1. Teladan

    Teladan Contributor Contributor

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    The Stranger/Outsider - Camus

    Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by Teladan, Jul 17, 2018.

    I just finished reading The Outsider and I have to say I quite enjoyed it. Enjoyed in the sense that I feel I gained something from it and it was worth my time, despite it being it being fairly depressing. Certainly, the best literature sets out to say something and this did. Aside from the grand meaning, I wasn't sure what I thought of the prose at the beginning, but I found it interesting how Mersault changed from having very staccato sentence structure to long and philosophical ones near the end. I read somewhere that Camus paid particular attention to making Mersault's physical experiences more elaborate than the emotional ones. I wondered what the significance of a lot of the stranger characters was, but I believe it was meant to portray the act of observing, since there is a lot of observing. I may have gotten this from SparkNotes or some other place. The one issue I have with the book is that it the characters feel hollow, but I suppose that's the point!

    Two questions: 1) It almost sounds as if Camus has written an excuse for his very own Absurdist philosophy to me. The fact that Mersault has accepted death by the end makes him alright with the fact that he killed a man and, from the reader's perspective, we quite like Mersault by the end of the book because of his philosophy. To me, just because he felt irritated by the sun and shot for no particular reason doesn't excuse him just because he has a particular life philosophy. And by the end of it he feels rather happy with himself. That's kind of a damning thing for what was Camus' real life philosophy, isn't it?

    2) What, exactly, does the fact that Mersault is speaking to us in first person mean considering the outcome of him as a character? This sort of implies that he lives on or has a "soul", which Camus would go against anyway.
     
  2. Hollowly

    Hollowly Member

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    I've been meaning to read this book since I found it on the shelf and it is nice and short. I read Camus's "The Myth of Sisyphus" years ago and didn't care for it. I'm no fan of his philosophy and worry that will hamper my reading his fiction. It is a shame it seems to have bled through, as you mention. But it is a classic and nice an short so I'll still read it to get another "classic" under my belt. Sorry I can't answer your question, I do find though that Nihilists and the like are often self-contradictory, or even all over the place and making sense of their philosophy is pointless since they often don't even have it figured out themselves.
     
  3. Lalochezia

    Lalochezia New Member

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    1) Camus’ absurdist philosophy was essentially saying we have no real control over our lives, but we must pretend as if we do and enjoy them anyway. I think this is why the shooting being “caused” by the sun is significant: it’s prompted by an external influence the character has no control over. The fact that he is happy with himself at the end also fits with this philosophy. This sums it up pretty well, IMO: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/58

    2) No idea.
     
  4. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

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    I think it's a lot easier to understand The Stranger after reading some of Camus' other works, especially his essays. I think it was in The Myth of Sisyphus that Camus argues that revolt is the only answer in a world where life is meaningless. So Mersault's act of murder is a kind of revolt (the revolt here being metaphysical). It's been a long time since I've read any Camus, but if you haven't already, I would recommend reading The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel.
    There's no special meaning. It's just the point of view Camus chose. The implication of first person is that the story ends when the narrator says it ends, which, in this case, is in the jail cell.
     

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