GW2 - Albert Camus

[@trigger3321]

Stumbled upon your video, something told me to play it. Needless to stay I was not disappointed.

[@douglasparker6276]

Glad you enjoyed.

[@brokenegg4714]

I enjoy your lessons, but I have to disagree with you on this one. If you further look into him and his work, you can see that he wrote against voting rights for Algerians in French occupied Algeria. The natives he write about are all nameless and they all have to die for his main characters to have any profound thoughts. I think he’s going to fall out of favor soon, right now his books serve as decorations for light readers. Also, Kissinger received a Nobel prize as well, they really don’t mean anything. He’s just another cog in the wheel of the imperial canon.

[@douglasparker6276]

I don't think I ever said that Camus was a great human being. I honestly have no idea what kind of person he was, and it really doesn't matter to me at all. My interest is in the art he produced. That's where his portrayal of humanity rises above any concern with his individual character. If you can't get past his political or moral positions, if they get in the way of your appreciation of the art, that's fine. There are plenty of other writers to read. It is a tough standard to apply to artists, however. Not many are really people you want to be around. Morality and politics are also inherently relative. They tend to change. Politics more than morality, I suppose, but perceptions of them are highly personal and unstable over time. With art, I find that the best way to proceed is to rise above the petty particularities. Camus' literature treats the Algerians at some remove, like an Other. Now, I can view that as a personal flaw in Camus' personality and promise myself that if I ever run into him I'll give him the cold shoulder. Ok. That makes me feel a little better about myself, but it really doesn't do anything positive. For me, the more valuable approach is to note that certain characters in his literature feel this way, so it serves as a document of this social phenomenon. But this can go deeper. If I notice that the other characters are ostracizing the Algerians, I'm prompted to ask 'why?' Once I do that, I humanize the Algerians and elevate them beyond the disdain of the other characters. This causes me to look at both the Algerians and the Europeans as elements within a much larger and more complex construct. Plus, once I see that, it no longer really matters that they're Algerians and Europeans: they're people. Being people, they can be anyone around the world or at any time or context. The particular has become universal, which is the true test of great art.