Hey Poet and crew!
I need to say something disjointed before I run. I think he is the UN socialized man. He has nothing to give him meaning other than his senses. The sun doesn't make him attractive to the opposite sex. Rather, it hurts his eyes and makes his head ache. He cannot grasp social meaning because he is elemental man--an unsocialized atavistic quirk of nature. He cannot contemplate a meaning beyond his senses, or his instincts.
It has been quite a few years since I read this so I am struggling. I remember it made a big impression on me, and also that it left me feeling rather numb. Camus was showing how absurd the world is when it is deprived of the meanings that we invent for ourselves. IF we wish to experience the world as something other than bare, stark, absurd, and depressing--we must color it with the magnificence of our thoughts.
But it is not only that he fails society, but also that society fails him. Society can also be absurd. We are left to find the answer to the riddle of thought and to the depression of feeling. We find it within our ability to value, to care, and to create meaning. WE find it beyond our senses, and we find it beyond the self.
His sense of self interest is shallow, immediate, and innocent. He sems unable to fake anything in life. This inability to pretend--this deficiency of imagination--estranges him from his fellow creatures.
I better shut up. I am not sure how much I am remembering and how much I am inventing. I don't really remember the details of the book--only the sense of isolation, estrangement, and separation that came from living in the head and the heart of the character. It was really lonely. Well, gotta run. I hope I can catch up tomorrow. |
