NB: During World War II, Albert Camus joined the French Resistance against the Nazi occupation; and worked as editor of the underground resistance journal Combat. In 1943, he began writing a series of letters to a hypothetical German friend. In a time when justice and truth seem helpless before ideology and hatred, Camus’ 81 year… Read More Albert Camus: Letters to a German Friend (1943)
Vivian Gornick Nothing in a professional writer’s life more resembles the life of a traveling salesman than the literary book tour. The superficial difference between writers on tour and salesmen on the road is that writers are encouraged to imagine themselves prized personae whose pitch is eagerly awaited by the anonymous crowd, whereas salesmen know… Read More Albert Camus on Tour
The romance of Camus and Casares is richer, if not sadder, when considered alongside the narratives of each of their work. There is an eerie doubling of life and art. Absurdity is the only certainty, and this is confirmed by coincidence and chance. The two first met on June 6, 1944, the storied day the Allied forces… Read More Albert Camus and Maria Casares
NB: This is one of the most moving tributes to Albert Camus that I have read. It is also crystal clear. DS He had succeeded in saying in his fevered way and in an argument as taut as a bow why, despite the fury and horror of history, man is an absolute; and he had… Read More ALBERT CAMUS: by Nicola Chiaromonte
By Philippe Clifton, William Gao, Oskar Zimowski WHO: Gillo Pontecorvo, Saadi YacefWHAT: The Battle of AlgiersWHEN: 1966 – 1971WHERE: The Republic of FranceWHY: For depicting a pro-Algerian perspective of the Battle of Algiers The Battle of Algiers (1966) is a historical film depicting the resistance efforts of Algerian national groups against French colonial authorities between 1954 and… Read More The Censorship Files: The Battle of Algiers (1966)
On honesty as an attitude Both of these writers took the view that truthfulness was more important than ideological allegiance and metaphysics, that the facts should be derived from the real world, rather than the world of ideas. They were similar stylistically too: both wrote candidly, clearly and prolifically. William Fear A war still raged… Read More Orwell, Camus and truth
First posted August 25, 2019 They were an odd pair. Albert Camus was French Algerian, a pied-noir born into poverty who effortlessly charmed with his Bogart-esque features. Jean-Paul Sartre, from the upper reaches of French society, was never mistaken for a handsome man. They met in Paris during the Occupation and grew closer after the Second World… Read More Sam Dresser: How Camus and Sartre split up over the question of how to be free
First posted January 2, 2019 NB: Two things arise from these and related developments for us to think about: 1./ The nation-state as an institution is detrimental for the health of the environment. Environment and ecological issues are global, but nationalism makes us think that natural resources like clean air, water and forests are somehow the… Read More Jair Bolsonaro’s assault on the Amazon rainforest
He and I had quarreled. A quarrel doesn’t matter – even if those who quarrel never see each other again – just another way of living together without losing sight of one another in the narrow little world that is allotted us. It didn’t. keep me from thinking of him, from feeling that his eyes… Read More Jean-Paul Sartre: Tribute to Albert Camus (February 1960)
First posted March 27, 2012 ‘Do you know’, Napoleon once said to Fontanes, ‘what astounds me most about the world? The impotence of force to establish anything. There are only two powers in the world: the sword and the mind. In the end, the sword is always conquered by the mind’ Conquerors, you see, are sometimes… Read More Albert Camus: The Almond Trees (1940)
After the truth-shower 