Episode 170 ... Albert Camus - The Fall

[@clogue019]

I listened to this podcast episode when it first came out and thought to myself. " Wow, profound stuff, Camus. I should really take note of this story in case life throws me this scenario..." Two years on and I have just come to the end on my "Fall" after my thirtieth birthday. Line for line of what Steven speaks about happened to me, so I am reading the book now to humbled myself in my ruminations. Albert Camus, you have yet again impacted my life profoundly. Merci. And Steven, you have made my life all the better and the world. Thank you.

[@jacobVark]

man, i just can't express how much i love and appreciate your podcast. please keep it up

[@MrDragonorp]

True, thus is the only podcast I can actually listen too, the rest are boring or annoying

[@joshboston2323]

@@MrDragonorp --That's a bit exaggerated. there are so many wonderful podcasts in the world.

[@NogGonnaMakeIt]

@@joshboston2323 any recommendations?

[@4gegtyreeyuyeddffvyt]

@@joshboston2323 I’m also looking for some good podcasts.

[@stacysmith7387]

after listening to his versions of the classics it’s made me realize how much of our free will we have lost to the institutions influencing our thinking in todays world. I mean, humanity has always seen cycles of trauma making it easy for people to be sheep, so I have much respect for these great thinkers that have actually moved the needle to help empower us. These are once in a lifetime minds, that’s for sure.

[@avashnepal9992]

"One plays at being immortal and after a few weeks one doesn't even know whether or not one can hang on till the next day." One of my favorite quote till date.......

[@divelostmind]

This concept hits too close to home, I feel like I have adopted personas my whole life to avoid real judgement of my actual authentic essense, and recently I have been put into many situations that test my value systems and always ended up not doing the thing I thought I would do. Causing some cognitive dissonance. This episode really made me reflect.

[@EddieStyle]

Wow thanks for sharing! I definitely used some of his strategies but for some reason I was always self aware and I was able to see what I was doing immediately.

[@mrpzak]

I kind of feel that too sometimes. I think being a latch key kid growing up (spending several hours a day at home alone), and now working from home (also spending several hours a day home alone), you have plenty of time to develop this persona that has no outside judgement. No one to look at you and go, wow, you really going to eat that cupcake for lunch? Or whatnot. We then go to soccer practice or something with other adults and you store that away, and just “act like everyone else”.

[@musicloverchicago437]

I know from personal experience it's extremely difficult to be a moral atheist. It requires constant analysis and re-analysis of past actions, the analyses are rarely settled because there are always new pieces of information to factor in. It would be so much easier to be a religious person who has been spoon-fed a pre-written set of morals, do whatever I want, and apologize later to the diety (or its proxy) for the infractions. Sometimes I wish I were that type of person! It doesn't make me weak to wish that though, and I think it's unfair to describe Clemence as weak for wishing it. Life would be so much easier without any of a number of time- and energy-consuming burdens we might bear (like being politically informed, as you mentioned). But I'm pretty sure a person who self-analyzes cannot convert into someone who doesn't.

[@3rdcoastnyucka]

High-level writing combined with a pleasant speaking voice-bravo! One of the best podcasts around.

[@peacefulleo9477]

the best podcast ever, like literally no exaggerations at all

[@maghrebforever2012]

I believe this and Academy of Ideas are the very top

[@peacefulleo9477]

@@maghrebforever2012 If Academy of Ideas is on this level I should check it out

[@phunguyenuc3747]

you're right, the first podcast I find out on Spotify and now I can't seem to like any other podcast as consistent and religiously as this one.

[@l.arabak]

I got halfway through the novella when I was in year 10 and have never had the motivation to pick it back up. So glad this was covered. Steven, please do more Albert Camus. Signed, a person who lives off your podcasts

[@mr1234567899111]

I read this book in my early twenties 40 odd years ago. I got much more from it listening to this podcast. Thank you Stephen --

[@jZamora87]

I'm joining the patreon, I can't get enough of the way you explain philosophy. I'm using this channel as a building block to start reading the books of the great philosophers and be able to understand a bit of what they are saying thanks to you translating their work in more layman terms.

