The plague is (mostly) boring
I'm having a hard time getting through the plague. It feels more like a textbook than a novel.
The main problem is, it's boring. It goes on tangents about burials or the weather or whether or not people are going to cafes that last so long I started counting the pages. And once those sections finally end, the enjoyment I might feel for the more interesting chapters is dulled by how brain-fried I am by what I just read. When Camus wants to get a point across, he does so by ranting about it for roughly fifteen pages, then, a chapter later, fifteen more on the same subject.
The book jumps from character focused chapters to the mind-numbing "descriptive" chapters, and the former are the book's main redeeming feature. I really like all the characters in the book, even the questionable ones like Cottard and Rambert. They're well-rounded, they bring different perspectives to the narrative, and they're supportive and kind to each other (which seems insignificant but is very refreshing coming off The Sun Also Rises). The problem is, The Plague has a habit of getting you interested in a character's story, then ignoring them for thirty-five pages favor of a detailed description of burial practices. And yes, the burial practices were a good way of showing how severe the situation has become, but did we need to spend that much time on it?
Even when we are spending time with the characters, they're often used as a lens for observing the epidemic. For example, Rieux is used to show the cities methods of treating plague victims. Obviously that's a necessary part of storytelling, but I think the subplots specific to their personalities, backstories, and morals are much more interesting, and not given as much attention.
The narrator mentions several times that the purpose of this book is to provide a historical account of Oran's plague outbreak. So this is a textbook, in a way - a fictional textbook. That's fine, but what makes a story engaging/exciting for me is your connection to the characters, or else the plot has to pick up the slack. The Plague describes a slow-moving crisis in painstaking detail. I get that it isn't supposed to be thrilling. However, the characters aren't given enough attention to cushion the effects of the overly procedural plot. "The plague spreads, the town copes" on repeat gets tiresome.
Apparently The Plague is meant to be an allegory for the Nazi occupation of France. I don't understand enough about that to see the parallels, but that does explain how boring this is. Camus isn't here to entertain us, he's here to warn us about facism, which is probably more important.
Anyway, I know some people really love this book, but I'm struggling to get through it. It's about preferences, and my preference would be for the author to take about ten pages off each chapter.
I understand the "mind-numbing" feeling you're talking about, as I absolutely experienced it with The Mezzanine (and even The Sun Also Rises--even if the prose wasn't very dense, I just got extraordinarily bored lol). But I've actually felt quite engaged while reading The Plague, possibly because I'm deeply interested in Camus's philosophy and the idea of absurdism. I would say that I've shifted my mindset while reading this novel; I don't really read it as a traditional "story," with a plot that has rising action, a climax, an eventual resolution, etc. Instead, I've been reading it as a study on human nature--not a boring "textbook" study of a town, but a work that's meant to stimulate introspection and thought.
ReplyDeleteThat said, though, I have no clue what the Nazi occupation parallels are supposed to be. I just don't see them. I'm curious to know if anyone else has??
Interestingly enough, I've felt significantly less drained by this book than any of the others we've read so far (personally I found "The Sun Also Rises" the most difficult, due to my rampant dislike for every single one of the character). I can however see what you mean about it feeling more like a textbook at times than a novel. On the topic of how it's an allegory for Nazi occupation/ fascist regimes, I'm also having a lot of trouble seeing the similarities. I'm currently reading a book titled "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" (not for school, just for fun), which gives a detailed description on how the Nazis came to power and how they subsequently took over vast swaths of Europe and I'm still not seeing too many comparisons. I'm interested to see what will come up in the discussion on Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteI see where you're coming from when you talk about the boring descriptions and tangents the book makes about the setting. In my opinion however, I think that is the majority and primary quirk of The Plague. It's almost never the characters that change, it's the setting. What we think is the characters changing, even mentally can actually be expressed as change in setting in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteYeah and I respect that the author is doing, I just have a harder time caring about setting than about the characters, I guess
DeleteThe repetition and long tangents can get boring, but I found a lot of value in the vivid descriptions of the plague, like when the first cases start happening, when the town runs out of space and starts cremating bodies, and when Jacques dies. They're horrifying descriptions that I couldn't peel away from, and those moments were my favorite. One of the main observations of the main characters is that the plague is miserable because of the repitition of it all, so it's kind of funny that we find it miserable to read for the same reason.
ReplyDeleteI actually enjoyed this book the most out of all the ones we've read so far. I hated The Mezzanine because I just disagree with Howie's philosophy of life so much; it's important to notice the little things, but at the end of the day, the big things are what matter. Similar to Eliza, I disliked The Sun Also Rises because I thought all the characters were really annoying and strangely one-dimensional. I enjoyed Mrs. Dalloway, but I just think this book surpasses that for me. I liked how The Plague sets up different characters with different philosophies, and we can compare and contrast them as we read. As for the Nazi occupation thing, I didn't understand that either. I'm interested in WWII because I think it's important to keep the memory of such a tragic event alive, and I also just find it interesting that such terrible things could be done (and it wasn't even that long ago). There's another blog post by Charlotte, and it deals with The Plague not really being a very good allegory for the Nazi occupation of France. You might be interested in looking at the conversation going on there.
ReplyDeleteHuh okay so it seems most people actually feel differently - so I'm here to completely agree with you!! :D I get literal whiplash trying to read this book. One moment I'm invested and everything is interesting and great and then suddenly it's 10 minutes later and I'm trying to read the same paragraph for the 20th time. Just those sudden shifts alone are enough to drain me, before I even try to get through those "fifteen page rants". Looking at other comments, it seems a lot of people like the values and interesting philosophy stuff brought up - and I will admit that those can be pretty interesting to discuss. But my god it makes trying to read the actual book so hard for me, cause I'm the type to look back and think about things after I'm done reading, not while I'm doing it, so trying to slog through those "descriptive chapters" hurts my head.
ReplyDeleteI think your reaction to the novel is exactly what Camus expected. What he is trying to show is that the characters in The Plague go through devastating circumstances but to the reader, the deaths are just statistics and the subtle variables he mentions are just boring details. I actually see the connection with the Nazi occupation as being fairly clear. When it started, people probably denied that it was happening, just as with the plague. As time goes on, citizens are faced with many dilemmas, the most obvious being the one about religion. People are forced to either denounce their own religion to possibly ensure their own safety, or stick with their religion and pay the consequences.
ReplyDeleteEven though I definitely relate to your thoughts about this book being boring and kind of all over the place, I think in a way some points you are describing is what this book was trying to accomplish. For example, you mentioned that the characters are often used as a lens for observing the pandemic. I think Camus, with his philosophical background, was using Oran and the characters to portray the psychological behavior of people going through a plague in general, not just in the lens of this specific historical context.
ReplyDeleteI definitely relate to what you thought about while I was reading the book. I started counting pages at some points too and the parts I actually enjoyed, got drowned out by the more tedious and unexciting parts sometimes. I expected the book to be much more like a traditional story and while I was disappointed that it wasn't, I'm glad I got to read such a philosophy oriented book. I probably wouldn't have kept reading after a bit if it wasn't required for class but, if I had stopped, I unfortunately would have missed out on a lot that I did end up enjoying. I'm glad I got to read and analysis it, even though some of it was too tedious at times.
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