Albert Camus’s the Stranger
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
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This is one of the few novels I read cover to cover, back in high school. I don't think I got then exactly what the author intended, but I remember liking it. It resonated with me. The main character is expected by society to be emotionally performative and is condemned essentially for his refusal to outwardly virtue signal.
I had a similar experience in high school, the first novel I read fully and a lot of it eluded me but something grabbed me. I went back to it, read some of his other novels, essays, etc. It's cool to hear others have a similar experience of this.
The issues raised in the novel seem to have only amped up (obsession with safety aka 'safteyism', coddling of kids/teens which is a main factor in the teen mental health crisis, general lack of awareness of death). Our relationship with death is messed up, we hide from it, hide it from view and look away. And with this our relationship with living is also messed up.
I live in a diverse city and work at a hospital. I meet people from countries like Afghanistan (the tribal people Pashtun, etc), Tibetans, Syrians, Ethiopians, Iraqis, places that historically get little respite from war/unrest, and their relationship with life feels different. More alive in each moment, a different type of contentedness, the way they sacrifice for their family, how they relate to adversity. I dunno. Hard to explain really and this is an outsider's perspective (lol, this book is alternately titled The Outsider).
Conversely, our society seems to be increasingly hysterical, as seen with Covid and raiding toilet paper aisles, our first taste of unrest in North America for a very long time. We took it for granted that things would continue and only improve, more safety, more prosperity. Books like this were what got me thinking about how people relate to death.
Here's a quote that speaks to the growing hysteria in various parts of our society. I first came read it in Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, it's one of the epigrams:
Your ideas are terrifying and your hearts are faint. Your acts of pity and cruelty are absurd, committed with no calm, as if they were irresistible. Finally, you fear blood more and more. Blood and time. -- Paul Valery
Same for me but with a Happy Death. Changed my perspective at 15. Wouldn't have had it any other way.
what do you mean by virtue signal like what virtue would he have signaled by crying at his mother's funeral
@@Monica-br8pi I mean if he wasn't naturally moved to cry then doing so would be a social signal of an emotion that he didn't really have.
People in the book were upset at him for a lack of this display. They considered it a lack of virtue. If he had chosen to fake crying that would have been a virtue signal.
"When a muscle is worked, it will hurt at first, but if worked often, the pain ceases and the body gets adjusted. Why then do we expect the heart to ache if it has been worked an excessive amount beforehand, clad to steel and ridden of sensitivity?"
Whose quote is this?
What's interesting about the question of toxic masculinity in terms of Mersault, is that it doesn't apply to him at all. He is very passive, quiet and submissive, without preference or desire, allowing everyone else to lead him along. His lack of emotional expression is contrasted with the more typical men around him, who emote anger and frustration at their dogs or mistresses, who care about appearing virile or dominant, and who demonstrate an ease with being men of action. They align much closer to masculine archetype than he does. Mersault's lack of emotional expression has nothing to do with his gender; it is existential and idiosyncratic.
A man who has internalized toxic masculinity represses his natural urge to emote or cry when it would be appropriate and healthy (ie a man who genuinely has the urge to cry and is alone/safe and has sufficient time to process grief) he bullies himself and seeks to bully those who don't conform to this idea because he fears all vulnerability.
Mersault does not seem to care if he is seen as virile or if he reveals vulnerability. His lack of emotion is is more the result of other things not particular to gender:
*a pervasive sense of alienation and purposelessness
* his life experience taught him his hopes and desires dont matter, (he had to leave his studies to go to work, and this is when he stopped having any ambition), so he has essentially given up on preferences as futile to protect himself from the emotional pain of disappointment and is content to just withdraw and go along in the moment.
Exactly I was beginning to feel very strange while listening to the commentary. And reading comments. Your comment made me breathe again :)
This gave me a much better understanding of The stranger and Mersault than any video I’ve watched about the book.