[@EddieStyle]

J Garcia, I literally canceled all of my Netflix, Hulu, discovery + and ESPN subscriptions to save money lately but if there is one thing that I will not touch is being a humble patron for this show every month! A patron since 2018 👍 Goldenseal content

[@PatrycjaCzardybon]

thank you for this episode! i've just finished The Fall last night and immidiately went to youtube to try to understand it a little better. honestly i felt like this book's message was very frantic, disconnected from each other, like every scene was critizing other facet of modern life and there was no coherent way for me to grasp it all. i wanted to have a bigger message, instead of a lot of tips and examples of what not to do. and you've delivered greatly on that! thank you, your interpretation and analysis made me realize a lot of things and finally appreciate the book much more. i'll be looking forward to reading it again in the future, with the foresight from your analysis, to hopefully extract even more meaning out of it. this was a great listen and i greatly appreciate your work

[@KK-up3pq]

Your delivery of the the most right and humble wrong person is just perfect!

[@vans2548]

Ego protection. Virtue signalling. Echo chambers. We have so many ways to run from ourselves. To seek approval from the outside, that we cannot give ourselves on the inside. But wherever you go, there you are.

[@StephenDix]

Added to my Patreon. I'm glad to support stuff like this.

[@jamesmaguire9152]

To me, in reading The Fall shortly after going through The Plague for the second time, Jean-Baptiste's true lesson was that if everyone is guilty, then your only options are to become judge-penitent, and judge everyone else guilty, miring yourself further in guilt, or to forgive everyone, including yourself. Jean Baptiste closes the book by saying he hopes that one day when he finds the drowning woman again, he lets her drown all over again, because he *is* guilty, and he is guilt. The antithesis of a judge penitent would know that they have fallen, know that they might fall again, but still face the new day as themselves, not as a shadow of someone they were once. The Stranger denies meaning in the universe, The Plague tells that while we cannot hope to become saints, we cannot let ourselves become pestilences. And The Fall acknowledges the idealism of The Plague, acknowledges that we are all Plagues, and we have to forgive ourselves and try again. The stages of Camus' writing were titled "The Absurd", "Revolt", and "Love", and The Fall was not a turn in a new direction, but a resolution to what he had already written. How else can we see love in The Fall except in its lesson that we are all the same, and as a hope, that we can love humanity despite our failures? Sartre often demeaned Camus as an ivory tower idealist (himself, sitting in paris and justifying Stalin's death toll as necessary for the future). In the Plague, to me, Camus says yes, I do not live up to my ideal, and you do not live up to yours, but we must love ourselves, and love life, enough to try again.

[@jglez6868]

Man I have been following this podcast for years now and somehow didnt listen to this episode, i just finished “The Fall” and I cant express how happy i got when i saw this podcast has an episode about it!! Keep it up brother

[@whiskeyfriends7188]

Mission accomplished Professor West 👍👍 Positive feelings every new episode 🥳

[@214santanu]

Thank you so much for this lucid interpretation of a grand work of art like The Fall!!! Will wait for a detailed description of Philosophical Suicide.

[@rigalaitheseer]

I finally found your KZbin channel! I've been listening to your podcasts back to back for over a year now. When going to sleep, when working, when taking a walk, when cooking....I'm pretty sure by now I can recite sentences

[@TopLobster11]

Thanks for this 🖤 This is probably my fav Camus book. Would love it if you did First Man next.

[@Milciadesbrea]

I’ve been listening to this podcast on and off on Spotify. I love it. Always leaves me deep in thought.

[@substance-m7u-boredigger]

Thankyou for covering this, its a miracle, I just finished this book

[@camo_fisherman]

Hi my name is Brandon your Intergalactic Ape of Mystery. I found your podcast when I read a quote from Albert Camus book The Fall somewhere online and your podcast was one of the top three results of my search and the first one I picked because of the the title of your podcast. Well I must say I am very happy with the choice I made and you are now my new favorite person to follow. If your content is as good as this one you will have me following you for a long time. I have a feeling I won't be disappointed. Also I am excited to share this with my friends and I don't share what I follow very often if at all. Thank you for making this podcast/KZbin channel or whatever you call it. This shit is great and now I'm off to binge more of your content. Have a great day and I'm sure I'll comment on your other stuff you produce. < P. s. I hope my comment made sense because I just learned English yesterday. LoL P. s. s. No P. s. s. s.

[@OrdnanceLab]

Great video and analysis. Just discovered the channel and am looking forward to working through prior videos.

[@joelman96]

First time listener here & feeling truly blessed to have found this episode, as well as your podcast as a whole. Subscribed. Thank you!

[@alancampbell9264]

Just what I needed to help me understand this book. Thank you.

[@WhammyLooper]

Really the only podcast I listen to. Great breakdown of a great book!

