Albert Camus; "Autumn is a second spring..."

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." Albert Camus


I will begin by saying I haven’t read anything by Mr Camus, but I will certainly be doing so as soon as possible. He is supposedly an existentialist, and that would normally have sworn me off him.

I’d tried to get through Sartre but found his "pre-reflective consciousness" a little too presumptuous. The theory simplified is we can’t get out of our own way (our perceptions and experiences) to know anything, so we can never arrive at objective truth.

This has truth to it, but I think it misses a couple of important points. Camus didn't want to be labeled existentialist, nor Absurdest, though he carries both. My point here is that I had dismissed the whole Camus on that basis until today.

I was doing some research on another project and did some overview info on this Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1957. Albert Camus was born of French nationalists in French Algeria. His father was killed a year after his birth in World War 1. He grew up poor and was a soccer scholarship student, until he contracted tuberculosis. This was certainly a man who grew up in adversity. He ultimately did succeed in earning his degree. Although this is inspiring, what really caught my eye was his stance as a pacifist. It was challenged as he saw the Germans march into Paris. Their brutality convinced Camus to join the French Resistance. This is hardly the act of a true pacifist, but he was a practical man, which is what makes him more interesting. When men with ideas must put them to the test of practice, they are worth listening to, even if I don’t agree with them. He was editor on a French Resistance paper, called “Combat” until the war ended and the paper became “legitimate.”

“You cannot acquire experience by making experiments. You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.”

“It is natural to give a clear view of the world after accepting the idea that it must be clear.” (Think on that one for a minute)

“Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a clear question.”

The short bio I read along with the quotes above is enough for me to be intrigued with Albert Camus. Contact me if you know more or are ready to read with me.