I don't really agree, I think he was misogynistic, he had no heart and no emotions, he clearly did not have a place on that world. He followed along with everything and allowed a women to get beaten up and never once showed love towards his mother or Marie. His lack of morals was him being misogynistic,
@@kenai2366 I agree in that sense that he barly felt any emotions towards other people but it concerned not only women but also men. It is not misoginy. He was stranger because he was in a way sociopath. He did not feel love or compassion. And he was also honest and sincere at the same time. He could not or would not lie and play the role that people wanted him to perform. I have the feeling that he was sentenced to death just because of his honesty. If he lied and were hyporicte he would be more humanly and less "monterous" as described him prosecutor. And would have a chance to avoid death sentence.
@@wojtekqwe1 Well I think he was sentenced to death because of his honesty, but mostly due to the fact of lack of empathy, plus the lack concern for others. He basically had no purpose in life, no dreams, or ambitions of a 'normal' man, which served no purpose on this world. Not only was he honest, but he followed along with pretty much anything and was unbothered. Now that I think about it, most misogynistic men have that same mindset, they agree with other toxic men and follow along in their path, without ever thinking for themselves.
I've read this novel over 40 times, it's honestly one of my favorite books of all time. Every time I read it, I always pick up on things. I don't think I could ever get tired of this book
This is literally my favourite book of all time, and i really loved your take/analysis on it! I love how you mentioned that the cries of hate would make Mersault feel less alone in his final moments, since a lot of people i know interpreted it as him making fun of his crowd. In the end, Mersault was able to cope with his inevitable death, and in my honest opinion the ending fits perfectly with the book's theme of coping with the absurd.
i think it can also mean how mersault is making fun of the crowd, since its the "same" crowd that condemn him to guilt, and the same crowd who have yet to come to the same realization as mersault. Thus contributing, alongside the cries of hate bc of mersault not crying for his mother' death, to the situation's absurdness. however, i do agree w this interpretation as well! :)
I literally have one of Albert Camus books at my side. Thanks for talking about one of my favourite philosophers.
I’m reading this book for the rest of my life
Read it twice in the span of a few months; I'll follow suit.
@@adeldell8275 listen to it too
I read 'The Stranger' by Albert Camus in a day. I read the English translation by Matthew Ward. First the ending for me gave me the idea that he is imprisoned for life. But your video guided me to his oncoming execution. I also read a sinhalese translation of the same novel. Thanks for the lovely share of your valuable wisdom. Keep up the good work. Best wishes from Sri Lanka.
I love Matthew Ward's translation because i feel like he was one of the only translators able to depict Mersault the most accurately compared to the French version of the novel
This book changed me a lot
I dont want to live a life without purpose or meaning and end up like him at end
i dont think you understood the point...
It’s okay, what we get from reading this novel can be different. Doesn’t always have to be right and wrong way of understanding a writing. Even if the writer intended it to be exactly one thing.
@@marcmoreno1841 he doesn’t need to share same values
@@marcmoreno1841 And how is his interpretation missing the point? Meursault doesn't begin to truly live-think of the moment when he describes suddenly wanting to live again, suddenly living as he yells at the converter-until he is faced with execution. Maybe instead of saying 'purpose or meaning' @12gmkk29 meant to say 'passion and difference'.
Camus a great writer of intelligence. Thank you for this video. ❤ Death is faced everyday in the counting of seconds. The realization of death is to see it in the mirrors of existence. Embrace it and live.
While I like this video a lot, and recognize that the novel suggests that within modern society, a lack of emotion is a crime, I would also like to point out that Meursault is not a man to be idolized. He isn't a beast, but a very human man with human struggles who, without provocation, murdered another man in cold blood. To idolize this man simply because he doesn't not conform to societal expectations, is reductive and dangerous. He is not a hero. He is a product of an absurd world.
Also, the reason men are often called toxicly masculine is not because they can't experience emotion, but because their emotion is repressed, pent up, and let out in dangerous ways. Meursault is so irritated by the sun that he shoots a man. Meursault could've used therapy, and so can many men. We've been taught to keep our emotions down by a society that values the supposed strength that stoicism provides. The Stranger" is, to me, a cautionary tale about lacking means of self-expression and direction.
