The Outsider

The Outsider/L'Etranger

by Albert Camus

I finally got around to reading this very famous book.  It is a very short but very powerful book.  In reading analysis re: the book and Camus it is said that as an existentialist Camus felt that what happened in life was random and this randomness was absurd... there was no great plan for anyone... so what was the point of living??

Yet I saw a quote by Camus "man cannot do without beauty".  This seems to contradict the suggestion that he felt there was no point in living.

The Outsider
It seems many  reviewers get excited even by the opening sentence of this book, "My mother died today. Or yesterday.  I don't know".  This is taken to be evidence of the heartlessness of the protaganist.  Later on his lack of emotion, lack of tears upon the death of his mother are part of the actions used to declare him guilty at his murder trial.  Mersault had put his mother in a home so that she would be cared for, this decision is also used against him at the trial... of evidence of not wanting to care for her.

Mersault doesn't just lack emotions vis a vis his mother, he has a girlfriend with whom he enjoys swimming and having sex but when she asks him if he loves her he says no, he doesn't react when she says she loves him.  He seems to be incapable of showing emotion of any kind.

One of his neighbours has a dog which he beats constantly and swears at... but when the dog disappears he is unconsolable.

Mersault is offered a promotion to a position in Paris but declines it.... his employer chastises him for having no ambition.

Mersault has a friend Raymond who apparently is a pimp.  When Raymond asks Mersault to pen a letter to get his girlfriend (who he believes was cheating on him) back, so that he can "punish" her, Mersault writes it.  When the girl returns Raymond beats her and gets Mersault to vouche for his character so he is not charged.  One day Raymond is attacked by some Arab men (friends/family of his girlfriend).  They fend off the attackers but later Mersault encounters one of the Arabs, he has a gun in his pocket that Raymond had given him).  When the Arab lifts a knife toward him Mersault shoots him once, and then four more times.  He blames the sun for doing what he did.

At his trial he watches the proceedings as an observer, rather than the person who is on trial and facing dire consequences.  He listens sometimes with interest, sometimes with total disinterest to the proceedings.

Several of his friends including his girlfriend come and speak in his support saying he is a good person.  He does nothing to speak up for himself or to defend himself.

You don't know what you've lost til its gone
It is only when he is found guilty that he realizes that he will no longer have the little pleasures in life, his girlfriend, the sound of the city at night, swimming in the ocean...  the beauty in everyday things.  He regrets that his life will be cut short while others will be able to live theirs out to their natural conclusion.
When a priest comes to ask him to confide in god he gets furious and shouts at the priest.  This is the only time he shows any real emotion,

The book closes with him saying that he hopes that he will have a large audience of haters when he is guillotined.  At the end he wants his life to be somehow acknowledged.


French Exit

The mother and son in French Exit, which I recently read, seem somewhat similar to Mersault, they just move through life without thinking at all about others or the consequences of their actions.  However, unlike Mersault, the mother does concentrate on getting things her way so there is some deliberate selfish intent there.

Samuel Beckett

On Sunday Morning on CBC today they had an entire hour devoted to Samuel Beckett the author/playright.  It was an excellent program.  I really enjoyed Beckett when I read him when I was in university.  Like Camus I think he writes about the absurdity of life.  However, unlike Camus I feel that Beckett has a wry sense on humour as he explores this absurdity.  And, as the people interviewed on CBC commented today Beckett seemed to maintain a willingness to keep trying/fighting. "“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” - Worstword Ho by Beckett.

Beckett, like Camus, is trying to jolt us out of our complacency.  I was amazed to hear actors discuss how his editorial notes in his plays and other direction were so powerful and subtle.... they discuss the difference between a comma and a semicolon.  One Irish actress, who has performed numerous Beckett pieces said that performing his plays has changed/challenged her as a person. 

She discussed one play where all is dark in the theatre, even the exit signs, and all people see is a mouth eight feet above the stage.  As the actor she was in a harness and even had her head constrained and wore a blindfold.  She talked about how disconcerting this is for the audience but also how it impacted her physically and mentally.  I had never heard thoughts like this before.

Beckett's characters, may be waiting for something or someone, or feel all alone, but somehow we still come away with a sense of hope or possibility.  I guess it is like listening to Leonard Cohen, he is sad, he is hurting, but sharing his pain helps us feel not so alone.