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Title: Resistance, Rebellion, and Death : Essays by Albert Camus ISBN: 0-679-76401-1 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 August, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An essential to the library called your mind
Comment: For nearly 30 years I have carried this book with me virtually everywhere. No, it's not "an easy read" - but it is worth buying (owning)and treasuring - if only for the FOURTH LETTER (to a German Friend)- it is the most moving argument/declaration for humanity and choosing it that I have ever seen anywhere.
Some (like Sartre?) might call it a "rationalization". But even those who have resigned themselves to the religions of cynicism and despair - could find a remnant of fight and even "goodness" (yikes!) inside themselves. Camus' words remind us that resignation and the inevitable indifference and inhumanity that follow are the ultimate betrayals of life.
While there is nothing "cheerful" or even optimistic about these writings - you'd have to be cold-blooded, heartless and completely beyond repair or redemption not to be inspired by the wistful aspirations that Camus exudes from his admittedly battered heart and soul.
I disagree with the reviewer (who did praise this precious book) Sartre is smart - but so is Camus - and Camus exudes the humanity that Sartre can't even see or imagine.
Sartre would tell us that we always have the freedom to at least rattle our chains (at least theoretically) - but Camus has the power to inspire us to want to.
Rating: 5
Summary: "In the service of truth and the service of freedom."
Comment: "I step onto the podium only when forced to by the pressure of circumstances and by my conception of my function as a writer." (p. 132) From the circumstances of Fascist Spain and Nazi occupied France, to the circumstances of the Hungarian and Algerian struggles for freedom, Camus' essays demand involvement, require action in the face of hopelessness. He never offers a moment's peace for couch-potato complacency. "Freedom is not made up principally of privileges; it is made up especially of duties." (p. 96)
To read these essays is to step into the world of a man who said to Christians "I share with you the same revulsion from evil. But I do not share your hope, and I continue to struggle against this universe in which children suffer and die." (p. 71) And "Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children." (p. 73)
Camus is recalled to the podium, in a day when children are tortured and die in Chiapas while most turn a blind eye and complain that sitcoms just aren't what they used to be. These essays, possibly his most accessible work, demand an active response from the modern reader. Our struggle today, although not against Nazi minions, still must echo his "There are means that cannot be excused. I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice." (p. 5) [See Jamal's Live from Death Row and Peltier's Prison Writings, elsewhere on Amazon.]
Camus is outspoken about capital punishment, too. "It is obviously no less repulsive than the crime, and this new murder, far from making amends for the harm done to the social body, adds a new blot to the first one." (p. 176) His "Reflections on the Guillotine" is the longest essay in book. He views capital punishment, even in "free" societies, as an act of totalitarianism.
Camus proclaims the call to justice and the struggle for freedom found in the Old Testament, especially in the minor prophets. But he does so in a modern context, where God is silent and man is the maker of his own destiny. Although he sees no messianic age, he proclims the hope that by continuous effort evil can be diminished and freedom and justice may become more prevalent.
Five stars for courage, five stars for clarity, five stars for consistency. After the abortion of democracy on December 9, 2000, every freedom and justice seeking American needs to read this book.
(If you would like to respond to this review, click on the "about me" link above & send me email. Thanks!)
Rating: 5
Summary: A good book.....
Comment: Camus' essays are obviously more difficult to read than hisstories, and quite possibly more difficult to read than his philosophical investigations as well. Should they be read? Of course. In them, he speaks of similar topics (i.e. what to do in the face of absurditiy, human moral dilemmas, etc.) as he does in the other books, though in a more precise, more direct fashion. His views on the death penalty shaped my own almost completely.
What you get in this book are coherent arguments by a coherent, nuainced thinker. Is Sartre smarter than Camus? Camus knew enough to fear most -isms and -ologies where Sartre did not... (not that I recommend ignoring Sartre either! )
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Title: The Rebel : An Essay on Man in Revolt by Albert Camus ISBN: 0679733841 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 January, 1992 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Myth of Sisyphus : And Other Essays by Albert Camus ISBN: 0679733736 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 07 May, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Fall by ALBERT CAMUS ISBN: 0679720227 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 07 May, 1991 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Happy Death by Albert Camus ISBN: 0679764003 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The First Man by ALBERT CAMUS ISBN: 0679768165 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 06 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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