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I heard of Camus around 1985 when I started listening to the Cure. For several years, I collected Cure records, saw the Cure live, and the Cure was near the top

I heard of Camus around 1985 when I started listening to the Cure. For several years, I collected Cure records, saw the Cure live, and the Cure was near the top of my obsessions. I heard all about the controversy of their single, "Killing An Arab", how it had been introduced on the radio, and how it gained a disclaimer sticker. I eventually read the first 3 pages of The Stranger and then I stopped. I also never read any Baudelaire or Charlotte Sometimes. I am probably in the majority of Cure fans in the United States.

defrost 3mo ago
FWiW you couldn't go to an Australian pub in the 1980s without running into a band drawing on French philosophy / poetry. eg: Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls at the Hopetoun Hotel in '86 riffing on lines from Arthur Rimbaud * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrTGWrQ4YGs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrTGWrQ4YGs * https://www.paulkelly.com.au/lyric/the-execution/ https://www.paulkelly.com.au/lyric/the-execution/ * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud
vixen99 3mo ago
I am intrigued and wonder why you stopped at the third page?
- ButlerianJihad 3mo ago
  The books I prefer to read are YA fantasy, science fiction, The Chronicles of Narnia, Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, Clarke, Asimov, Michael Crichton, and so forth. Mostly, action/adventure plots that are set in fantasy universes, from American/British authors. I have also read Catholic philosophy, such as St. Thomas Aquinas. I was curious about Camus' writing style and to see what had inspired Robert Smith to write his lyrics, but I wasn't interested in the philosophy of existentialism, or the gritty reality, or the setting. I don't really like France or French things at all. Trivia about "Killing An Arab": on the single/studio version, the very last lyrics Robert Smith nearly mumbles: "oh, Mersault!"

defrost 3mo ago

FWiW you couldn't go to an Australian pub in the 1980s without running into a band drawing on French philosophy / poetry. eg: Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls at the Hopetoun Hotel in '86 riffing on lines from Arthur Rimbaud * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrTGWrQ4YGs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrTGWrQ4YGs * https://www.paulkelly.com.au/lyric/the-execution/ https://www.paulkelly.com.au/lyric/the-execution/ * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud

vixen99 3mo ago

I am intrigued and wonder why you stopped at the third page?

ButlerianJihad 3mo ago
The books I prefer to read are YA fantasy, science fiction, The Chronicles of Narnia, Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, Clarke, Asimov, Michael Crichton, and so forth. Mostly, action/adventure plots that are set in fantasy universes, from American/British authors. I have also read Catholic philosophy, such as St. Thomas Aquinas. I was curious about Camus' writing style and to see what had inspired Robert Smith to write his lyrics, but I wasn't interested in the philosophy of existentialism, or the gritty reality, or the setting. I don't really like France or French things at all. Trivia about "Killing An Arab": on the single/studio version, the very last lyrics Robert Smith nearly mumbles: "oh, Mersault!"