# Camus



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

What do y'all think of Camus? Any favorite works? You think he was overrated? Compromised by colonialism? A great existential philosopher? (Greater than Sartre?) A great novelist?

One thing's for sure: he looked just like me.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

A philosopher in the Eric Cantona school and a great goalkeeper:



> After many years during which I saw many things, what I know most surely about morality and the duty of man I owe to sport and learned it in the RUA.(Racing Universitaire d'Alger)


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2015)

science said:


> What do y'all think of Camus? Any favorite works? You think he was overrated? Compromised by colonialism? A great existential philosopher? (Greater than Sartre?) A great novelist?
> 
> One thing's for sure: he looked just like me.
> 
> View attachment 75605


Only ever read one work by him (_L'Étranger_) which I found a lot more digestible than Sartre's _La Nausée_. 
Kompromised by kolonialism? Kouldn't kare less. 
Love his _Gauloises_ black-tobacco good looks, I can just smell those cancer sticks and the _espresso_ that goes with 'em!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Have read half of Camus' L'Etranger as part of my Lower Sixth French - it was *okay. * Then I was moved into another group, where the set book was this one, that poked fun at existentialism:










Thanks for the thread - it's made me think that I'd like to read both books again - to rejuvenate my schoolgirl French!

I enjoyed Sartres 'Roads to Freedom' much more - helped on by the stylish BBC television series in the early 1970s with its fab opening signature song by Georgia Brown!






Black polo necks and existentialist shrugs - those were the days!  My sister even named her daughter Georgia after the singer (who also appears as an actress in the series).


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2015)

Ingélou said:


> [...] Black polo necks and existentialist shrugs - those were the days! [...]


They still are the days, Ingélou! Well, at least that's how I still tend to dress! And the contemporary music festival I usually attend this side of Europe is full of 'em! Black Levi's and a black Mexx long-sleeve polo shirt does it for me. Still, that said, two days a week my carefully constructed aloofness is ruined by copious amounts of chalk (yes, gasp, chalk !!) on my pristine attire.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I have read most of his works and consider him one of my favorite authors. I especially love The Stranger and The Fall.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

He was definitely cool and rightly died young. That's just the kind of guy he was.

The Fall doesn't get enough praise. The Stranger deserves the praise it gets, but I'm not as sold on The Plague (haven't read the others).

I read The Myth of Sisyphus in college and remember liking it.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

TalkingHead said:


> Only ever read one work by him (_L'Étranger_) *which I found a lot more digestible than Sartre's La Nausée*.
> Kompromised by kolonialism? Kouldn't kare less.
> Love his _Gauloises_ black-tobacco good looks, I can just smell those cancer sticks and the _espresso_ that goes with 'em!


Anything is more digestible than Sartre's _La Nausée_. Or Sartre's anything else for that matter!

I've only read _L'Étranger_ which was ok. I failed to get on with _La Peste._. Fortunately that was during my last year of French at school so after that I was not persecuted with any more French Existentialists.

Actually, I have just remembered Sartre's _Huis Clos:_ Interesting idea if tedious in the detail.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I haven't read his novels, but I've been reading a bit the Rebel lately. It's rather timely, considering that I'm an American old enough to have no illusions about my own government. It's as corrupt as ever, so I'm waiting to see what happens.


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

As a novelist and as a thinker, I prefer Camus over Sartre for sure. 
The myth of Sisyphus is my favorite book by him.


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2015)

Dr Johnson said:


> Anything is more digestible than Sartre's _La Nausée_. Or Sartre's anything else for that matter!
> 
> I've only read _L'Étranger_ which was ok. I failed to get on with _La Peste._. Fortunately that was during my last year of French at school so after that I was not persecuted with any more French Existentialists.
> 
> Actually, I have just remembered Sartre's _Huis Clos:_ Interesting idea if tedious in the detail.


