Surprisingly, Albert Camus was NOT an existentialist - this surprised me immensely.
“No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked. We have even thought of publishing a short statement in which the undersigned declare that they have nothing in common with each other and refuse to be held responsible for the debts they might respectively incur. It’s a joke actually. Sartre and I published our books without exception before we had ever met. When we did get to know each other, it was to realise how much we differed. Sartre is an existentialist, and the only book of ideas that I have published, The Myth of Sisyphus, was directed against the so-called existentialist philosophers.”
From An interview with Jeanine Delpech, in Les Nouvelles Littéraires, (1945). Cited in Albert Camus: Lyrical and Critical Essays, Vintage (1970)
So now I have a beef with my 12th grade English teacher, who seriously misinformed me for an entire year. Why did you lie to me, Ms. Arnold, WHY??
I've always loved Camus. He wrote “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of." So I'm imagining the happiness is just the NOW. That every little thing we did previously is unimportant, the past a series of disposable moments. Is the simplicity of my happiness enough? That these little present moments are enough to carry me through? I think Camus was a bit more optimistic than Satre, but maybe that's just because of my favorite line from the desolate No Exit: "Hell is other people."
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I just finished reading W. Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil. Oh, it was so frustrating. The writing was beautiful and precise; but the content disturbed me. I don't know - one could argue that in the novel she finds her own sense of compassion and independence, but her notions about love bother me. The Walter Fanes of the world, who are kind and noble, though awkward and serious, are overlooked for the charming and insatiably cruel Charlie Townsends. The central character reflects about a thousand times that Fane is 'unloveable' because 'he's a bore.' It drives me crazy, because women (myself included) are so foolish - suckered in by flash, glitter, and overt surface beauty. But I suppose that can be said for both sexes. Kindness and the capacity to love are more important than the meaningless banter and inane teasing of ambivalent lovers; I'm finally learning this, though it took me long enough!
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I've nothing to add so far, except:
Obama is a smoker!
So is Sparkly Cheekbones. I don't give a damn.
More later ...
Listening to: Department of Eagles
2 comments:
Whenever I read novels that paint women in this light (i.e., have this horribly unsettling picture of what goes on in a woman's mind) I begin thinking the novel says more about the author's own experiences in love than anything.
Have you ever seen (or read) Of Human Bondage? I saw a few scenes, but from what I gathered the female characters were similar (without the redemptive ending).
I start to wonder if novels like this are a clever man's way of getting back at every terrible woman he dated. If only I could be so productive! ;)
Even then, in the book, she really doesn't have a redemptive ending. All she feels for Walter is pity ... and she still calls him a bore! Gar! Hmm... maybe I can write a novel to get back at people! The plan unfolds in my mind :)
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