[@geneharvey7]

I like the way you wove the book into your Creation of Meaning series. Nicely done. A great episode and one that has me doing a lot of self evaluation. I have been affected. However, I am not boiling in my own soup yet. I think you're on to something with that phrase.

[@nadazohayr1318]

just finished reading the fall and really enjoyed this!!! thank you!

[@bugsbunny2944]

Huh. Thats a great point about people thinking they'd resist Hitler or free slaves while currently doing nothing about human trafficking. I feel challenged.

[@alenbacco7613]

The term human trafficking has become somewhat muddied, under the law I mean. If you do decide to fight human trafficking, be mindful that some laws and organizations hurt victims and supposed victims as much or more then their sometimes nonexistent abusers.

[@bugsbunny2944]

@@alenbacco7613 how so

[@alenbacco7613]

@@bugsbunny2944 I'm not a lawyer. I suggest you look into it. From what I hear some laws have been written braodly enough that two sex workers sharing an apartment, and splitting the rent, could be charged with trafficking each other. Hypothetically a group of sex workers who pool resources as a effort toward mutual aid, say scheduling baby sitting duties with each other, could be considered a trafficking ring. The term has an emotional charge that some have used for political benefit, often at the expense of the women they want to be seen as saving, who are often arrested and prosecuted as prostitutes regardless of extenuating circumstances or, you know, actually being sex workers.

[@joeshugabowski1444]

Human trafficking .. i never met single person who got trafficked. We dont have that where i live

[@alenbacco7613]

@@joeshugabowski1444 I mean be careful who you donate to or support. First do no harm. Also I assure you it does happen where you live, assuming you live where other people live

[@Wombola]

This podcast just came into my recommendations. I used to listen to it about 5 years ago, so glad it's till going and can't wait to catch up!!

[@christinemartin63]

Yes, you can say "better than anyone else." My favorite novel. (My tears fall for Francine.) I recently memorized Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." I wonder if Camus knew the story of the cursed sailor and his redemption (?). The Clamence's, Jim's, Philip Carey's, Mariner's, Raskolnikov's, and Eschenbach's are some of the most intriguing characters in literature. So many parallels.

[@PrimallegionTV]

Thank you so much for this Mr.West!

[@lenikarastamati6949]

Great work! I will definitely read the book .

[@benbobo8330]

I prefer to be happy and judged. What a great episode Thank you ❤

[@franciscomorais7283]

Thank you for your work Stephen!

[@bikrommahmud3476]

I recently found out about your podcast. Already listened to 10/12 episodes. They were great, really.

[@WheelMarks]

Such a great episode I appreciate this podcast so much Thank you

[@MrSaviobarnes]

You communicate ideas so well.. listening to your podcast from India ❤️

[@streettalk4thesoul]

thank you for clearly explaining things not at all easy to explain! 👍🏾👍🏾

[@ChaosLierLen]

Thanks for all your hard work!

[@danielsumulong8975]

Your voice is similar to “Smalls” from The Sandlot. Fantastic. Thanks for your work

[@Jackely_]

I think I just found my new favorite channel ❤️

[@stevesmith4901]

This episode was so so good. I don't have the words to express my appreciation for it.

[@alirahi8053]

That was gold. Maybe it's alcohol talking but still this was a great topic and made me think. Thanks

[@abyzzwalker]

Boy, i need to start reading the Fall soon. It has been sitting gathering dust for weeks.

[@blueberryst20]

Love this podcast, all love. Keep on going!!

[@schlaumensch]

Just discovered your podcast and loved this episode, good work!

[@tortera]

Brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@barbarajohnson1442]

Very interesting take. The French intellectuals game, I hadn't thought of, the judge pentency (?) Thank you, I am now on board with your site!

[@Ceaselessprayer]

AI art is nuts...did a Samuel Beckett dancing...now it's my wallpaper

[@CiscoZero]

The clear answer to this episode is stay away from bridges and motorcycles.

[@zezimashelpr]

Love your work, I'd love to see you do a video or a series on Nick Land, Curtis Yarvin and NRx! I think you'd have fun with it.

[@vadimismailov6289]

Very well done! Thank you!

[@EddieStyle]

Wow what an episode!!! I’m so glad I’ve listen to this!

[@you_cifer]

Excellent analysis.

[@fatemeebrahimi8999]

Amazing, thank you sir!

[@spirit-teacher]

your channel is amazing

[@ml4173]

Thanks man, I just finished The Fall and was wondering if I was interpreting it correctly, your video was a perfect explanation. What else from Camus do you recommend?