Dear Doctor, talking (hah!) of what is or is not digestible, I remember one passage from _La Nausée_ where JPS makes reference to alienation in some crappy town in the east of France called Chouville, which I strongly suspect is in Alsace and better known (for its sauerkraut) as _*Krautergersheim*_. I have been there. It is a dull, grey place, known best for its cabbages. Need I say more?


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

TalkingHead said:


> It is a dull, grey place, known best for its cabbages. Need I say more?


What a coincidence - we have a thread for that place (among other things)....


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2015)

Dim7 said:


> What a coincidence - we have a thread for that place (among other things)....


Dear Dim7, would you mind terribly posting a photo of some dull cabbage-ville town in eastern France (Alsace, shall we say?) for your Grey and Boring Photos thread? In this way I will feel validated. Thanks.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

TalkingHead said:


> Dear Doctor, talking (hah!) of what is or is not digestible, I remember one passage from _La Nausée_ where JPS makes reference to alienation in some crappy town in the east of France called Chouville, which I strongly suspect is in Alsace and better known (for its sauerkraut) as _*Krautergersheim*_. I have been there. It is a dull, grey place, known best for its cabbages. Need I say more?


Did Sartre write _Les Mouches_? Long suppressed memories of the horrors of being made to read French Existentialist works at the age of 15 are breaking through. I may have to lie down on the _chaise longue._


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

I read the myth of Sisyphus.

Needless to say, it was hard reading. I'm not good at reading philosophy and/or literary commentary.

In fact, I don't even think I understood the main point! Is Camus saying that one _need not_ commit suicide because one can develop a confidence and purpose even without a God (i.e. the absurd), or is he saying that one _must not_ commit suicide? If it's the latter, then how does he argue for this stronger assertion?

Thanks for the help!


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I've read L'Étranger in English and I'm currently trying to steal a French copy from one of my school friends who introduced me to the book...although all my cunning plans have failed me so far. 

It was an incredibly profound read, especially in the second part of the book. This book seemed to me to be a unique philosophy on the nature of societal norms and the inability to comprehend any action that fits outside the paradigm. The main character Mersault essentially searched for the truth, his truth in life, rather than conforming to society...but it was this that put him in a pickle with the law rather than the crime itself. I loved the book so much.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

A quote of his inspired me to create this from two of my photographs, and it is currently on show in our gallery's window.


Impressions by Hennie Schaper, on Flickr


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I remember disliking the Stranger when I had to read it for class in high school. The character is horrid! But then years later, I took Dostoevsky class, and I learned that Camus was extremely influenced by Dostoevsky, and that the Stranger's protagonist was a type of "underground man" actually, his version of him anyhow. How ingenious! Then I read _Notes from Underground_ by Dostoevsky and now I completely understand where Camus is coming from with the Stranger. The Underground Man at least was no less stupid, selfish and honest as the main character of the Stranger.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Interestingly enough, I just started reading Camus. I'm currently reading _The Plague_ and recently read _The Stranger_. I love what I've read so far. I've always been interested in absurdism--Tom Stoppard's _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead_ (one of my all-time favorite plays) was my first introduction to that genre of literature/theatre and the philosophy it's based on.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

TalkingHead said:


> Kompromised by kolonialism? Kouldn't kare less.


What's with the K's? I don't get the joke.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

SeptimalTritone said:


> I read the myth of Sisyphus.
> 
> Needless to say, it was hard reading. I'm not good at reading philosophy and/or literary commentary.
> 
> ...


IMO, Camus is basically joking in that essay. It opens with a Kierkegaardian style. If that's right, Camus isn't sharing ideas that he takes to be true, but ideas that he finds provoking.

Anyway, I don't know about confidence, but certainly some sort of purpose.

The qualification "some sort of" is necessary because I don't think Camus sees human individuals as analogous to tools, and so "purpose" is probably not a really great word to describe his idea. Instead, the essay seems to me to be arguing that we can embrace life with joy even when we know it to be futile (in the Zoroastrian/Jewish/Christian/Islamic sense of not ending with an eternal reward).


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