• Mar092009
    Reading #5 (128-150)

    POSTED AT 06:01 PM

    "The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole, men are more good than bad."     Agree?  Disagree?
     
    "...the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill."
     
    "...there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clearsightedness." Do you agree?
     
    "But again and again there comes a time in history when  the man who dares to say that two and two make four is punished with death." What times do you think the narrator is talking about?
     
    Some other big ideas...the insufficiency of language (hmmm, where have we heard that before?); some musings about heroism ("I don't believe in heroism...what interests me is living and dying for what one loves...")
     
    Blog away, then have a great winterim and spring break!
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    Mar092009
    Reading #4 (102-127)

    POSTED AT 05:56 PM

    Lots of interesting things going on here...the asthma patient with his pans of peas; Dr. Rieux's musings on religion ("wouldn't it be better for god if we refuse to believe in him and struggle...against death?"); Tarrou's "code of morals": "comprehension"
     
    Have at it! It's nice to see more of you showing up here!
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    Mar082009
    Reading #3 (61-101)

    POSTED AT 09:44 PM

    Exile emerges as one of the effects of the plague--"that sensation of a void within which never left us..." and  "...they came to know the incorrigible sorrow of all prisoners and exiles, which is to live in company with a memory that serves no purpose." He later compares that feeling to one prisoners must feel. Think about this idea in relation to the Bigelow article on existentialism.
     
    " 'No, Rambert said bitterly, 'you can't understand. You're using the language of reason, not of the heart; you live in a world of abstractions.' " How do you feel about Rieux's refusal (?)/ inability (?) to help Rambert escape?
     
    Fr. Paneloux speaks--" 'Calamity has come upon you, my brethren, and , my brethren, you deserved it' "
     
    What happens to Rieux as caring for the victims becomes routine?
     
    What's going on with Grand's obsession with perfecting his words?

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    Mar042009
    Reading #2 (39-59)

    POSTED AT 10:40 AM

    Why are the officials reluctant to name what is happening? Does calling things what they are matter? 
     
    If we were in class, we might be talking about airport security. Try to explain why.

    Think back to what I told you about Camus' life. Are we really just talking about a disease here?
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