Albert Camus - The Fall

I am certain that many people avoid Camus and his ilk because of a certain reputation. A recent conversation I was having with a friend (who happened to be currently working on his Masters degree at the time) illustrates this point, ?Have you ever read any Nietzsche or Camus?? he responded with ?But, isn?t that like? I don?t know, HARD?? I think most people avoid great thinkers like Camus for a number of reasons but I think the biggest is because they mistakenly find the whole concept daunting.

Maybe the answer is a line of ?Existential Thinkers For Dummies? books? I?d buy one, but then again I'm weird that way. Really, what would get people who are afraid of Ka-Moo to pick up one of his books and read it? How about if I told them that The Fall is only 147 pages ? and they are SMALL pages at that ? do you think that might entice them to at least give it a look? Or how about the fact that he is the youngest writer ever to win the Nobel Prize for literature (1957) would that swing readers his way?

My Camus Trek
I personally came across Camus from a rather bizarre direction. In High School I became a big Cure fan and at the time I couldn?t get enough of Robert Smith. I read everything I could lay my hands on about the band. But you have to remember that this was just before the dawn of the internet so that meant I was pretty much out of luck for real information but I gave it my best shot. It was then I ran across a disclaimer for The Cure's, Killing an Arab that stated the song wasn?t a racist call to arms but rather it was an allusion to Camus? The Stranger. I quickly consulted my English Teacher who encouraged me to give it a go (then again he was the same professor that told me the Marquis De Sade was a great read after I came asking questions about Enigma and Sadeness ? so I guess I should have taken his referral with a grain of salt.) I quickly read The Stranger, although I am certain I was rather lost, I still enjoyed this new narrative I had encountered. Although I didn?t know it at the time The Stranger was my introduction to the world of Camus, Sartre, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche the pantheon of great postmodern thinkers.

Camus' Opus
Below I have listed out a few of the high points in Camus? writing career:
The Stranger (1942), Meursault has rejected the existential suppositions on which the uninitiated and weak rely. Just moments before his execution for a gratuitous murder, he discovers that life alone is reason enough for living, a raison d'etre.

In Caligula (1944), the mad emperor tries to escape the human predicament by dehumanizing himself with acts of senseless violence, fails, and surreptitiously arranges his own assassination.

The Plague (1947) shows the futility of doing one's best in an absurd world.

The Fall (1956), his last novel, short and sardonic ? he posits that everyone has bloody hands because we are all responsible for making a sorry state worse by our inane action and inaction alike.

The Basic Story
Camus? The Fall is one of the shortest Camus novels and actually has a plot worth noting. While much of Camus? writings go out of their way to avoid any real plot The Fall is a story that even has an interesting twist at the end (surprising as it might seem). This is the tale of Clamence, an expatriate Frenchman, who by all accounts is a respected and venerated lawyer. The Fall turns out to be an extremely well calculated confession by Clamence to us his confessor told in the form of a conversation which we hear only one side of. Lacking in any narration besides the direct quotes from Clamence we are forced to unflinchingly accompany him down this path of discovery. Reminds me at times of Planes, Trains and Automobiles as Steve Martin is forced to sit and listen to the ramblings (unintentional confessions) of John Candy as they travel across the country until Steve Martin finally snaps, 'Here's an idea, when you're telling a story, HAVE A POINT - it's so much more enjoyable for the listener!' Like Candy, Clamence isn't sure of his own point but as we march closer to the end it becomes painfully obvious to the reader.

The breaking point for Clamence, he tells us, is when one day he hears a young woman fall into a nearby river. Instead of jumping in the cold winter-night water he turns and walks away. So, is this about the fall of a young woman into the ice or a young successful lawyer that turned his back on an obvious moral choice? In a divergent path from The Stranger Camus gives no closure or peace from the psychological torment caused by this inner reflection. He seems to be cursed not only endless in an endless telling of his crimes but also by his complicity in all the crimes of humanity.

The Moral Dilemma
Really, honestly this book is for everybody? it is for those of you who are new to Camus and also for those of you who deeply interested in philosophy. It seems as though the philosophers of our time have dubbed Camus a great author while the writers of our time have dubbed him a great philosopher. There is a spectacular blend to Camus that makes him able to be both thought provoking and well written simultaneously. For the Camus-Freshman this story brings up a basic, yet interesting, moral dilemma. It is easy for us to believe we would do the right thing from behind a steaming hot cup of coffee but when we are each faced with the icy waters of the Sein, Camus believes our true nature would win out. Would we really throw ourselves in after an anonymous woman risking both our comfort our lives in an attempt to do the right thing? Actually from Camus' perspective passing this particular test is somewhat irrelevant as he is certain you would failed eventually.

