The Stranger

by Albert Camus | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
Registered by ejewel of San Jose, California USA on 5/22/2002
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by ejewel from San Jose, California USA on Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Philosophy has never been my strong suit. So I finished this little book with the impression that I had missed something. I had to look up some expository essays online to get an understanding of what Camus might have been saying. Mostly it has to do with Camus' idea of the world as an Absurd place. Not silly absurdity- it's more of a "gentle indifference". Meursault (the main character) approaches his life precisely in this manner. He is not concerned with his future or his past, he feels no remorse or pride or anxiety, he accepts situations as they present themselves to him, his only enjoyments are physical things to which he attaches little or no meaning. He only is forced into introspection when finally faced with death, and then he decides that he was right all along, and that he had been happy with life.

What I can't figure out is if Meursault is supposed to be a hero, a worst-case scenario, or just a symbol of an indifferent universe. The last interpretation is the most comfortable. As a real person, Meursault seems pathologically insensitive. I can (kind of) accept that the universe doesn't really care, but I can't condone man's indifference to one another. Kindness seems all the more necessary in an indifferent world.

I want to repeat my caveat that I know nothing about the formal discipline of philosophy. I could go on about this book, but I'd just be ambling in ever-clumsier orbits, so I'll stop.

Journal Entry 2 by ejewel from San Jose, California USA on Thursday, May 30, 2002
Ok, I really am going to release this book soon, but I've still got questions. Why are the Arabs/Moors portrayed as inanimate objects? In Meursault's mind, it is ok to abuse and murder them, they have no personalities, and they don't even have a face at the trial. Does Camus aquit Meursault? Meursault is essentially sentenced to death for not crying at his mother's funeral. (I know I'm giving away the ending, but hopefully that's ok for a philosophical novel- I'm just trying to understand). In some ways, this is just a cautionary tale about social norms- your little trangressions will be held against you at the most inconvenient time, and you will look like a monster. But was Meursault a monster or not?

Released on Thursday, October 10, 2002 at Friends of the Berkeley Library bookstore in the Sather Gate parking garage in Berkeley, California USA.

Donated to the bookstore. They promised to leave the sticker on the inside cover.

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