Regarding Albert Camus

Nowadays all the philosophy on the bestseller lists is self-help books, and trust me, that ain't philosophy. Back in the day, Camus and Sartre would get on there, and maybe even win a Nobel Prize or two. You could do worse than familiarizing yourself with the works of M. Camus. (BTW, it's ke-moo, not kay-muss, but you're French and you knew that already.)

Camus was the first serious writer I engaged with seriously. Political writing is frequently disastrous; but Camus was never disastrous. Quite the opposite. He was spare, calm, controlled, lucid, stylish. He was, and so was his writing. Camus was also deeply principled; he was consistent in his principles. Like Sartre, he was, for a time, a committed Socialist; but unlike Sartre he sloughed off Socialism — and any ideological fealty to the U.S.S.R. — when he saw that it contradicted higher principles. Political expediency was not in his blood. He saw through the lie. He knew that a human being is a human being is a human being; and that human beings are more important than ideas.He knew that a human being is a human being is a human being; and that human beings are more important than ideas. More...