Bush and Camus

[2dsdad]

<p>The Stranger in Crawford
<a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/vffle[/url]”>http://■■■■■■■.com/vffle&lt;/a&gt;

…all of this paled in significance to the event that truly launched Camus’ return to the spotlight in 2006: the announcement by White House Press Secretary Tony Snow that President Bush had read The Stranger while vacationing in August at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.</p>

<p>In the wake of Snow’s disclosure, commentators who rarely miss an opportunity to criticize Bush for his conceited airs rushed into print with smirking columns. Bush had quoted Camus previously in a February 21, 2005, speech in Brussels in which he urged other nations to help the United States spread democracy in the world (“Albert Camus said that ‘freedom is a long-distance race.’ We’re in that race for the duration”, Bush said.) But to such pundits it seemed that Dubya could have no idea of who Albert Camus was, and that the idea of Bush reading—let alone making sense out of—The Stranger was enough to make a cat laugh. Strained attempts at satire duly ensued, including a wooden effort in the New Republic entitled “Strangerer: Camus does Bush” by the now-suspended Lee Siegel. The Stranger and The Cowboy: Could the irony be any richer?

What follows is a review of a collection of Camus’ wartime editorials dealing with his thoughts on politics, war and terrorism.</p>

<p>

Camus was a major writer, a Nobel laureate, with something original and lasting to say. As such, it is impossible to deploy his thought in any simplistic pro- or anti-Bush rhetorical assault. The amazing thing is how relevant Camus’ thinking remains. In the 1946 preface to the English edition of The Stranger, Camus wrote that “the hero of the book is condemned because he doesn’t play the game.” Let no one, therefore, condemn Bush to derision for departing from the game of his assigned stereotype. He’s right to be reading Camus, with whom he has more in common than he may realize. Next summer, down at Crawford, Camus at Combat should be at the top of his summer reading list. In the meantime, the rest of us would do well to get a start by reading it now.

</p>

[marite]

<p>Well, Meursault was inarticulate. But Camus’ mother was not in the least like Barbara Bush. She was illiterate, and if I remember Camus’ autobiographical The First Man correctly, deaf as well.
I think another Camus book on the President’s list ought to be The Myth of Sysiphus.</p>

[FountainSiren]

<p>“Existential dread”: can there ever be too much of high-fashion solipsism?</p>

<p>

I think another Camus book on the President’s list ought to be The Myth of Sysiphus

I’m not sure that any book with “sissies” or “sissy-foots” in the title is going to make it on to the holiday reading list. </p>

<p>In the real world you only move boulders so as to make room for cash crops…they end up in a big rock pile in the back 40…only city-folk keep pushing them back and forth for all eternity.</p>

[rorosen]

<p>when life gives you rocks, make gravel,…</p>

<p>(no fs, not grovel)</p>

[marite]

<p>

In the real world you only move boulders so as to make room for cash crops…they end up in a big rock pile in the back 40…only city-folk keep pushing them back and forth for all eternity.

And only eternal optimists think that we’ve turned a corner in Iraq. Well yes, but it’s the same corner, in the same neighborhood.<br>
As for cash crops… those in Afghanistan?</p>

[TourGuide446]

<p>Some say Sysiphus is a myth. But when I was in the Navy I knew plenty of guys who caught a dose of it, and believe me, it was no myth.</p>

[TourGuide446]

<p>That was a joke…</p>

[driver]

<p>I got it, and I thought it was funny.</p>

[rorosen]

<p>surprised to hear you admit to having gotten it. assume you have now gotten rid of it. the risk of communicables is just one of many hazards attendant upon being so formidable a communicator.</p>

[driver]

<p>Note to self: Now that RR is back, must be more careful of word choice.</p>

[Rick_Tyler]

<p>I really have nothing to add, IJLS:</p>

<p>

“Existential dread”: can there ever be too much of high-fashion solipsism?

</p>

<p>Just can’t get enough of that ol’ solipsism.</p>

[rorosen]

<p>maybe and maybe not, driver, as I have just discovered a thread devoted to ariesathena’s sex-life and have to catch up on all the delicious psychodrama,…after i prepare some popcorn and bonbons</p>

[parent2noles]

<p>They have shots for Sysiphus now. It’s no big deal, just be careful where you read. ;)</p>

[TourGuide446]

<p>If you’ve got a solipsism, talk to your pharmacist…they have an ointment that will clear it up.</p>

[marite]

<p>Rorosen: Hi, Stranger!</p>

<p>Tourguide, do you mean Botox or detox? Botox, that’s what Kerry supposedly got. Detox, that’s what Foley’s having.</p>

[FountainSiren]

<p>If there was a cure for sissyfits, don’t you think a loving soul or pol would have given it to John Kerry by now? </p>

<p>No, he is destined to swallow his own spittle for all eternity; credit where credit is due: the guy certainly marries well…and up.</p>

<p>Suffereing a JFK complex, albeit with sissyfits.</p>

[marite]

<p>FS:</p>

<p>Nice one!</p>

<p>There should be songs for every pol. Would Kerry qualify for “You’re so vain?” How about other pols?</p>

[FountainSiren]

<p>No…he’d probably think the election was about him.</p>

[TourGuide446]

<p>Foley is into Detox? I thought Foley was into Buttox.</p>

[rorosen]

<p>that was a very very good one, tourguide. you are reminding me of groucho, whom, you might be interested to know, I inhabited as a character this halloween. it was difficult to shake it off when resuming ‘normal’ life. the only cure is time.</p>