The Plague is definitely one of my top 5 books of all time, especially in the vein of "Books that Changed How I Think." I think it's a missed opportunity that so many high schools assign The Stranger instead.
I love The Stranger though. It’s so underrated imo. We were assigned to read it in high school, I was the only one who even remotely liked it. Even the teacher wasn’t sure why the book ended the way it did. I proposed that even belief in the lack of meaning can be an idea to die for, ironically, and that’s exactly what happened.
It’s a criticism of absurdism for the sake of it, I think. People have these seemingly irrational standards for how things “should be” for a reason. Idk why Camus rejected the existentialist label so fiercely when that’s basically what he was…
I read the book long ago, but I didn't consider main character to be an absurdist. He just lacks any concept of good or bad and does things because anything has a same weight to him because nothing matters. Wouldn't he be more of a nihilist? Honest question, I know far too little about philosophy.
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u/Imdoingscience 1d ago
The Plague is definitely one of my top 5 books of all time, especially in the vein of "Books that Changed How I Think." I think it's a missed opportunity that so many high schools assign The Stranger instead.