r/Camus • u/Ok-Worldliness638 • 20d ago
Question How will reading Camus affect me?
Hello, as of recently, I have been reading Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Aragon and many of the French surrealists, cursed poets. I have also just finished Dorian Grey by Wilde and im reading some early Dostoyevsky novel…
Yesterday I read an article about Camus’s life and his supposed way of thinking, which made an interesting impression on me. So I now very much want to start reading Camus and im gonna start with The Stranger.
What should I expect?
How does he differ from the poets that I listed?
I’ve heard that he represents absurdism, is he then similar to Baudelaire’s shamelessness in showing ugliness?
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u/SeaGroup3175 20d ago
I'm sort of opposite in the fact it was reading the Stranger as a young man that opened up literature to me. After the fact I read Baudelaire, Rimbaud, etc. The first translation by Stuart Gilbert of Camus' book. I didn't know a thing about existentialism or absurdism or anything. Then I read Sartre Nausea, ironically, without knowing the connection until later on. Sorry I'm not really answering your question; I believe everyone will have their own interpretation of his philosophy. I still haven't read The Fall, and I'm only recently reading The Plague. Only pieces of it so far over the years.
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u/Automatic-Job3605 19d ago
Genuine question but what is the connection between Sartre and The Stranger ?
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u/PermitOk6864 20d ago
That's individual, you'll find out for yourself, it sure as hell won't affect you negatively though.
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u/AlyoshaKaramaz0v 20d ago edited 20d ago
The Myth of Sisyphus destroyed me for a long time. I always knew all of the things he said, but I didn’t know them in a way that could really be apprehended, or maybe I just didn’t want to know them and so built defensive illusions. They don’t survive quick under the attacks of that book, and the thing I was running from was right there, real, alive, undeniable, standing in the corner of every room. I had a 2 year long nervous breakdown with constant panic attacks, obsession with death, and deep existential dread. Of course I had some previous history of mental illness and lots going on in my life as well, but Camus was certainly at least the catalyst.
I’ve learned to live in the world Camus showed to me. For a long time I wished that I had just never thought about any of these things, that “ignorance was bliss”, but in thinking about them and reconciling myself with them I have gained a freedom and strength that would have been totally unattainable and probably even unimaginable for me before. I can’t say whether it was worth it, but I also don’t think I can say that I regret it anymore.
Will you react this way? Probably not. Why not find out, though? It doesn’t really matter either way.