The week of the Charlie Hebdo murders, the satirical magazine’s cover boy was Michel Houellebecq. Although a stone-cold intellectual superstar in France (where “intellectual superstar” is not an oxymoron), Houellebecq’s accidental association with the massacre likely brought him even more notoriety, especially outside France. And it probably didn’t hurt sales of his new novel, Submission, which depicts France ruled by a Sharia-law-loving Muslim president. It might even have created international interest in Houellebecq’s new movie, a hugely eccentric affair that trades on the writer’s misanthropic personality. Kidnapping assumes some knowledge of the events on display, so for the record: In 2011, instead of showing up for a book tour, Houellebecq went missing for a few days. Then he popped up again, without explaining his absence.