Tumgik
#the minotaur or stopping in oran
chaoticacademia · 2 years
Text
has anyone here read camus’ l’été or more specifically stopping in oran/the minotaur? i’m reading it for a class currently and im afraid im just not understanding what he’s getting at here so if anyone has any explanations that would be greatly appreciated
14 notes · View notes
Photo
Tumblr media
RAVENCLAW: "In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion." --Albert Camus (The Minotaur, Or the Stop in Oran)
337 notes · View notes
Text
“It is a beautiful morning and now the sky is overcast. It's going to be a difficult twilight. Right now, you're on the stage. What I wouldn't give to be there in a corner of the room, without you knowing it, and then... Yesterday went normally. In the afternoon a doctor from Grasse, a friend of friends, came with his wife. Conversation by the fire. Nice, but I was thinking about something else. In the evening I was tired. This visit had been enough, the whole regime imposed on me is artificial. I read my diary of Delacroix a little and fell asleep right away. I had bad dreams. And this morning, in spite of the sunshine, my heart was aching. I set to work. I corrected the proofs of my booklet on Oran which is to be published by Éditions Charlot*. You read it, I think. I was your age when I wrote it. It's more "artistic" than what I'm doing now.
At 11 o'clock, Robert [Jaussaud] arrived with the car. He took off his shirt, exposed his breasts to the sun, spoke in a thunderous voice, drank two Pernods, filled the house with movement and then went to bed. Me too, for my cure. I tried to sleep. But I was thinking about us, about us all the time, to the point of obsession. So I decided to write to you. In a little while I'll take Robert to Cannes with the car and I'll come back. It'll be evening soon. And then another night and the days, one by one... I think of you all the time. Tormented also by the deaf desire I have for you - and which I strengthen within myself. But it will pass, and I love that which at least is alive, present...
I gather all my energy and throw it into work. But I haven't really gotten off to a good start yet. Maybe it's all over after all. Sometimes artists stop once and for all. You just don't know until you've try everything. I'm expecting a letter from you tomorrow. What have you been up to? Tell, tell at least... I'm burning with impatience and curiosity about you. Tell me everything, even what's against me. Spare nothing. Give me your whole heart, as it is. My darling love, what happiness was ours when I could put my hand on your shoulder, on your leg! Soon, soon, isn't it? What happiness it is for us to love each other under the same sky. I'm waiting for your letter, my darling. Ah! How long the days are!”
Albert Camus to Maria Casarès, Correspondance, January 8, 1950 [#120]
* The Minotaur, or Stopping in Oran, Charlot, 1950. Written in 1939-1940 and published in the magazine L'Arche in February 1946, this text was collected in 1954 in Summer (Gallimard, "Les Essais").
21 notes · View notes
imprecisegrief · 5 years
Quote
But there is in everyone a deep instinct, which is neither that for destruction nor for creation. It is simply the longing to resemble nothing.
Albert Camus, from The Minotaur or The Stop In Oran
69 notes · View notes
bironism · 6 years
Quote
In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion;
Albert Camus, “The Minotaur or, The Stop in Oran”
30 notes · View notes