Quotessence
Home / Authors / Catherine Camus Books
Catherine Camus

Catherine Camus Books

Author

No books found for this author.

Related Quotes

“[Albert]Camus had denounced the gulag and Stalin's trials. Today we can see that he was right. To say that there were concentration camps in the USSR at the time was blasphemous, something very serious indeed. Today we think about the USSR with the camps also in mind, but before it just wasn't allowed. Nobody was allowed to think that or say that if you were left-wing.”

IfsThinkingMindTodayLeftSeriousWingsTrialsConcentrationCampsLeft WingConcentration CampUssrGulags
Author:Catherine Camus
Create image

“During the '80s, those you would call the young philosophers of France, such as Bernard-Henri Lévy and [André ] Gluxman, pointed out that Camus had said things no one wanted to hear in the political arena. They said it was [Albert] Camus who was right, not those who had slid under the influence of Sartre, that is to say an unconditional devotion to Communism as seen in the Soviet Union. And ever since then the evaluation of Camus has continued to modify up until today”

SaidTodayWantedYoungPoliticalInfluenceUnionsPhilosopherDevotionCommunismFranceSovietThey SaidSoviet Union80sArenaUnconditionalEvaluation
Author:Catherine Camus
Create image

“[Albert Camus]didn't have much hope that things would work out, but he wanted them to. Algeria had reached such a degree of violence that once such violence is created there's no more room for reflection. And there's no mediating position. If you look at Bosnia today, the Croats, Bosnians and Serbs, they've all created so much horror that one starts to wonder how these peoples can live together, after having done what they have. Already the violence has reached such a degree that everybody is living in hate, there's no possibility of reflection, no mediating position.”

IfsLooksDoneTodayWantedTogetherHateRoomsWonderViolencePossibilityPositionHorrorDegreesReflectionWork OutBosniaAlgeriaBosniansCroats
Author:Catherine Camus
Create image

“When [Jean-Paul] Sartre was asked whether or not he would live under a communist regime he said, "No, for others it's fine, but for me, no." He said it! So it's hard to say just how intellectual his stance is. How can you think that never in your life would you go to live in a communist regime and still say it's fine for everybody? A very difficult thing, that, but Sartre managed it.”

ThinkingSaidStillsHardDifficultFineIntellectualCommunistRegimesDifficult ThingsStancePaul Sartre
Author:Catherine Camus
Create image

“What the articles which have been written about The First Man propose is humility. The acceptance of these contradictions. Seeking an explanation is death. The lie is death in [Albert] Camus. That's why in Camus' play The Misunderstood the son dies, killed by his sister and his mother, because he lied. He never told them who he was. They killed him because they didn't recognise him.”

MenFirstsHas BeensPlayLyingMotherDiesWrittenAcceptanceHumilitySonSeekingExplanationContradictionArticlesMisunderstoodLiedProposeRecogniseHe Lied
Author:Catherine Camus
Create image

“[Albert Camus] also says that nothing is true which forces exclusion. From that, you're obliged to accept contradictions if you don't want to reject certain obvious things about life, certain evidences. If you create a system, and you say 'here there is truth', in that kind of pathway [chemin], then you'll evacuate all the other pathways and you'll kill life. It's up to each individual.”

IfsWantKindCertainIndividualForceAcceptingEvidenceObviousContradictionRejectsObligedPathwaysExclusionObvious Things
Author:Catherine Camus
Create image

“Femininity, yes, effectively there is more in The First Man, not only in terms of women but stylistically, in its elements, the notes he wrote. You can see a real love story in it, a childhood love story, [Albert] Camus' first. Meursault [protagonist of The Outsider] and Marie were never up to much really. There is Dora in The Just and others in his plays, but they aren't so well known.”

MenFirstsWellsRealPlayStoriesTermKnownChildhoodElementsNotesLove StoryReal LoveOutsidersWell KnownFemininityProtagonistsMarie
Author:Catherine Camus
Create image

“Love is very important in The First Man, in that [Albert] Camus loves these things he never chose, he loves his childhood experience in a very real way. Their poverty meant that there was nothing else they could think about but what they would eat, how they would clothe themselves. There's just no room for other things in his family. It's difficult for others to imagine the position in which he found himself. There is no imaginary existence in their lives.”

ThinkingMenWayFirstsImportantRealFoundDifficultLove IsRoomsExistencePovertyImagineChildhoodPositionImaginary
Author:Catherine Camus
Create image

“[Albert Camus] positions are sensed. So, naturally, those intellectuals who don't have that experience have difficulty in comprehending it. But I think it made Camus more tolerant because he had already seen both sides of things when the others had only ever seen one. They imagine poverty, but they don't know what it is. In fact they've got a sort of bad conscience about the working classes.”

ThinkingKnowsMadeFactsSidesClassPovertyImaginePositionConscienceDifficultyWorking ClassBoth SidesComprehending
Author:Catherine Camus
Create image