Albert Camus

I was left feeling confused after reading the book. Meursault is a character that embodies absurdist ideals, and is Camus' mouthpiece for many of his philosophical beliefs. However, am I supposed to therefore pardon him and feel pity for him in spite of his immoral crimes? Does morality not hold any meaning to Meursault and am I supposed to be ok with his murders or his help to Raymond? Am I missing something? It seems to me that the book is giving license to immorality, under the banner of nihilism. It is as though Camus is saying that since life is meaningless, therefore moral codes can be forsaken.

Edit: this is my first ever post on reddit, and I'm honestly blown away by the amount of comments it's getting. I've read most of the comments and it gave me a deeper appreciation of the book. I'll probably reread it soon. Thank you all!

Bonjour et Bienvenue mes amis,

Welcome to the first check-in for The Fall by Albert Camus. Since it's a short , we are covering to around the half-way mark with a paragraph ending in "What we call basic truths are simply the ones we discover after all the others." per the .

As always, please be mindful of all of the newbie readers and tag your potential spoilers. Feel free to pop over to the if you binged this novella in one sitting and want to chat!

My brain hurts too much from trying to get through these pages to summarize, so head on over to another site like for a recap. Honestly this post is so late as my attention was fading throughout this section. See my below questions to help guide some discussion. Feel free to add your own questions to the group or share any interesting insights.

Emily

PS: Joyeux Soixante-Huitième Anniversaire à La Chute! 🍰

Just finished the stranger - mouth agape. The last chapter with the interaction with the priest was just incredible.

Here’s one of my takes. I’m with the whole existentialism/absurdism perspective of the book but I haven’t seen much discussion further about the character’s peculiar relationship with the world. To me it was clear that Meursault either had an autism spectrum disorder or perhaps less likely antisocial personality disorder.

Throughout the whole book he can’t relate to people. Doesn’t feel emotions or connections to people on the same way they do towards him. He just does whatever seems logical to him. Furthermore he constantly told us he was overwhelmed with sensory stimuli that clouded his ability to “check in with himself.” He killed the Arab “because of the sun.” This is what Salomono was trying to tell the jury- that they weren’t seeing him- he was never malevolent, he was just him. He was never really on trial for murder- he was on trial for being neurodivergent.

And this adds to the absurdity of it all in two ways. 1) Putting someone to death for premeditated murder when we the readers know it was not premeditated at all because the jury can’t relate to the accused’s logic/actions/relationships. 2) we the readers are given this at times very profound philosophical insight to the nature of existence and what it means to be human- but from kind of an unreliable source. One that throughout the course of the book is at times more robotic than human. So are we supposed to agree with his philosophical insights or discount them? Does that make us absurd?

Would love to hear your thoughts on the book in general or anything I’ve brought up here.

El año pasado tuve que leer El extranjero de Albert Camus para la U y ya lo he leído 3 veces. Me deja pa' dentro la idea de que todo le de lo mismo al protagonista, como que todo lo hace por compromiso y no necesita nada para su felicidad, sin ambición, sin deseo, como cuando su pareja le dice que se quiere casar y el le dice que sí a pesar de que no le interesa.

The Stranger is my first exposure to Camus, and it's one I really enjoyed. Very quick read - I think I burned through it in about a day and a half. Despite its length though it definitely packed quite a punch for me. I haven't really looked at a lot of discussion on the book and just wanted to see people's thoughts on it.

To me, the whole thing kind of felt like an off-kilter fever dream. Meursault is such a closed-off and emotionally reserved (stunted maybe?) character that it really leads to the narrative feeling very detached and clinical. It always seems like it's just on the verge of some kind of emotional release, but then it pulls back. This was most evident to me during the beach sequence, when Meursault decides to just fucking light up the Arab. The whole sequence with the oppressive heat bearing down on him and inching him closer to some kind of mental breakdown that never quite comes. Same thing during the court hearings, seems like Meursault is almost about to feel something or judge himself or something, but it never quite manifests.

I'm trying to decide exactly what Camus is trying to portray. Is it a character study of an emotionally dead individual who forgot how to feel and just can't be bothered anymore? Or is there some cultural/societal commentary I'm missing? Perhaps he's this way because of the society he lives in? He seems to see the people and the world around him at a remove, not feeling any particular way about anything. He even tells Marie that saying I love you has no meaning.

Or is it the fact that the only way to deal with a crazy world is to completely close yourself off from it, so you don't have to experience the pain and suffering that it brings?

Would love to hear more thoughts and interpretations.

I’m reading my first book by him, ‘The Stranger’, and I was wondering if the guy is controversial at all because I keep hearing mixed things about him?