminism, especially neo-feminist movements criticism of the media and the society of spectacle in general criticism of capitalism and USA imperialism criticism of mainstream culture the Arab-Israeli conflict the dismantling of Yugoslavia, and possibly of France

Notably, Soral has written:

In France, all forms of growing communitarianism (gay, Islamic, etc.) form and strengthen through imitation of, hostility towards and opposition to Judeo-Zionist communitarianism, whose privileged status constitutes the communitarian jurisprudence by which their revendications to the Republic are supported[4]

Soral's analysis of society focuses on what he terms "desire society",[5] promoted by the media and the cult of celebrity. He has especially criticised monthly women's publications, which he believes alter the conscience and relegate women to the status of "objects".[6] As part of the debate on 'lacit' in French schools, Soral claimed to prefer the Muslim veil to thong underwear.[7] Soral defined himself as a Marxist, and was a member of the French Communist Party in the early 90's. He left the PCF because of his opposition to the party's renunciation of revolutionary content. Soral supported left-wing dissident candidate Jean-Pierre Chevnement during the 2002 presidential election. In 2005, Soral turned to the far-right, joining the National Front's campaign committee; he was given responsibility for social issues and for the suburbs under the authority of Marine Le Pen. Soral's personal journey has led some to compare him with Jacques Doriot, one of the neo-socialists in the early 1930s and Collaborationist under Ptain.[8] He supported the Bloc identitaire's distribution of food in January 2006.[8] Since 18 November 2007, Soral has been a member of the central committee of the National Front which he left in early 2009 because of some ideas he was in conflict with (especially the menace of Islam which is not an actual threat for him). In 2007, he founded the group "Egalit et Rconciliation",[9] a think tank led by the ideas he developed in his books and his several interviews (an innovative mix between social and economic ideas from Left, and Values like Nation or morality from Right).

Controversy
Alain Soral and "gay communitarianism"
Alain Soral has denounced communitarianism as a "poison".[10] He has been especially critical of the rise of communitarianism in the gay community, a term that he has sharply criticised, arguing that many homosexuals have nothing to do with Gay Pride ideology. For Soral, Gay Pride involves promotion of the "Gorgeous Guy" model, youth, parties, drag

queens, etc., and obscures homosexuality as experienced by older or working-class homosexuals. The association Act Up rounded on his publisher,[11] ditions Blanche. Act Up stated that through books like those of Alain Soral or ric Rms, ditions Blanche spread negative feelings and even hatred towards homosexuals. Act Up asked the director of publication at ditions Blanche to stop publishing books by Soral and Rms, and vandalised ditions Blanche's offices. The head of ditions Blanche claimed that members of Act Up physically assaulted his executive assistant, and threatened to press charges. Act Up denied those accusations.[12] No legal action has so far been pursued.

Alain Soral and feminism

In his book Vers la fminisation ? Dmontage d'un complot antidmocratique, Alain Soral argues that women have always worked (in trade or agriculture, for example). To him, they would have invented feminism by tiring of their role as mothers. Soral distinguishes two types of feminism: that of the "flippes" ("freaked-out") such as Simone de Beauvoir, and that of the "ptasses" ("bitches") like lisabeth Badinter. Soral claims that the most problematic inequality is not between men and women, but between rich and poor, and that feminists, who generally come from the upper classes of society, attempt to distract attention from this struggle.[13]

Accusations of anti-Semitism
In a report on the television programme Complment d'enqute (in its episode devoted to the controversial French humorist Dieudonn M'bala M'bala), broadcast on the French television channel France 2 on 20 September 2004, Alain Soral said:

When you're talking with a Frenchman who is a Zionist Jew, and you start to say, well maybe there are problems coming from your side, maybe you might have made a few mistakes, it's not always the fault of other people if no-one c n t nd you wherever you go bec u e th t' b ically their general history, you ee for 2,500 ye r , every time they ett ed omewhere, fter bout fifty years or so, they get kicked. You'd think that's strange! It's as though everyone is wrong except them. And the guy will start shouting, yelling, going m d you won't be able to carry on with the conversation. Which, to sum it all up, tells you that there's a psychopathology with Zionism Judaism, something that verge on ment i ne [14]

These comments sparked much controversy and Soral estranged himself from his show-bizz friends like Thierry Ardisson, a French TV host and producer, though they knew each other for more than 25 years.[15] Anti-Semitism is the subject of Soral's latest book: CHUTe ! loge de la disgrce. Soral defended himself some days later on the website oumma.com, claiming that his words had been taken out of context. Following this programme, on 29 September 2004, Soral and several others were the victims of an attack by about twenty people wielding baseball bats, while he was signing copies of his book Misres du dsir in a book shop called Au Pays de Cocagne in Paris's IIIe

arrondissement. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the police investigation has found no leads so far. In a 2005 interview given to the magazine VSD, Soral announced his intellectual support for the equally controversial Dieudonn M'bala M'bala, with whom he worked on the EuroPalestine list for the European elections of 2004, before his withdrawal led Dieudonn to do likewise. During the France 2 programme mentioned above, Dieudonn is visible in the background, listening to Soral.

