Born in 1913, Albert Camus was a French Algerian writer and philosopher. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, so you know he’s good. He is famous for exploring the world from an atheistic existential view in his stories. If there is God and nothing greater than our physical existence, then the nature of the universe is absurd. In other words, it does not matter to matter. There is no intrinsic meaning. The answer for man, then, is to face the absurdity. We must create our own meaning. Each man is the supreme author of his own life. The universe is indifferent. Our reality is filled with pain, suffering, anguish, and ultimately death, and Camus wonders how anyone can associate that with a loving God.
I certainly do not agree with Camus’s worldview as a whole, but I love reading him because he makes some great points and explores relevant themes in his writings. His stories can be depressing but liberating at the same time. I also like comparing his brand of atheistic existentialism to Kierkegaard’s brand of Christian existentialism. Rather than attempting to create idiosyncratic meaning, Kierkegaard urges that man must face the absurd by taking a leap of faith to God. The earth’s degenerate existence is the result of separation from God, and we must trust in Christ for restoration. Camus is important to me because he presents the other side of the argument.
Favorite Excerpt:
“As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself—so like a brother, really—I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.”
- from The Stranger
Famous Works:
The Stranger (1942)
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
The Plague (1947)
The Fall (1956)
Exile and the Kingdom (1957)
Links:
· http://www.camus-society.com/
· http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/camus.shtml
·
http://www.levity.com/corduroy/camus.htm http://www.levity.com/corduroy/camus.htm
Next Week: #1.
Hint: He isn't Danish, British, American, or French.
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