Strangely enough, as we were discussing existentialism in class, I was reminded of Albert Camus' The Stranger. Thinking of Th Stranger made me think initially of how much I disliked that book, but then of something my AP Lit teacher told us in high school: Queen's famous rock opera "Bohemian Rhapsody" is rumored to be loosely based on The Stranger and existentialist themes. While no official source can or will confirm this information, if you look examine some of the lyrics it doesn't seem to be much of a stretch. For example, the well-known opening lines "Is this the real life, or is this just fantasy?...no escape from reality" can be viewed as the narrator questioning the absurdity, and more obviously the reality, of existence in the context of his (spoiler alert) impending execution. His repeated statement of "Nothing really matters," also rings true in an existentialist context. Most importantly though, in my opinion, is that he seems to be taking possession of his mistakes by insisting he "needs no sympathy," which, as we discussed in class today, can be seen as an existentialist view, as a main key to existentialism is to take ownership of your actions no matter the consequences.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Is This the Real Life?
Strangely enough, as we were discussing existentialism in class, I was reminded of Albert Camus' The Stranger. Thinking of Th Stranger made me think initially of how much I disliked that book, but then of something my AP Lit teacher told us in high school: Queen's famous rock opera "Bohemian Rhapsody" is rumored to be loosely based on The Stranger and existentialist themes. While no official source can or will confirm this information, if you look examine some of the lyrics it doesn't seem to be much of a stretch. For example, the well-known opening lines "Is this the real life, or is this just fantasy?...no escape from reality" can be viewed as the narrator questioning the absurdity, and more obviously the reality, of existence in the context of his (spoiler alert) impending execution. His repeated statement of "Nothing really matters," also rings true in an existentialist context. Most importantly though, in my opinion, is that he seems to be taking possession of his mistakes by insisting he "needs no sympathy," which, as we discussed in class today, can be seen as an existentialist view, as a main key to existentialism is to take ownership of your actions no matter the consequences.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You just totally blew my mind with this. The connections are pretty obvious. Sometimes when I think about existence and how crazy it is, i also wonder what it means. I still can't completely wrap my head around it. In Bad Faith, the idea of taking on a role and using it as a way out of responsibilty definitely classes with the statements of the song.
ReplyDelete