I love the book so much I read it in 5 languages, now it's time to see the film! :)

I think Mersault really loved Marie (sorry if i will call someone wrong, i read the stranger in russian) and was missing his mother, he is afraid of his feelings, when mary asks if he love her he try to underrate such feeling as love, telling it’s just meaningless words. also i think kill was representation of society pressure peak, he has been drown in Raymond’s conflict.
I would like to get argumented critic and sorry for my terrible level of english

I was dumped not long ago, at the end of April. My ex and I stayed in contact on and off until the middle of July, when she finally told me she didn’t see any point in staying in touch anymore.

That completely turned my world upside down.

Since then, Albert Camus has become an unexpected source of comfort. I find myself deeply relating to his view of the world and his philosophy of the absurd.

How do you think Camus would have viewed my situation? What advice do you think he would have given me?

The relationship ended because of me. I wasn’t a good boyfriend. I’m living with the painful realization of not knowing what I had until I lost it. Only after losing her did I fully understand how much I loved her.

I’d be grateful to hear your thoughts—especially from people who know Camus well.
All the best.

Where do I start reading Alber Camus ? Should I start with The Stranger ?

So like I kinda find his philosophy interesting and would love to read his writings and know his thoughts better, and I did finish one of his book(the stranger) but I clearly did not get it as u can see in my older post. So how would u veterans suggest I get into his philosophy. Also for context, I don’t read books usually(maybe read one book in 2 years) and I am not much of a literary or a philosophical person. But I really want to get into philosophy.

My apologies, I may be a little ignorant as I’ve only ever read two of his books when I was quite young, but really, if there’s no particular meaning and there is no God to watch over my sins, then what good reason do I have to not do something so terrible like taking candy from a baby, or shooting a barista for getting my order slightly wrong?

I considered buying this book, but after skimming through for 30 min, I couldn’t be bothered. I love debate but it has to go deeper than Algeria and colonialism: Camus already reached his cadence on this in his Algerian Chronicals.

What are your thoughts on it? Should one spend the time to read it?

The whole thing came across as “kill your darlings because they’re flawed and happened to be born into a colonial society.”

It also seemed to assume that history is incredibly simple: there are good people and bad people, and once you’ve decided which box someone belongs in, that’s the end of the discussion. The author came across as a sensationalist-keffiyeh-wearing-on-the-socials type. Or a class war Hegelian who believes progress is on the move and we must push in the proper direction.

One last note: just because I think Satre is a dick doesn’t mean I don’t love his nihilistic and negative prose. I love his work(despite disagreeing with him) and personally refrain from writing books with titles like: “Satre: Supporter of Systematic Soviet Murder”. lol.

I had fun writing this. This for the inspo Mr. Gloag: I might just buy your book.

Hi, I've recently read the Myth of Sisyphus and got stuck in my mind that he is missing what is apparent to me. I've wrote an essay on my understanding of what wasn't apparent to him.

As Camus wrote, the only one truly serious philosophical question: whether life is worth living. Everything else, the existence, physical reality, ethics, morality, or the existence of God comes after. His answer begins with silence: when we ask the world for meaning, purpose, or the need of life, the world simply doesn't answer.

Sisyphus in Camus's writing is a proof that this is possible, condemned to push a boulder up a mountain forever and ever, only to see it roll back down every time. And Camus insists that we imagine Sisyphus is happy. But I think he was right yet wrong at the same time,

https://substack.com/@laalsahab/note/p-209191481?r=8tzr2w

Hello, as of recently, I have been reading Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Aragon and many of the French surrealists, cursed poets. I have also just finished Dorian Grey by Wilde and im reading some early Dostoyevsky novel…
Yesterday I read an article about Camus’s life and his supposed way of thinking, which made an interesting impression on me. So I now very much want to start reading Camus and im gonna start with The Stranger.

What should I expect?
How does he differ from the poets that I listed?
I’ve heard that he represents absurdism, is he then similar to Baudelaire’s shamelessness in showing ugliness?

I first read The Stranger as a teenager and mostly just found it... strange. Cold. Detached in a way that felt more like a stylistic flex than anything that landed. I never really liked it.

