Okay, that was a lie, but it made you think for a second, right? :)
The actual time of discovery was my senior year of high school. We had our choice of books to read; I was busy at the time so I picked the smallest one: The Stranger by Albert Camus. I read it innocently enough, not even guessing that there could be some underlying philosophy. The book actually seemed kind of funny to me....I had never read anything like it before.
When I finished it, I
told my teacher that I liked it a lot. This pleased him because he had
planned to have us read Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. I read
the novella and thought to myself that any man who created a character
who morphed into an insect and pulled it off to be classical literature must have
something going for him.
At this point, I was intrigued by existentialism, but wasn't quite hooked.
I didn't know enough yet.
Well, I got to college and one of the books that we were assigned to read in my freshman core class was Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevksy. I started reading it and BAM! I noticed some themes of existentialism. In my natural um....brown-nosing ways....I approached my professor, Sr. Brinkman (such a cutie!), and told her my theory. Hehe....that was funny because she decided to have me do a project on it....wonderful! *sarcasm* This goes to show all you kids out there that sucking up really doesn't pay off in the long run. Sucking up means work! :)
Now it's the summer and I've been reading more on the wonderful philosophy.
My book of choice right now is the The Plague. This is another
one by Camus. It's so wonderful! I highly recommend it. It combines my
two interests, disease and the research of it, and existentialist thought.
Next I'm planning to read Second Sex by
Simone de Beauvoir. Such a wonderful feminist work. It came highly
recommended by my girlfriend.
Links to other sites on the Web
This is the most complete existentialism link that I've found thus far.
To go home, click here.
Here's a quote from Camus' Stranger, you can interpret it as funny, sad or just plain odd:
"Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: "Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours." That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday."
� 1997 [email protected]
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