(Possible spoilers)
For our discussion on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, the Classics Book Club selected The Stranger by Albert Camus. It's about a fairly despicable first-person protagonist, Meursault, and several other despicable characters in French Algeria in the early 1940's when the book was written. There's old Salamano who beats his dog and swears at it. Another character beats his wife. Meursault seems indifferent to all this and to life in general. But he comes to some profound insights and by the end finds some things worth living for. It's a fairly short book at 144 pages and reads quickly. I found a few parts of the book humorous, though also disturbing such that I felt uncomfortable laughing.
Meursault has developed a strong indifference to life. He feels that "people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another." (p. 41) In court an attorney asks, "if I had felt any sadness that day … I answered that I had pretty much lost the habit of analyzing myself and that it was hard for me to tell him what he wanted to know." (p. 74) He soon thinks, "As always, whenever I want to get rid of someone I'm not listening to, I made it appear as if I agreed." (p. 80) By the end he feels, "As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself the to the gentle indifference of the world." (p. 122)
Meursault does seem to have a negative philosophy. From his mother he learns that, "after a while, you could get used to anything." (p. 87) At his trial the caretaker at the convalescent home says that Meursault "hadn't wanted to see Maman (his mother), and that I had smoked and slept some, and that I had some coffee. It was then I felt a stirring go through the room and for the first time I realized that I was guilty." (p. 90) The prosecutor urges that the jury conclude "that a stranger may offer a cup of coffee, but that beside the body of the one who brought him into the world, a son should have refused it." (p. 91) Meursault reflects, "How had I not seen that there was nothing more important than an execution and that when you came right down to it, it was the only thing a man could be interested in." (p. 110)
Meursault does much of his reflection in prison. He realizes "that a man who had lived only one day could easily live for a hundred in prison. He would have enough memories to keep him from being bored." (p. 90) While being transported from the prison to the court house he can "make out one by one, as if from the depths of my exhaustion, all the familiar sounds of a town I loved and of a certain time of day when I used to feel happy." (p. 108) But it is "back to my cell that I went to wait for the next day … as if familiar paths traced in summer could lead us easily to prison as to the sleep of the innocent." (p. 108)
I had previously heard of The Stranger as the inspiration for The Cure song "Killing an Arab." The song is not supposed to be racist or xenophobic but just the setting for the song as in Algeria and referencing the book. The Cure have more recently performed the song as "Killing Another." The song describes exactly the scene in the book when Meursault shoots the man on the beach and thinks that it doesn't make a difference if he pulled the trigger or not: "We stared at each other without blinking, and everything came to a stop there between the sea, the sand, the sun, and the double silence of the flute and the water." (p. 68) Later in court Meursault testifies that "I said I killed an Arab and they were all silent." (p. 82)
We had a decent discussion on Wednesday, June 14, 2017. I think a lot of people showed up, around sixteen or seventeen. One person kept going on about how they didn't understand the legal system used in the book. I can understand that a legal system in French-occupied Algeria would differ from what we think it is supposed to be. Others had a better understanding of the book. Some felt the message is that life is meaningless. I don't think it's that simple. It's more that many of the things we think are important are actually meaningless. Meursault does find a little bit of meaning by the end when faced with certain death. I mentioned The Cure song and the others enjoyed hearing about it. Later I sent them a link to the video that doesn't seem to have much to do with the song other than taking place on a beach. Before the discussion I send a link to a Thug Notes review on Youtube that I thought was hilarious. One participant said that they bought the book at the Barnes and Noble in Lakewood and the bookseller there said The Stranger was their favorite book. I'm glad I got the chance to read it and get the full story behind The Cure song.
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