Also, he kept his cool while in jail and awaiting his execution, but then blew up at the chaplain. He grabbed the man and screamed at him until they had to be separated by guards, and he felt better after.
i read this in the original french and it was brilliant; i should probably reread it in english just to recap/maybe pick up on something i've missed. if any of you are learning french or happen to speak it to a somewhat decent level then this work of art is a no-brainer.
Great vid mate. You have changed my life through these.... I have started reading philosophy excessively
But Meursault extracts my curiosity: what is his backstory? What must he have experienced in his life to be so indifferent to everything? Is it the drone mentality that comes with modern industrial society? Is it perhaps emotional distance from those people that raised him as a child? Is he all but emulating what he experienced growing up? Is it isolation from society at a young age? Is it depression? What is it?
I myself am pretty similar to him. My emotions are completely subdued. But for some reason I find myself playing a character not to be branded by society. But I still wonder, would I able to cry at my mother's funeral? That's a question I ask myself everyday.
And the court's treatment of him is not surprising. They are revulsed, and they are uninterested in understanding this man. They have deemed him a monster, and that's all they can see him for. Maybe he is one. Definitely for the relatives of the man he killed. But who's to say objectively what a monster is?
I know this is pretty late but i believe that the character was based on a friend of albert camus' who was thought to have behaviours similiar to Asperger's syndrome, that explains the straightforwardness and lack of understanding for emotions
@@wania8517 I just finished the book for the first time and was struck by the psychological similarity between Mersault and someone with right hemisphere brain damage (or a condition like Asperger’s which emulates many right hemisphere deficit symptoms). If it’s true that Camus based the character on a friend, he did a remarkable job portraying that sort of condition, especially considering that Hans Asperger first described the condition only a few years prior to the release of The Stranger.
I think the point is that it doesn’t matter, or that he has simply always been this way
I think is a character with Albert Camus's own life experiences. Like his fall out of collegue due to tuberculosis and his departing from his homeland.
The thing that strikes me about Meurault is his lack of agency, his near non-personhood. He simply does what is expected of him, like an empty reflection of the society he lives in.
I worry that a lot of readers of this book don’t see the difference between not being able to “properly present emotions at socially-designated moments” and complete psychopathy or sociopathy. And I don’t think enough of them are critical of the main character and whether he might fall into a category of mental disorder not worth admiring. It’s kinda like people who idolize the American Psycho movie. Maybe y’all are missing the point.
Sir/Maam, please spare us the armchair psychoanalysis. Your ideas of collective normalcy is what mersault is dealing with. You deal with humans not as an individual phenomena but their relation to society as utilities of good. You look at people as what they "ought to do" so that you can feel safe. People don't admire him, they sympathize with him. As Camus himself says (you) "reject the man of today for a man of tomorrow". At any given point mersault is never a harmful person to society. American psycho is about a pscho who kills and murders people, stranger is about a stranger who fails to express difference. Even in the end, mersault is not critical of society, but accepts the absurd. Also please stop diagnosing people who haven't asked for one; that behaviour should be a disorder in itself.
@@Ak-yw9kf Mersault shot a dude for no reason. Of course he’s harmful to society. If he’d do it once he’d do it again. It’s not an admirable quality even if it’s related to struggling with the absurd life.
I’m not saying I don’t love Camus or the book but his main issue is that he is morally neutral on almost everything. Including murder. He cares more about himself than others. He has more in common with Patrick Bateman than you might think. It doesn’t take a psychologist or psychiatrist to see that.
@@KayButtonJay The Arab had a knife and he knew was out for revenge. He even has the gun with him cause he took it from his friend who wanted to shoot the Arab. I think your sentiments echo the sentiments of the court. It wasn't about the murder, it was more about him not expressing feelings. If you've read other works of camus you'd find that he's not a fan of court trials. Regardless, "moral neutrality" doesn't exist cause morality isn't some 2 dimensional spectrum from black to white. Mersault is good to his girl friend, he helps his neighbour, even when he doesn't derive any joy from it. He's not trying to hurt anybody, he just lives his life and wants to be left alone. But if you view humans as vehicles of "social good", you'd find him a villain, because he's not performative. It's interesting how you judged the character "If he did it once he'd do it again" When there is no indication at all. "He cares about himself and not about others". I feel like your purposefully misrepresenting the book. Or perhaps it's been a while since you've read it? I suggest a refresher :)
Yeah. some people experience deep emotions but are unable to communicate them
@@Ak-yw9kfHe shot a man four times, and he also agreed to write a letter that allowed a women to get 'fair' mistreatment. He is a sociopath, he is the definition of a sociopath, even a 'normal' man can find someway to express their emotions.
i just finished this book as audiobook just this morning and now i have your video. what i get from this is the perspective of the emotionless protag.