[@edplunk600]

Perhaps instead of saying "you" say "most people" or "one", because, for example, I like being around people who do think differently from me. It is how I learn and become more open. I say this, because I also have the bad habit of saying "you" instead of "most people" or "one". That said, this is one of the few actually very good podcast out there.

[@jesskuhmess]

I needed to hear this so much

[@addytov]

thankyou for the series.

[@cloudsinmycoffee84]

Love your podcast and love this episode. Thank you for what you do! ❤

[@muborakrustamova9753]

Love this episode, thank you very much

[@fatemehansari5958]

Amazing, thank you 🙏🌸

[@evanr7102]

Judge Penitent is giving Eminem's 8 mile verse

[@thegreattyler7878]

Exactly what I was thinking haha.

[@tranhuuminhvuong933]

thank you for your work!

[@notaburneraccount]

I love your podcasts Steven :) Thank you for your hard work!

[@davitchaganava9622]

good Projekt and well done work. thank you!

[@TennesseeJed]

I look forward to your shows!

[@mohamedabdullah8266]

big fan of the show from 🇸🇩 sudan

[@robinbeckford]

Thank you very much for this piece. I remember being rather irritated by Clement when I read the book some years ago, so I probably didn't see some of the aspects of his character that you mention. As to the AI pic of Camus: The man was born stylish, and wouldn't appear to be eating anything in such a clumsy way. I know it can be difficult to eat pizza elegantly, but (my vision of) Camus would have managed it easily.

[@jacobjackson6513]

Greatest guy in history

[@audrajones]

Appreciate you!!!!

[@Coolgardt]

Love love love love love

[@leomilani_gtr]

I just heard about the chinese room argument by John Searle and I think it's a really interesting debate in days of AI art.

[@swiip100]

Uh oh this just sounds like me. Is there a DIY solution at the end of the book by any chance

[@chrisegan9088]

Forty seconds in and both feet in. ❤

[@saeed_2498]

Fascinating

[@lonelycubicle]

Great video. But how does Clement become a moral person? Just say all his actions are helpful to the vulnerable but his motivations are not good as described by Camus, what does one do to change their motivations? In this case, think really hard that they want to only be motivated by the desire to help the vulnerable?

[@touyen6470]

finally someone explain this clearly :> tysm

[@dovydas4483]

Great podcast on a very difficult to understand book, Camus literary works are full of interesting philosophical concepts although they arent just shoved in your face, you must look for them and think about them.

[@luebird7779]

Thanks

[@edmundtrebus4084]

This was entertaining, relatably funny and just brilliant

[@luky98ification]

That AI Albert Camus looks rough at 13:00

[@kappnah]

Thank you

[@skykitsu]

capitalism and religion are doing their best to make slaves. If you're not fighting everyone loses. Great episode keep up the great work

[@enzofranco4634]

12:18 Values tested 16:45 juzgamos permanentemente

[@davidmcclain7481]

One of your best 👍🏽

[@salt3613]

I wonder how camus feels after knowing that his philosophical take in his myth of sisyphus has been transformed and solidified into modern meme culture

[@itscarl0zyall1]

Am I tripping or is there no audio?

[@TorxyElboo]

You are right

[@JosefK29364]

You arrived too quickly. The audio needs time to process. It's working now.

[@bart6901]

Works now

[@xyzz232]

The audio works. So you are probably tripping.

[@philosophizethispodcast]

@@JosefK29364 Thanks for arriving, everyone! :)

[@LilBafta]

Oh damn… Didn’t know my drink of choice was a gutter spirit. Anyone know Jolene by Ray LaMontagne? Makes me think of that

[@robinblack9]

great video!

[@benjueabba9480]

Thanks for the soup Steven

[@djm192]

So good!!!

[@TopLobster11]

Not a drinker here. Can you explain to me the importance of Jean drinking Gin?

[@kyleschneider3147]

What happens if the person does hold up to what they say they're capable of. Or if they are right?

[@wowthatsalowprice8942]

I'll be the first to admit that I exhibit these hypocritical tendencies!

[@akulinamackenzie4492]

💕👍 my favorite chopin.....🙋‍♀️ 🇫🇷

[@kludgedude]

Hell isn’t other people if they validate my ego. Everyone is a narcissist to some extent not because they are somehow “bad” but because they need to be. When you find out what a human being is you won’t want to be one.