100 years ago this month, the author of The Outsider, The Plague and The Fall was born in colonial Algeria. Perhaps part of the reason his books remain in print worldwide is their internationalist focus, eschewing nationalism and politics in favour of analysis of the universal human condition, thus putting him in line with Kafka and in contrast to Sartre, whose overt Communism and over-intellectualism has seen his popularity nosedive. Of course, like his anti-hero Meursault, Camus was something of an outsider, neither wholly French nor Algerian, his own quest for personal identity proving the source of his literary inspiration.
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Camus Centenary
Camus interviewed at Colombes during a Racing match.
Translation of the brief interview in the comments. -
Camus Centenary
The first Camus book that I read was The Fall. 'Cos Mark E named the band after the book.Comment
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Camus Centenary
R3 had an enjoyable adaptation, well maybe not the right word but you get my drift, of "The Outsider" last sunday, should be on on Iplayer now.Comment
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Camus Centenary
I read everything by him when I was 16; the first writer on the Manic Street Preachers reading list I really clicked with. All good except for when he got too French (The Rebel seemed a bit confused and/or culturally distant, and I'm sure I'd still agree with my teenage self that The Myth Of Sisyphus is just bollocks).
The Fall's my favourite. Really gets under the skin.
I guess he has more reach than Sartre because he wasn't faffing about with intellectual trends in that easily dated way. A good minimalist, influenced by American crime writers and probably the environment of sun, sea and poverty he grew up in.Comment
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Camus Centenary
Mmm. P'raps.Perhaps part of the reason his books remain in print worldwide is their internationalist focus, eschewing nationalism and politics in favour of analysis of the universal human condition, thus putting him in line with Kafka and in contrast to Sartre, whose overt Communism and over-intellectualism has seen his popularity nosedive.Comment
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Camus Centenary
The Fall is a bit of a boy-magnet. Nearly every man of a certain age pulls it halfway out of my bookcase and says "hmm" or gives a knowing look.
They don't do that with The Rebel, or The Plague.Comment
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Camus Centenary
They think it's a biography of the band.MsD wrote: The Fall is a bit of a boy-magnet. Nearly every man of a certain age pulls it halfway out of my bookcase and says "hmm" or gives a knowing look.
They don't do that with The Rebel, or The Plague.Comment
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Camus Centenary
It's not on my music shelf, it's in modern novels. I've recently moved house, so just got up to check it's in the right place.Comment
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Camus Centenary
When does it make the move to classic novels?Comment
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Camus Centenary
I did give that some thought. It's sort of in classic modern novels, next to Hesse. I haven't actually labelled the shelf.Comment
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Camus Centenary
Fantastic pass at 0:20, only slightly let down by th newsreel not showing the actual goal.ursus arctos wrote: Camus interviewed at Colombes during a Racing match.
Anyway..Comment
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Camus Centenary
Actually, yeah - The Plague's brilliant, isn't it.
This is the edition of The Fall I've got:
That is a fucking book cover. And perhaps a man-magnet, like Tom Selleck or one of those guys.
I don't see a Kafka connection at all really, Diable Rouge. Kafka was a proper weirdo, in his writing at least. Camus was plugged in to normal life in a whole different way.Comment
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Camus Centenary
Alienation and all that, ain't it?Comment
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Camus Centenary
Well there was a lot of it about in the 20th century, Pat (bet I can guess your favourite Camus novel!).
I mean, there's a lot of alienation in Bret Easton Ellis, but I wouldn't connect him to either of those two.Comment
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Camus Centenary
I read The Plague as a college freshman, and I felt at the time that it was one of things where you could tell right away that you were changed you forever. I read The Stranger in high school, and I didn't like it, but The Plague was something different entirely.Comment
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Camus Centenary
"All I know most surely about morality and obligations and fucked-up jacked-up butterfingered goalkeeping, I owe to football"ursus arctos wrote: Camus interviewed at Colombes during a Racing match.
Translation of the brief interview in the comments.Comment
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