Yan!! Camus

As in Albert Camus right? I studied L'étranger for French A-Level (the
exams you do at 18 for any non UK people). That and "Les Mains
Salles" by Sartre. We had this great teacher who used to bang on
about existentialism. At that age I had no idea that people thought
and wrote about that kind of thing. Was intoxicating, facinating stuff.

Yan (or anyone for that matter), I'd like to read another book by
Camus. L'étranger was superb. I started reading "The Plague" (in
English) I think it was called but didn't finish it. Should I give it
another crack? What would you recommend?

Mark
The closet existentialist (oo-er)

PS I seem to remember someone telling me that Camus played as a
goalkeeper for Algeria. Is this true?

I have read "The Plague", "The Fall", and "The Myth of Sisyphus", all
of which I would recommend.

I have heard many stories about Camus but have never heard of him
playing goalkeeper, which doesn't necessarily mean it isn't true.

"Nausea" by Sartre is also a good one if you haven't read it already.

The power of Google! A search for "Camus soccer" shows that Albert
played goalkeeper for Racing Universitaire of Algiers from 1928-30.

Nice one Jake!

Upon further investigation I found the following quote:

"All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to
football"

And another which I'll put for no other reason other than I like it:

"A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images."

Which, actually thinking about it, is very much what L'étranger is, or at
least what I found it to be. Existential ideas (or at least what we were
taught was existentialism) seem to run through every scene
and "image".

Mark
The Squirrel Lover

Thanks for the reply Rob. I think I'll give the Plague another go.

You're not the first person to recommend Nausea by Sartre to me (the
other person was a very distinguished, deeply intellectual boffin so
you're in good company!). I think I'll see if I can get hold of a copy
from somewhere.

Thanks again :o)

Mark
The Squirrel Lover

The plague was good but the fall was better! But nothing to compare
with L'étranger!! That was a master piece!!! For Sartre... well nausea
is good but a bit too philosophical to me! from Sartre I recommend
(sorry the title will be in french) Huis Clos!

Yan

Olivier Todd wrote a verry good biographie on Camus: "Albert Camus
A Live". It tells a lot about his life, his work and his relation to Sartre.
And yes it tells that Camus loved football and because he had great
astma problems (he nearly died of it) goalkeper was the only
possibility to play the game.
I think that if you want to have a compleet view on the filosofie of
Camus you should read L'étranger, Le mythe de Sysiphe, La Peste,
L'homme révolté et la Chute. Joost