Break-up of Yugoslavia and France

Alain Soral believes that Yugoslavia was dismembered by the USA, which saw an opportunity to gain political ground and influence in South-Eastern Europe by arming Albanian separatist movements in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Soral believes that community-ism in France could have a similar effect, if the French Republic fails to apply its prestigious 1905 Law of Separation of Church and State, which is enshrined in the French constitution.[16] According to a recent TV interview (Direct 8 / 88 minutes), Alain Soral stated; "that today, no-one was surprised to see French presidents, prime ministers and other high French political figures meet elusively with the Jewish representing body every year in Paris, meetings that go against the laws of France and send mixed signal to the Republic".[16] Soral finished by stating that such a course could only push other minorities to form political religious movement in order to be heard.[16] According to Soral, this would be a step likely to divide France into its various religious communities, which would then weaken the independence of the country.

Bibliography

Les Mouvements de mode expliqus aux parents, with Hector Obalk and Alexandre Pasche, Robert Laffont, 1984

reissued by France Loisirs and Le Livre de Poche

Le Jour et la nuit ou la vie d'un vaurien, roman, Calmann-Lvy, 1991

reissued under the title La vie d'un vaurien, ditions Blanche, 2001

Sociologie du dragueur, ditions Blanche, 1996 Vers la fminisation ? Dmontage d'un complot antidmocratique, ditions Blanche, 1999 Jusqu'o va-t-on descendre ? Abcdaire de la btise ambiante, ditions Blanche, 2002

reissued under the title Abcdaire de la btise ambiante, Pocket, 2003

Socrate Saint-Tropez : Texticules, ditions Blanche, 2003

Misres du dsir, ditions Blanche, 2004 CHUTe ! loge de la disgrce, ditions Blanche, 2006 Comprendre l'Empire, Editions Blanche, 2011. Pour en finir avec l'antismitisme ditions Blanche, 2012

Filmography
Actor

1996 : Parfait Amour ! de Catherine Breillat : Philippe. 2012 : L'antismite de Dieudonn

Director

1990 : Chouabadaballet, une dispute amoureuse entre deux essuie-glaces (5 minutes) 1993 : Les Rameurs, misre affective et culture physique Carrire-sur-Seine (10 minutes) 2001 : Confession d'un dragueur, avec Sad Taghmaoui et Thomas Dutronc

References
1. Jump up ^ Alain Soral Direct 8, 88 minutes 2008 2. Jump up ^ (French) Du communisme au nationalisme : itinr ire dun inte ectue franais , allocution prononce Vnissieux le vendredi 2 March 2007. 3. Jump up ^ http://www.comprendrelempire.fr 4. Jump up ^ "En France, tous les communautarismes montants : gay, islamique... se crent et se renforcent par imitation, hostilit et opposition au communautarisme judo-sioniste, dont le statut privilgi constitue la jurisprudence communautaire sur laquelle s'appuient leurs revendications face la rpublique"[1] 5. Jump up ^ "socit du dsir"; Alain Soral, Misres du dsir. 6. Jump up ^ "femme-objet" 7. Jump up ^ in an article on oumma.com je prfre le voile au string 8. ^ Jump up to: a b Alain Soral: le sous-Marine du Front National, Amnistia.net, 4 December 2006 (French) 9. Jump up ^ http://www.egaliteetreconciliation.fr/ 10. Jump up ^ Alain Soral attaque les communautarismes l'oeuvre contre la Rpublique , 5 May 2003. 11. Jump up ^ Act Up et les ditions Blanche , editorial by Victoire Patouillard, president of Act Up, published in LHumanit, 21 April 2003. 12. Jump up ^ Act Up-Paris | Zap des ditions Blanche : prcisions 13. Jump up ^ Alain Soral on feminism 14. Jump up ^ Quand avec un Franais, Juif Sioniste, tu commences dire qu'il y a peut-tre des problmes qui viennent de chez vous, vous avez peut-tre fait quelques erreurs, ce n'est pas systmatiquement la faute de l'autre, totalement, si personne ne peut vous blairer partout o vous mettez les pieds parce qu'en gros c'est peu prs a leur histoire, tu vois a fait quand mme 2.500 ans, o chaque fois o ils mettent les pieds quelque part, au bout de cinquante ans ils se font drouiller. Il faut se dire, c'est bizarre ! C'est que tout le monde a toujours tort sauf eux. Le mec, il se met aboyer, hurler, devenir dingue, tu vois tu ne peux pas dialoguer. C'est--dire, je pense, c'est qu'il y a une psychopathologie, tu vois, du judasme sionisme qui confine la maladie mentale

15. Jump up ^ http://www.dailymotion.com/user/HarryKG/video/xae6vj_coup-de-gueuledalain-soral_news 16. ^ Jump up to: a b c Alain Soral Direct 8, 88 minutes 2008

External links

[2] - Official site (in French) Alain Soral at the Internet Movie Database

VIAF: 39498981 ISNI: 0000 0001 2129 0260

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