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This is something I’ve been wanting to read for a while if only because people around me kept bringing Camus up as someone to explore at some point. He helped to introduce the idea of absurdism, that the universe is an uncaring place and that there is no meaning to our lives. This book really explores the idea through its main character, Meursault, who is utterly detached from the world and people around him. Eventually he commits a murder, yet continues this attitude much to the shock of everyone. He very much believes that life has no meaning and nothing really matters, acting as the vehicle for Camus to explore this idea.
For myself, I found the book to be more useful from a historical perspective. Society has had over 80 years to make peace with the idea that our lives may not matter on some grand, cosmic level. If anything, we’ve gone well past the realm of not mattering and into that of simulation theory where we might not even be real. I, like a lot of other people, have always had the view of life being more like an open world sandbox game, rather than a more linear experience with pre-packaged meaning. There certainly is meaning to be had, but we have to create it ourselves.
At the time the book was published, the world was still secularizing quite a bit in the West. Yes, the ball had been rolling for a while already, but compared to today religion still played a much more prominent role there. For a lot of people, if they felt like they had no meaning to their lives they could still find solace in going to a priest who would tell them, “Don’t worry, God has a plan for everyone!” Books like this were steadily chipping away at this idea.
So, I don’t feel any shock from reading it, and don’t have an immediately profound impression of the ideas it wants to convey. It’s important for what it did, but like I said The Stranger has been around for a long time. We’ve had ample opportunity to digest its content. As such, it feels more in line with the standard way a lot more people think these days. We’ve moved on a fair bit from the more ecclesiastical world that existed in the first half of the 20th century.
The book is still enjoyable to read, and it’s really quite something to see just how detached Meursault is from everything be it his friend, his neighbor, his girlfriend, work, his own mother, everything. It’s just the same with the murder. He’s not phased by it at all. In his mind, at the end of the day, none of it will ever matter. There were times when I even laughed, though I don’t think that was Camus’ intention, at how nonchalant he was about everything. There was a part where Meursault was talking with a magistrate and being informed that he would be provided a public defender, to which he basically responded, “Well, that’s convenient!” Somehow, the offhand remark got a chortle out of me, perhaps because of how it underscored his indifference.
So, yeah, I mostly look at this book as being interesting from a historical perspective. The idea of absurdism feels like a closed case to me in this day and age. We live in a world where we need to find meaning on our own. It’s not going to magically fall into our lap from the cosmos. Nonetheless, The Stranger does show us what was impacting people to start thinking about this more earnestly almost 100 years ago.
Pennywhether
September 1, 2024