I just walked out of the library to take a drink of water, and I came across Tawna and Samantha ridiculing a book of photographs by one of my favorite photographers, Joel-Peter Witkin. I was not amused.

Antonio sent me this lame-ass e-mail asking how layout was going and gave me some website where I could download pictures of people diving. We are NOT going to have a photo spread back page filled with Internet pictures. I think that the Drift is a lost cause. Oh shit, I’m supposed to watch those classes and take that history test. I’m too hungry. I’m going to go get some food from Safeway. But yeah, my damn speakers aren’t coming today…I checked the UPS website and the last mention of the package was an arrival scan two days ago in Richmond, Calif. What’s up with that? I guess it still could be delivered…but I doubt it. Well, I’m going to go to Safeway, get some food, then go into the library and I think that I’m just going to take the test without watching the videos. I mean, how hard could it be? It depends on when I get back whether I’ll have time to see the videos, so I should get out of here. I’ll ask Tawna if she wants to go. Oh, Dan left the coolest comment! Woot. I totally hope that I can get some time off around Christmas and go down there. It would be SOOO cool. Oh, I should pay my insurance. Off to Progressive.com.

Matt M. just said “It happens.” Lol. Work is going okay, I got to work on a project with Sorta Cute Guy From The Ad Room, whose name is Aaron. He has the same name as the sports reporter. He is actually kinda cute, but he has a bit of a beer belly. It looks funny. I MUST get out of here because I totally have my paycheck. I’m going to go on a Wal-Mart shopping spree because I can’t live another day without Q-tips and with that damned slow drain in my sink. Must get back to work. Hasta.

I’ve been dying to blog all day…but right now I’m tired and I just want to go to bed so I can get tomorrow over with. I have so much crap to do tomorrow. I should get up early. But yeah, work was okay, Sorta Cute Guy gave me a fax. But I was on the phone. I want to find out his name. Kevin left a message for me…I’m talking to him now. He wants me to come over to his house. Lame. I went to the library and checked out No Exit and Other Plays by Jean-Paul Sartre. Then I went to watch the sunset and read No Exit until the sun went down.

Then I went to class and we read Sweeney Todd, I was this guy with an Italian accent and like it was pretty funny for the people like…listening. Kevin just wants to have sex with me. It’s pretty sad.

I have to do an outline for my essay today, and I’m still not sure what I’m going to write on. It’s 11:00. I should be at work now. I don’t know what to write on. I’ll make a fake outline. That’s what I always do. What I end up writing on is never what I write my outlines on. Those stupid “plans” that Letko had us do…they were always on a different topic than I would end up writing the essay on. Hmm…I guess I’ll stick with the old boring formalist crap. No, I want to use the moral/intellectual approach. I want to talk about the philosophy the book conveys, and how he uses his style and the actions of Meursault to convey this idea that one’s own morals are the only important thing, and to never let society dictate morality? Something like that.

Perhaps my research question could be “What caused Meursault’s death?” It could be society, it could be ennui, it could be God, it could be anything. Interpretation of The Stranger is so open-ended, I could even argue that God willed that Meursault be put to death because he is a libertine. I’m still fascinated by the symbol of the sun. What does it mean? Maybe the sun is the abyss.

I’m reading about this book by Jean-Paul Sarte that I totally want to read now.

“Antoine Roquentin is a solitary man, recently afflicted with a recurrent feeling, one that he terms ‘the Nausea’. At times, he feels that life is repugnant, a vapid, shallow game between mindless people who have no real idea of their own purpose or consequence, himself included. At first he dismisses these feelings as the typical lonely thoughts of an ageing academic who is unable to complete the book he has been researching for years, but as the feeling continues and he is able to examine himself with greater and greater clarity, Roquentin begins to learn that maybe he has stumbled upon one of the great truths of our reality. “

Sounds very cool. And very me. I must make another trip to the used bookstore in Arcata to load up on Sarte once I finish my current pile.

I’m writing my outline…it’s just going to be a formalist snooze-fest, but at least I’ll get a good grade on it. I can admit that I have nothing original to say. I might as well regurgitate other people’s thoughts and get it over with.

Okay, the thing is done with. I’ve got to proof it, print it out, put it in Molly’s box, and then get the hell to work…I’m late.

English 1B

Research Paper Outline

November 29, 2004

The Stranger

I. I will discuss how I will approach analyzing the story, state my thesis, with some brief discussion of existentialism/absurdism and the time in which it was written.

II. I will summarize the plot of The Stranger with the précis approach.

III. I will discuss how Camus’ style helps him achieve the atmosphere that he creates, and I will compare the differences and similarities in the two translations I own.

IV. I will talk about how important point of view is in this novel, and how totally incomprehensible scenes like the killing of the Arab would be written in third person or any other POV besides first person.

V. I will discuss the character of Meursault, and with more research I may argue that he is a flat character. I will bring up whether he seems like he could be a real person and whether his actions fit his thoughts. I may question the character’s sanity, with a bit of the psychological/psychoanalytic approach.

VI. This will be the conclusion, I’ll reiterate a bunch of the stuff I already said and restate my bland, uninteresting point that’s been thought by a thousand people before me.