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Bush reads Camus's 'The Stranger' on ranch vacation
Breitbart ^ | August 11, 2006 | Agence France Presse

Posted on 08/11/2006 6:31:41 PM PDT by Arec Barrwin

Bush reads Camus's 'The Stranger' on ranch vacation Aug 11 7:14 PM US/Eastern

US President George W. Bush quoted French existential writer Albert Camus to European leaders a year and a half ago, and now he's read one of his most famous works: "The Stranger."

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Friday that Bush, here on his Texas ranch enjoying a 10-day vacation from Washington, had made quick work of the Algerian-born writer's 1946 novel -- in English.

The US president, often spoofed as an intellectual lightweight, quoted Camus in a February 21, 2005 speech in Brussels praising the US-Europe alliance and urging other nations to help Washington spread democracy in the world.

"We know there are many obstacles, and we know the road is long. Albert Camus said that 'freedom is a long-distance race.' We're in that race for the duration," Bush said in those remarks.

Copyright AFP 2005, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: bookreview; books; bush; camus
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To: Arec Barrwin

absurd


21 posted on 08/11/2006 7:01:12 PM PDT by woofie
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To: Argus
"reading the existentialists in the original."

He read nekked? That was a mental picture I did not need.

22 posted on 08/11/2006 7:03:26 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow, real poverty)
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To: Argus

"The same summer he also spent plowing a hillside behind a pair of mules in Tennessee."

Ugh. I don't want to hear about his sex life.


23 posted on 08/11/2006 7:04:08 PM PDT by Sabatier
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To: Zeroisanumber; LurkedLongEnough; Freedom4US
""He's reading Camus, but he's feeling Sartre (No Exit)."
"That's pretty clever. Kudos."
"Nietsche is peachy, but Sartre is smarter..."

I was going to join in but I can see the whole damn FR Roundtable is here in force tonight ...even the scoo bee doobie doo crowd.

24 posted on 08/11/2006 7:05:30 PM PDT by harrowup (I have a NASsCAR now; betteren my first, but not the bestest.)
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To: Arec Barrwin
Too bad. The President has been in Washington too long. He now believes he must meet and exceed all other mortals and their self-expectations.

If he wants to read with Laura, he should try "The Slave". A great story. He could then call up Gibson and give him a great movie plot. IB Singer was a great story teller. Wrote in Yiddish no less. Won the Nobel Prize on the basis of this novel. I think Saul Bellow translated the book.

If he wants OJT in crowd psychology, he should read the first 150 pages of "Crowds and Power" . Elias Canetti won the Nobel Prize in early 80's for this one.

Since they were both written by Jews, he might impress the PTB in Israel. They are also great books. Even this Slavophile can see that.

25 posted on 08/11/2006 7:13:36 PM PDT by shrinkermd (What most people call "thinking" is really "emoting." The aggregation is public opinion--Mark Twai)
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To: shrinkermd

We all read The Stranger in French and in English, except algore who never went to class. Bush is probably refreshing his memory in an effort to understand the dems who get stranger and stranger every day.


26 posted on 08/11/2006 7:48:52 PM PDT by ClaireSolt (.)
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To: Zeroisanumber

A Minnesota resident with taste would easily catch the reference to Outshined.

Good evening, all.


27 posted on 08/11/2006 7:51:45 PM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
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To: Arec Barrwin
Bush on vacation was a topic of some nut in our letters to the editor. The woman was just furious that he had the nerve to go to his ranch instead of doing his Presidential duties! Worse yet, Laura has the nerve to bum a cigarette or two from workers on the ranch while they are there! The woman was ballistic over that! The Clintons NEVER vacationed you see! (they only traveled more than any first couple in history)
28 posted on 08/11/2006 7:52:36 PM PDT by ladyinred (Thank God the Brits don't have a New York Times!)
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To: Argus
he spent one teenage summer in Cannes

Must have been one wicked case of diarrhea!
29 posted on 08/11/2006 8:30:31 PM PDT by P-40 (Al Qaeda was working in Iraq. They were just undocumented.)
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To: LurkedLongEnough

Now, that is witty!

(And smart.)


30 posted on 08/11/2006 8:45:27 PM PDT by no dems (www.4condi.com)
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To: Arec Barrwin
The plot of The Stranger, if I recall correctly, is where a Frenchman shoots an Arab to death on a beach and feels no remorse for the crime.

/looking for deep meaning, conspiracy theories, and secret messages sensory off>

31 posted on 08/12/2006 9:11:16 PM PDT by vikingchick
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To: harrowup

Well Scooby Doo can do-do, but Jimmy Carter is smarter!


32 posted on 08/13/2006 5:10:24 AM PDT by Democratshavenobrains
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To: Arec Barrwin


The interesting thing for me, in this story, was Tony Snow saying Bush had just read the book recently, on his vacation.

The clear implication is that when he quoted from it last year, he was just reading what some speechwriter wrote for him to say. Which is probably true, but stupid of Tony to admit.


33 posted on 08/15/2006 10:24:15 PM PDT by EdJay
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Comment #34 Removed by Moderator

To: the invisib1e hand
Bush's detractors are, by and large, empty-headed pretenders.

Including some right here on FR...

35 posted on 08/19/2006 4:56:47 PM PDT by NewLand (Posting against liberalism since the 20th century!)
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To: Argus
The same summer he also spent plowing a hillside behind a pair of mules in Tennessee.

while he was inventing TV.

36 posted on 08/19/2006 4:57:08 PM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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To: everyone

I wonder what fool advised this. "The Stranger" is not a great work, and not even a particularly important one. It is simply a short, easy-to-read "classic" -- classic in the sense that it's famous -- that happens to have been read by many "educated" people. Someone who wanted Bush to look more "educated" and thought of "The Stranger" as one of the books the "educated" have read and will recogtnize the title of, must have suggested this. It's indicative of how this White House works. There are so many other short classics, true classics, that Bush could have spent his time reading.


37 posted on 08/19/2006 5:01:06 PM PDT by California Patriot ("That's not Charlie the Tuna out there. It's Jaws." -- Richard Nixon)
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