Was he autistic?

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>>8469352
I think a lot about what he would have written if he had lived longer. I once heard it said he was moving from an obsession with Dostoevsky (whose influence can obviously be seen in his early work) and reading a great deal more Tolstoy. I don't know how true that was, but there is the stereotype of Dostoevsky being a "young man's" writer and that we move onto Tolstoy with time (a simplification, which nevertheless contains elements of truth).

As it stands I can't rank him as a great novelist, but for some reason, I get the feeling that, if he had lived longer, and really assimilated the messages of Tolstoy, using him as inspiration in same way he used Dosto, then he would have produced a truly great novel, one undeniably up there with the 20th century greats, and would have founded a stream of literature, which set itself apart by lacking the teenage elements of Dosto (the obsession with nihilism, the constant pervasive sense of drama(Dosto was the greatest playwright never to have written a play)), which plague his earlier work, and following instead the Tolstoyan model.

Instead, the 20th century became a Dostoyevskyan century, every work a lesser fragmentation of his Brothers Karamazov (Not that this is at all dismissive; it's a wonderful book), populated by exaggerated psychology, an unfounded distaste for naturalism, and a subtle conservatism (present even among the most left-wing writers of the modern and post-modern tradition) which reveals itself in the post-modern suspicion of "ideology" and "ideologues".

The death of Albert Camus came too early. As with Keats and Shelley, when we read his work, what is far more dominant than the actual work which stands before us is the tragic sense, which pervades his corpus, of what could have been.

>>8469352
>>8469364
Time is a flat circle.

>>8469367
All circles are flat dumbass

>>8469370
>euclidianfags actually believe this

>>8469364
Humans peak at 29, sorry grandpa

>>8469364
i think OP was asking about Meursault, not Camus.
and the answer is: yes

>>8469352
no, he just wasn't socially inclined and was also a nihilist.

>>8469364
good pasta is good

>>8469367
recurring themes do not imply limited dimensionality

>>8469352
The more I think about this book, the more I think no one on the planet acts like Meursault.

he gets no pleasure in about anything except fucking once in a while
the only thing the guy hates is the sun

I just feel the more I think about him as a character, the more I just see him as a narrative plot piece than anything else.
Just to push the moral, than tell an actual good story.
Because the story of the Stranger isn't particularly good whatsoever.
It doesn't make any sense of Meursault to murder an arab when he feels nothing actually towards the guy.

Still I enjoyed reading it, and I get the point with the parable but the story just feels so synthetic.

>>8469364
You've posted this before
Has it become a pasta?

>>8469352
He would have been diagnosed regardless.

>>8469531
Honestly I felt like him for a while. I had a couple of months without any strong emotion whatsoever. I felt hunger, pain, warmth... All things physical of course. Aside from that there were only 'flat' emotions. Laughing at a joke. Anger at a missed train. Relief over passed exam at Uni. Sex was still nice.
But kissing my girlfriend did nothing. Going out with friends meant nothing. The sun going up didn't phase me. Hearing about a good friend having cancer didn't sadden me.
I had no determination, no ambitions, no lasting satisfaction, no fears, no hate. Nothing. I simply did not care and I see someone going crazy over this if it goes on long enough.

I've read up on it. Maybe it's depersonalisation, depression or some other disorder. Maybe it's normal? I never did see a professional about it and it's gone now.

When I read the Stranger a short while after all this, I could relate with Meursault's non-existence. So people like him do exist.

>>8469510
absurdist* (but i suppose nihilist pre catharsis, sorry for my pretensions im autistic)

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Either he had a mental instability or he was merely going through a juvenile asocial phase. Either way it cost him and others dearly. What makes the character stand out and amaze us today is that he follows through and applies his convictions (almost like how the reasoning of an otherwise well adjusted civilian turned suicide bomber may surprise us). Many people think like the Meursault but are socially adjusted well enough not to act out.


In a sort of related matter, (pic related) has anyone here read Kamal Daoud's 'Meursault: an investigation'?

I like the idea of reading about the other side of the story. Haven't read it myself though.

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>>8469495
>Humans peak at 29
TRIGGERED

>>8469352
He's literally 2dpd.

>>8471250
It's identity politics garbage.