Despite being philosophically and politically opposite Camus, I love reading his thoughts.
I read the Stranger in a day. Absolutely brilliant book! I started with The Plague but I just couldn't get through it. It doesn't have the immediacy and pace of The Stranger.
And unlike Sartre, he can actually write!
Don’t you think it absurd to condemn someone because he didn’t cry in his mother’s funeral more than the murder itself? I’m confused.
Camus is the father of absurdism :)
I think you're missing the point, he lacks EMOTION. He agreed and stood by a man who would ask him to write a letter and HE WOULD DO IT just so the woman could get beatings and mistreatment, not only that he never showed love to his mother or his 'fiance'. please read the book.
@@kenai2366 I read the book after writing the comment, but I still feel that the lawyer and the judge did not do their job properly. I am not philosophical.
@@Sachie465 Because he is a human that has literally no feeling or emotion and doesn't belong in a society that he is willing to commit crimes, if you can tell me him siding along side a man beating a women and killing someone isn't the right decision, especially him being so heartless, he found his death fascinating and he accepted his fate in the end anyway.
Just read this one last month.
As always, what a great analysis!
Thank you so much for your content
Love you channel. Thank you for doing it.
While reading this novel i was anticipating a turning point that could intrigue me but in the end i learned the pivotal point of this writing quite different perspective of millions innerselves we have a lot of people around us that are misunderstood on the bases of their different behaviour and mentality.
After reading this book i have suffered an existential crisis. I still have its effect. I don’t know should i share these kind of book to other people. It’s was too heavy for me.
the crisis is hard but after you fight it and win you'll feel a thousand times better. embrace it man.
It's good that you get this thoughts. It means you are starting to think about topics you didn't think about before
In today’s terms, Mersault is a sociopath.
just read the book it was really great but watching your video brought more clarity to what i really understood from it
And it does really makes sense.It is disheartening but I understand it now
Keep such great work I really like watching your content after reading the books
Very useful introduction to and synopsis of a key fiction of the twentieth century.
I agree that the human awareness of mortality, our ability to reflect upon and anticipate our inevitable death, heightens our awareness and invests our lives with meaning. It does seem odd to derive a sense of modernity from a perception or acceptance of guilt, as guilt has been a cornerstone of Christian dogma from virtually its beginning, with the doctrine of original sin and the consequent need for redemption through Christ's sacrifice. And the invulnerability or emotional passivity that does distinguish so many men can be ascribed, I think, as much to how the sexes are socially conditioned (hence a responsibility of the whole society, men and women alike) as to any biological imperative or individual aptitude. Any man as indifferent as Meursault is before his condemnation is just as human as anyone, so I balk at one of the author's central philosophical propositions, even as it provides stimulating food for thought and aesthetic enrichment.
Favorite book of all time. First read it for a HS class at 17 and the world made so much more sense after
i think it would be a great video if you made a video analysis of Stefan Zweig, especially about his short story "the runaway", which I think isvery very underrated. The author himself is very underrated
I like this book a lot but I really don’t like how Mersault considers his life “absurd” when he’s simply paying for the direct consequences of his own immoral actions. Sure he was judged in an unfair way, but he seems to have no accountability to the fact that he shot the man.
While it's super well written, I don't think the conclusion of the finale is all that profound. It's an easy cope to embrace the indifference of death after the point of no return - but most of the events in the book could have been avoided by not being a prick and hanging out in the company of pricks.
But everything is to happen the way it does, that's the natural process of the universe, and we are defenseless against it. From the moment Meursault arrives at the beach, the events are set to transpire exactly how they do, under his illusion of free will. History can only happen one way... think about it.