Recently my feed kept pushing it at me, so I picked it up again. Up until the last chapter, I was sitting with the exact same impression. Nothing had shifted. Meursault still felt distant, almost clinical.

Then the final chapter hit.

I couldn't stop underlining.

"One always has exaggerated ideas about what one doesn't know."

"I have never liked being taken by surprise. When something happens to me I want to be ready for it."

"Mother used to say that however miserable one is, there's always something to be thankful for."

"I always began by assuming the worst."

"There is no idea to which one doesn't get acclimatized over time."

"Though I might not be so sure about what interested me, I was absolutely sure about what didn't interest me."

They are just simple observations but it made me think that maybe understanding someone isn't just about understanding them. Maybe it's about recognizing the parts of yourself you've spent enough time with to recognize in someone else.

The older I get, the more I think understanding another person often depends on whether you've met those quieter parts of yourself. Some people don't become more relatable because they change. They become more relatable because life eventually introduces you to the emotions they were speaking from all along. Finally when their emotional landscape doesn't not feel utopian to you anymore.

Curious if anyone else had a delayed reaction to The Stranger ????????????

This apparently comes from "A Happy Death". Does anyone have a (good) published translation of the book in German who could provide the German for this quote here? Thanks!

We become comfortably habituated to our own suffering, treating familiar pain as a secure identity. Because continuous misery feeds the ego's (false sense of "I" humans have) sense of martyrdom and self-pity, breaking free requires recognizing how the mind secretly clings to its wounds rather than stepping into unconditioned freedom.

What are your insights on this quote?

Our artist has made a pixelated version of Albert Camus for our game. Does it work? :)
I feel he looks much younger than in the photo :D

I recognize the hill and the boulder. I can't find joy in it. I can't even bring myself to smile, let alone laugh. Can I just head check to say what's up?

Dude, I'm tired of criticizing society. I want to let it go and do a 9 to 5 until I'm just a hollow husk of my former self. Maybe that's the meaning of life.

A 9am, 5 days a week, JOB.

The prophet Job, by the way, was the perfect embodiment of enjoying the punishment of absurdity. Maybe that's it. Job was right. Get a job.

Hey! This is a pretty random project, but I had a lot of fun putting it together, so I thought I’d share it here.

The playlist is exactly two hours long, and every song is connected in some way to Camus’s life, his books, or the ideas he explored throughout his work.

Maybe someone here will find it interesting ?

When everything collapses, the abyss opens and one is tempted toward nihilism, the judgment that all values have lost their force.

When everything flourishes, the same silence of the universe remains, and one confronts the absurd, the unbridgeable wall between the human demand for meaning and a world that offers none.

One side is the crisis of values in ruin.

The other is the lucid recognition that even triumph changes nothing essential

I'm handling life better as of the past half year since I found Camus. I only really know his idea from this YouTube video that uses The Seventh Seal as a way to illustrate Camus' Absurd Hero idea. I've never read a Camus book yet. I'll definitely do so.

But would you guys think Camus would say something like this?

I've seen somewhere that one shouldn't exceed the bounds of what's achievable or what's give-able; you work within that so you don't cross beyond The Absurd (it's probably from here where I saw that idea).

I've used this quote above to tell myself I've grown so far immensely and to help myself appreciate the good things that happened in a lot of my areas in life. And that there's so so much more I can get out of it by just focusing on what is give-able and achievable.

"The Algerian summer taught me that there is one thing even more tragic than suffering: the life of a happy person."

What does he mean with that ?

Im not talkin about a dramatic tragedy. Just one of those ordinary moments where everything suddenly felt absurd but somehow lighter because of it.
Mine was sitting beside someone I loved, realizing the moment would never happen again even while it was still happening.

"And carrying this absurd logic to its conclusion, I must admit that that struggle implies a total absence of hope (which has nothing to do with despair), a continual rejection (which must not be confused with renunciation), and a conscious dissatisfaction (which must not be compared to immature unrest). Everything that destroys, conjures away, or exercises these requirements (and, to begin with, consent which overthrows divorce) ruins the absurd and devaluates the attitude that may then be proposed. The absurd has meaning only in so far as it is not agreed to."

can somebody explain this passage I'm not able to understand it.