Albert Camus and Killing An Arab / Killing Another

Started by JonWebber, November 29, 2013, 21:25:40

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JonWebber

There's a new edition of Albert Camus's The Outsider, to celebrate the author's centenary.

I wrote a short essay on it and the troubles The Cure had with their debut single based on it.

It is free here, on the New Statesman blog:
http://bit.ly/FramingTheOutsider

I hope you like it.

dsanchez

Thanks for sharing this :smth023

I just started to read "L'Etranger" today, so I am looking forward to read your essay once I finnish it.
2023.11.22 Lima
2023.11.27 Montevideo

Ulrich

Thanks from me as well. Nice essay. Especially this part:
QuoteThe song was renamed "Killing Another". Because this has the same syllable count as the original phrase, the rest of the song could remain intact. What is more, the new version more clearly isolates the aspect of the novel that it presents. What matters to their version of the story is not the victim's ethnicity, but his humanity and individuality. That word 'another' neatly encapsulates both the sameness that unifies and the difference that separates the murderer and the victim. By removing a detail, the song has become more precise.

Quote from: dsanchez on December 03, 2013, 20:51:07
I just started to read "L'Etranger" today, so I am looking forward to read your essay once I finnish it.

Better late than never. ;)
I read this (German translation "Der Fremde") in 1989, around the same time I had obtained the book "Ten Imaginary Years" (in which, of course, I had found the background story to the song, saying it was inspired by A. Camus).
The holy city breathed like a dying man...