The point is her doesn’t care, he is just living, life moves him, that’s the absurd
Camus does not say or imply that we are guilty. Only that we are responsible.
Guilty if you don’t show emotions.
When i read the bit about him killing that arab - i laughed out loud hysterically and vigorously. And then i cried.
Man, You explained it beautifully and i totally agree that your idea must have resonated with Albert camus.
Geeat review thanks! Helped me understand it much better!
Great video, will definitely give it a read
no clue why we were shown this at 16 but it changed my life
watching your videos make my day, a little of happiness in this hell called existence🔥
I remember reading this book years ago. One of my personal favs and a hell of a read. Btw I found this Algerian novel called The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud. Its about the killed man and was given his own story. Thought you might like this for African literature.
I really appreciate for the suggestion.
@@Fiction_Beast No prob
I have already read this book! And its one my favorites!
Thanks a lot for all the videos. I have a request. I think you already know about the British existentialist Colin Wilson. Colin has written more than 150 books, but his noteworthy book is The Outsider. Requesting you to do a few reviews on Colin’s work. Best regards…
I think I would have liked Camus. Im a full grown man, whos not afraid to cry sometimes. Absurdity and meaninglessness are all that matters.
Has to be the best accent in the world and all worlds of all time
I remember reading The Stranger years ago. Thought it was kinda dry. But it was an ok book.
I feel the same way about his book The Plague. I do get what you mean about Stranger being dry though. Even though I love it, there's something kind of dry and colourless about it.
@@Nick-qf7vt that was the purpose, I believe
@@shourjamitra67 perhaps. It wasn't a bad book by any means, and there were parts of it (like when the narrative with Rieux really gets going) that I really liked. I just didn't connect with it. One of these days i might give it another go.
I just found it interesting that men are usually looked at funny for being vulnerable. They have to be tough and macho. Why do they find it weird that Mersualt is emotionless when he’s a man?
I imagine Mersault happy.
Great video! You just earned a sub
Greate review of the novel ! can you please give us the names of the paintings you showed ?
Thank you so much ! I turned up to the right station ^^
Awesome.
Still I don’t understand, in the real world I don’t know what he is referring to… Aren’t men who don’t cry considered strong even at a funeral where they offer a support to the rest of the family ? Maybe he is condemning the fact society does not accept all forms of grief and insists on intruding people’s personal life as to control their roles in society as well as their morals ? Still in this novel it feels like Camus is talking to himself not to us because he doesn’t care to explain.
What is Absurdism? Some unnecessary deeds done without reason, to me. Layers after layers trying to explain something with unconstructed incidents,right? It would be so helpful if you just explain 'Absurdism'. Your videos are indeed something precious, a mysterious box of magic. Thank you!
I encourage everyone to read “The Stranger” and then read King David’s story in the book of Samuel in The Bible. See for yourselves 👌🏼 Priceless
He didn't even cry at his own mums funeral ? What kind of animal are we dealing with here?
Thank you:)
What does he say about privacy. Or priv - acy. The ol saying if you put your business on the sidewalk imma kick it in the street.
How do I get into literature and how do I analyze it?
Read then write about it that’s it
Good quesiton. it's worth a video of its own.
i feel althought theyre important especially as todays injustice but you've over focused on the racial aspect and didnt analyse the nihilistic (wich is just part of truth btw) aspect in enough depth and even how the arabic element adds to that mystery and depth
Sir do u know philosophy of cbt
I’m familiar with it in psychological term but not clear as a philosophical term. I guess is it similar to existential therapy?
0:50 what a stupid idea!
Let them not cry, perhaps the mothers were horrible especially back in the days
Nice
If u didn't realize... Marseu in the book autistic so.... Time to remake the video.
Being autistic and a psychopath are very different things...
@@coffeeknight1916 funny, because that's exactly the hialrious irony you made. since he is not that but autistic
Easily one of the worst things i read
sounds like a psycopath. He does what's best for him with no regard for how it effects others.
those were my thoughts throughout the book. he felt for nobody but himself
👹👹👺👺👺🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Women who don’t cry are pure evil.
crying or not crying is morally neutral its just a natural reaction