A very intense read and very different than other writings of Camus. It tells the story of Clamence, an attorney in Amsterdam who begrudges about everything, including his very existence. In many ways this stream-of-consciousness monologue is in a similar vein with The Notes from the Underground. But while Dostoevsky’a underground man presents himself as a hermit who has cut all ties to the human world, Camus’ Clamence takes pride in his ability to navigate through the human affairs. Yet he is not happy. He is constantly tore by the tensions he experienced, and despite living in arguably the most liberal and free city in Europe, he goes to “Mexico City” everyday to use alcohol to free himself from his imagined shackles.

The fall is both literal and metaphorical. Literally, he is getting more and more drunk. The language makes less sense as he goes on. Metaphorically we follow Campus to fall deeper and deeper into the inferno that is self. The reference to Dante is everywhere. From the very beginning Clamence says the concentric circles of the canals in Amsterdam feel like the concentric circles of hell. And just like Dante has a specific circle of inferno for each kind of sinners, Clamence lashes out on each of the “modern ideals” that we hold to be self-evident: freedom, love, family, and of course, civil society.

The core theme of this book is a heightened level of existential anxiety. That anxiety stems from the polarizing tensions he perceived within the very ideals he is living towards. He tries to believe in justice, but realized the reason he wants to become a judge is to have the power to dominate. He loves freedom, yet finds it “too heavy to bear” for it makes every decisions he make insignificant. He tries to find solace in his ideals for morality and ethics, but ended up with the conclusion that these are just the tools for power as the “empires and churches are born under the sun of death.” He finds himself with no place to land, no handle to grab onto, and stuck in a “medieval dungeon that’s called life”.

It then begs the question what philosophy Camus is telling us through poor Clamence. He is definitely not telling people to be Ubermensch like how Nietzsche preaches after realizing the will to power is the only thing that persists in human society. He recognizes this urge to dominate and exert power, but also shows how empty one can be even when they can exert controls over others. It would be another discussion to talk about suicide, but Camus did not expand into that. It seems to me then, Camus’ project is to shred our nice image of modernity into pieces, and then have us figure out how to piece them back together. Most likely than not, one would end up with a different image than before, and I take the dare to think Camus would be happy about that.