More experienced philosophy readers will be particularly interested in this Camus read for his apparent break with the hardliners of Existentialism as he aims for a more moderate middle ground that his previous books do not. While it is true that Camus bucked the trend amongst existential authors to embrace nihilism completely, he still clung to it as a necessary evil all the same. Camus never really did swallow it whole. his whole life which had most Existential philosophers espousing Nihilism. In The Fall we see a more clearly defined rift between Camus and the obvious positions of other Existentialists which is interesting to investigate for a number of reasons.

Ultimately I enjoyed it just because I was able to watch Clamence?s thought process as he began changing from the inside out. 'In a sense I had always lived in debauchery, never having ceased wanting to be immoral. Because I longed for eternal life, I went to bed with harlots and drank for nights on end. In the morning, to be sure, my mouth was filled with the bitter taste of the mortal state.' Then not more than a few pages later this section is followed up with - 'I encountered an obstacle in myself. This time it was a fatigue so dreadful that it hasn't yet left me. 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. The sole benefit of that experience, when I had given up my nocturnal exploits, was that life became less painful for me. The fatigue that was gnawing at my body had simultaneously cauterized many raw spots in me.'

Camus, Existentialism and Nihilism
Existentialism, the great philosophical school of thought built by the intellectual heavyweight Sartre whose defining preposition for the movement was ?existence precedes essence?, has shaped the major currents of thought in the 20th century. Existence preceding essence basically rules out any foundation for establishing an essential self or a human nature. The passion to an Existentialist is in the simple act of being - minimal to no emphasis is placed on anything beyond essence - the thrust is more towards existing (thus the name) or even Epicureanism.

If you follow along this path of logic long enough you will eventually end up in the lap of Nihilism. If there is no purpose in who I am - I just am, then you can see where the next logical step is as we slide into the logical abyss where nothing means anything. Many Existentialists including Camus, believed that Nihilism was the complex problem facing Existentialists and the entire 20th century. While Nietzsche, Camus and Sartre were quick to state that mankind could handle the debilitating effects caused by living under the philosophy of nihilism I believe Camus' work always betrayed the difficulty in building a convincing case for this.

The Key To Camus
In The Myth of Sisyphus, Sisyphus, after stealing the secrets of the gods was killed. Obtaining permission from Pluto to finish unsettled business he returned to earth. But when he had seen the brilliance of this world again, after he had enjoyed the water and the sun, enjoyed the warm stones and the sea, he no longer wished to return to the internal darkness of the underworld. It was Mercury who came and seized Sisyphus and forcibly returned him to the netherworld to a life of endless and mindless labor. He was to ceaselessly roll a large boulder up to the top of a mountain where the boulder would then roll back down of its own weight to begin the process again.

Camus considered the moment at the crest of the mountain just before the boulder began to roll back down the mountain the crowning achievement for Sisyphus. ?Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn.? It is in the stone set face of determination and resolve that Camus sees Sisyphus exalting above the routine ? the proletarian god if you will. Sisyphus is a picture for you and me. We are the man bound to repeat an irrelevant task day after day ? and by the way it?s called the 9 to 5 ? oh, and did I forget to mention this is a good thing?

Sisyphus and The Fall
From Camus? early perspective there is no greater sin than pining away for the great beyond. It does a disservice both to the brilliance of the moment when we are constantly straining for a view elsewhere. Sisyphus was Camus? proof that even in the drudgery of the mundane we are very gods, men that have cast off the secrets of the universe and accepted what is given to us here. From what I can tell The Fall is a slight and yet seismic shift in his perspective of the Sisyphus myth. Maybe we cannot outwit our failings in this life as he once believed and now our crimes against humanity will haunt us forever. It is a profound shift if in fact it is true ? our stoic nature that Camus once believed we could trust in to carry us through is actually a crutch in and of itself.

I Admit
For all my attempts at persuading the average man on the street to read this book I must admit that this isn?t your average status quo novel. Maybe that is what makes it so profound and so instantly insightful. It is instantly accessible because Camus has written it for the condition of everyman. We each instantly relate (although maybe not to letting a woman drowned) to the knowledge that we have blood on our hands either through crimes of omission or commission. We know and feel the pain that Clamence is going through even as he is discovering it for himself. I'll close with a rather poignant quote of Clamence pondering freedom and the inner yearning of all...

'They are free and hence have to shift for themselves; and since they don't want freedom or its judgments, they ask to be rapped on the knuckles, they invent dreadful rules, they rush out to build piles of fa**ots to replace churches. They believe solely in sin, never in grace. They think of it, to be sure. Grace is what they want - acceptance, surrender, happiness. Take me, for example, and I am not sentimental - do you know what I used to dream of? A total love of the whole heart and body, day and night, in an uninterrupted embrace.'

(*=g, quote edited to appease the Epinions gods... you know sticks used for fire - HELLO, get a thesaurus!)