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| Albert Camus (thinking) |
BLOG: Take any idea from the translator and illustrate/exemplify it from the text, with explanations.
1st: Read the Translators Note by Matthew Ward in Subtext, p.8.
Ward's Key ideas:
a. What Meursault does not say = v. impt. in reading this text
b. Writing Style and sentences seem simple, but don't assume Meursault is simple
c. 'Character ostensibly without consciousness' means Meursault may have consciousness, but it's not the usual stream of consciousness.
Apply any one point to any section of text and explain it.
Ward's Key ideas:
a. What Meursault does not say = v. impt. in reading this text
b. Writing Style and sentences seem simple, but don't assume Meursault is simple
c. 'Character ostensibly without consciousness' means Meursault may have consciousness, but it's not the usual stream of consciousness.
Apply any one point to any section of text and explain it.
Pay attention to these lines:
Ward says Camus was going for a style that was literary AND popular.
Trying to make a complex man appear simple (through sentences).
Meursault and Camus are moralists/philosophers so oversimplifying isn’t allowed.
What M. says ‘resonates’ with all he does not say/feel/do. (So the gaps and silences are MORE important.)
The simple text is only apparent, a disguise.
Camus wrote in an ‘American method’: short, precise sentences; a character apparently without consciousness; tough guy tone.
Ward won’t help us understand what Camus meant, but will show us what he said and HOW HE SAID IT.
2nd Take any idea from the translator and illustrate/exemplify it from the text, with explanations.
Some suggested passages to analyze: {look for silences, gaps, apparent simplicity, style of sentences, things that puzzle the reader, the role of the reader}
p.41 ‘I did it just as it came to me, but I tried my best to please Raymond because I didn’t have any reason not to please him.’
p.44 ‘A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so. She looked sad.’
p.44 ‘Marie said it [Raymond beating a girl] was terrible and I didn’t say anything. She asked me to go find a policeman, but I told her I didn’t like cops.’
p.47-8 Salamano: ‘They’ll give him back to me. Otherwise, what’s going to happen to me?... I realized he was crying. For some reason I thought of Maman.’
