The Rebel
The Rebel by Albert Camus is 50 this year,published in 1955 the text refers
to 1953 as the year of its conception.How has it stood up over the years?
Is it still worth reading? I came across a copy recently after being
reminded of an event in my life,perhaps triggered by this book.When I was
15 I borrowed my fathers copy and was deciphering it in my room one day
when he appeared at the door."Why don't you just fuck off and take your
nihilistic views with you,"he exclaimed,possibly the worse for drink.Well I
did take off,hitching to Sydney on the old highway that so recently jogged
my memory.
To arrive back where you started and know the place for the first time is a
theme from another favorite book of mine from that era,(1970)The
Magus.After arriving back at that fork in the road with guidebook in
hand,here is my chance to know the place refreshed,more knowledgeable and
more autonomous.But is it worth knowing at all?
Well not many books give you something to go on with for decades so I owe
the damn thing something.I would have to say yes,it is worth the bother,the
time and the difficulty of wrestling with it.You may not enjoy it but it
can be read as hirstory,flicked through and thrown alongside all the other
bourgeois historians and political philosophers.A teenager had to know
something about rebellion in those days as it was all around,not so much
the forgotten seminal movie,'Rebel without a cause,'but youth rebellion
mainly against the war in Vietnam.
Our family spent two years in the States,(66-67)AU had the draft and my
brother and I would be eligible in a few short years.There were even a few
high school student,'unionists',passing around Yippie samizdats and Zap
comics along with the odd joint.
