Friday. April 21. 1961
University Daily Kansan Page 7
Camus Devotes Life, Art to Civilization
EDITOR'S NOTE: Following is one of five Spring English proficiency examination papers recently cited for special recognition by the proficiency committee. Two additional papers appear in today's edition.
By Stewart Nowlin
Perhaps more than any person of our time, Albert Camus has devoted his life and art to civilization. His untimely death has transformed his life into a destiny which can now be judged as a completed effort devoted to man and his relationship to the world. Albert Camus' contribution to civilization was, very generally, dichotomous.
FIRST. CAMUS presented us with an intellectual "Weltanschauung"; i.e., he attempted to bring order into the chaotic century in which we live. Secondly, Camus contributed to the cultural advance of mankind through his art. Both contributions were positive. That is to say, Camus elevated man from a being of sin or crime (the view of traditional religion on one hand and the criminal world of Marquis de Sade, the Nazi Valhalla of terror of Ernst Junger, or the anarchy of Celine on the other), and yet kept him below the height of the gods (those who deified man such as Rousseau). Camus placed man on earth where man belonged, but sometimes forgot. Man was placed in the tension of limits between the absolutes of "heaven" and "hell."
Camus adopted the "absurd" in order to bring meaning into the world of man. The absurd presented man with the idea that nothing was true (presumably excepting this statement) or ultimately justified in this life. The gods did not reply to the rebels of antiquity any more than they (or He, depending on one's personal convictions on the matter) do at present.
“THE HEAVENS ARE EMPTY” complained one of Camus’ characters in “The Stranger.” The rebel was the man who confronts the absurd and wrestled for an answer to the problems of evil and death. Lucretius, Epicurius and Prometheus all faced the same problems, and ended by concluding that the gods either did not enter into the affairs of men or were responsible for all the misfortune on earth. The Christ did not even answer the rebel’s questions satisfactorily. Dying on the cross, he forever separated man from the heavens by affirming rather than
denying, in a spectacular manner, the existence of an evil and death that had no answers on earth.
Marquis de Sade later accused God of being the "supreme outrage." Milton, Vigny, Byron and other of the romantics glorified Satan as the real savior of man, or at least as a wronged angel who defended the rights of man. All of these "rebels" were faced with the idea that life might have no meaning. Then where was meaning to be found? Kieke-gaard posited a leap into faith. Unfortunately there have been people who scoffed at such an idea for fear that when they landed they may well be "impailed upon their own dignity." Nietzsche gave the world the "ubermench." Hitler used this concept, exactly in the opposite sense of what Nietzsche intended, to justify his wars, blond stormtroopers and his campaign against the Jews.
THROUGH HTTLER THE twentieth century became aware of itself. If no one could justify what is done, then everything is permitted—to the strong. As a corollary of this truth, it is necessary to accept the fact that nothing is true, a somewhat confusing position.
Camus analyzed these mutinous thinkers historically and intellectually in "The Rebel." Camus' plays, essays and novels were constructed around these same ideas that were developed in this philosophic work. Through these books he presented the world with a new meaning. First one must not only accept the absurd, but live it. Then, and only then, can life be "revealed" for what it is. One recognizes limits to action and ceases to fight, or die, for nothing. One becomes a Stavrogin without the privilege of committing suicide. (To give assent to suicide is simultaneously to justify murder.)
Prof Baur Receives Fulbright Grant
E. Jackson Baur, professor of sociology and anthropology, has been awarded a Fulbright Exchange Grant to lecture in The Netherlands next year.
Prof. Eaur will teach sociology in the Institute for Social Psychology of the Municipal University of Amsterdam. He will lecture on community organization, research methods, juvenile delinquency and social control.
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There is some type of a wedding (feast with the world. That is, Camus' hero, the absurd man, is the "common" man who gives himself to life and this world. He denies all other worlds, of necessity. If this hero accepted any other world he would transfer his responsibilities in life to some deity or ideal such as Communism. If one cannot accept the responsibility for his intercourse with men one will affirm pestilence, war, crime, murder, etc., to be the "natural" way of the world, shrug his shoulders, and disappear into the night.
EARTH WRITING
ing itself apart. He did not ultimately solve the "big questions" of evil and death. He merely showed how evil could be reduced and death accepted — on human terms. Camus wrote for the here and now while never forgetting the future. He transcended the absurd and gave meaning to life. He sang the lyrics of nature for the benefit of man. Civilization can either accept conditioned limits or absolutes.
CAMUS PRESENTS alternatives: terror and death, or the limits. Camus was no savior of mankind; he had seen quite enough of saviors. He only wanted to present civilization from going rampant and tear-
Camus was convinced, both from historical and intellectual standpoints, that the Greek idea of limits was not only correct but the only possibility left for mankind. Absolutes require all or nothing, absolute freedom or absolute justice—either of which totally excludes the other and leads to destruction. Camus was, in a word, human.
EARTH WRITING
Hung just slightly on
The rim of the
Great mid-western plate.
An Oriental moon writes poetry
On a black page.
Furrowed sentences
R-a-c-i-n-g to Paragraphing
X roads,
TALL T O W E R S
Apostrophizing gold.
—H. M. Hershberger
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Yes___ No___
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Answer: None___ One___ Two___
Three___ Four___ Five___
Six___ Seven or more
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Answer: Soft Pack___ Box___
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Three 30.6%. Four 16.4%. Five 4.6%.
Six 2.3%. Seven or more 4.2%.
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