Albert Camus - The Fall
'Haven't you noticed that our society is organised for this kind of liquidation? You have heard, of course, of those tiny fish in the rivers of Brazil that attack the unwary swimmer by thousands and with swift little nibbles clean him up in a few minutes, leaving only an immaculate skeleton? Well, that's what their organisation is. "Do you want a good clean life? Like anybody else?" You say yes, of course. How can one say no? "O.K. You'll be cleaned up. Here's a job, a family, an dorganised leisure activities." And the little teeth attack the flish, right down to the bone. But I am unjust. I shouldn't say their organisation. It is ours, after all.'The thing I love about reading Camus is that he absolutely justifies my cynicism in the absurdity of every day life. Comparing middle-class society with a swarm of piranha fish, now that's something.
'I knew a man who gave twenty years of his life to a scatterbrained woman, sacrificing everything to her, his friendships, his work, the very respectability of his life, and who one evening recognised that he had never loved her. He had been bored, that's all, bored like most people. Hence he had made himself out of whole cloth a life full of complications and drama. Something must happen - and that explains most human commitments. Something must happen, even loveless slavery, even war or death.'
The problem with reading Camus is that he lulls you into a false sense of security with his easy-going style and characters who muse away about life's eccentricities and absurdities. But what he exposes in his characters, particularly the protagonist of this novel, is a cold cynical skeleton of a man bored of life and its folly with seemingly very little to live for. So many of his examples can be related to that one can't help but be a little depressed at how right he appears to be.
'I am well aware that one can't get along without domineering or being served. Every man needs slaves as he needs fresh air. Commanding is breathing - you agree with me? And even the most destitute manage to breathe. The lowest man in the social scale still has his wife or his child. If he's unmarried, a dog. The essential thing, after all, is being able to get angry with someone who has no right to talk back. "One doesn't talk back to one's father" - you know the expression? In one way it is very odd. To whom should one talk back in this world if not to what one loves? In another way, it is convincing. Somebody has to have the last word. Otherwise, every reason can be answered with another one and there would never be an end to it. Power, on the other hand, settles everything.'
While I struggle to identify personally with this last excerpt because, maybe I am not self aware enough but, i have not realised in myself this inherent lust for power and domination over my fellow man. But it certainly does explain some people's attitudes to responsibility and human relationships. And the comment about power solving disputes does make sense, especially in those situations where the dispute seems endless and the reason from both sides seems logical.
More Camus-ness and possibly a post about Amman soon...
Labels: literature, philosophy
posted by LX @ 7:27 PM
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