by sandmann » Dec 11, 2003 @ 1:25am
I just finished THE STRANGER, and I must say, it was incredible. It bothered me, unnerved me, and I still don't know what to think, but throughout the entire process -- and especially now -- I felt completely numb. I'm not sure if that's what Camus was going for, but I assume it's so cuz of how ridiculously existentialist it is. It seems to me not to be a book about "the spirit of man faced with adversity" as the back cover states, but instead a manifesto of existentialism and the persecution faced by existentialists.
I'm not sure if I am or am not apalled at the absolute detachment of the narrator... I'll have to gather my thoughts on the book.
[edit] Brig has just brought to my attention a far more appropriate description of Camus' philosophy: nihilism.
The fates lead him who will;
Him who won't, they drag.
Seneca