Who told him this would be a good idea?
August 12, 2006 8:17 PM   Subscribe

Regardless of how one perceives Bush's role in the middle east, wouldn't you think Team Bush might recognize that announcing that he's reading The Stranger, in which our anti-hero kills an Arab, and feels no remorse for it, might be taken the wrong way? We know that he's deliberate about what books he's seen with. WTF?
posted by Dr. Boom (35 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: meh



 


Somehow I find it much easier to imagine him with a stack of Cole's Notes books boning up on quotes.
posted by clevershark at 8:24 PM on August 12, 2006


There should be a WTF flag.
posted by LarryC at 8:26 PM on August 12, 2006


Pff. Like he reads books...
posted by Artw at 8:28 PM on August 12, 2006


I'm suprised Bush is even touching Camus. Isn't that a little above his reading level? Seriously, that's one of my all-time favorite books; it weirds me out to think that Bush is reading it.

Anyways, anybody who knows anything about The Stranger knows that it's not about the murder of the Arab--it's about the lack of justice when a moral minority is judged by the moral standards of the majority. Ironically, with Bush's movements against gay marriage, abortion/women's rights, seperation of church and state, and other such policies, he would do well to learn the lessons of The Stranger.

However, if we're squabbling over what image he sends by reading The Stranger, I would personally be more worried about how reading a book that for one features a supportive view on atheistic existentialism and a French protagonist would go over with his religious, right-wing, anti-France support base.
posted by internet!Hannah at 8:28 PM on August 12, 2006


Maybe he hasn't gotten to that part yet. You just spoilered the president, man. Look for a knock on the door in 3...2...1...
posted by bovious at 8:31 PM on August 12, 2006


I can't imagine the POTUS moving all his stuff into the White House kitchen. The cocktail trolley on Air Force One, maybe...
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:32 PM on August 12, 2006


Are you sure you didn't mean this 'The Stranger'? I can't really see him reading a book of any kind really. . .
posted by mk1gti at 8:33 PM on August 12, 2006


On review, it sounds like he's just quoting nice little sound bites from classic literature, not actually cracking open the book. Even if he did read the book, I would bet that most of the subtleties would be completely lost on him--"Heh, that dirty atheist got what was coming to him. Only a terrorist wouldn't cry at his mother's funeral!"
posted by internet!Hannah at 8:34 PM on August 12, 2006


In fact, I hear this is his favorite part of 'The Stranger'
posted by mk1gti at 8:35 PM on August 12, 2006


The Cure also caught flak for killing Arabs.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 8:36 PM on August 12, 2006


C'mon, people. He just finished everything by Proust and that bitch, Cindy Sheehan has had Sartre's Being and Nothingness checked out of the Crawford library for weeks now! What do you expect him to be reading?
posted by ColdChef at 8:38 PM on August 12, 2006 [2 favorites]


ColdChef--One Fish Two Fish?
posted by internet!Hannah at 8:39 PM on August 12, 2006


He probably thought it was a novelization of a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western: "Dang, when are they gonna make fun of his mule?!?"
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:43 PM on August 12, 2006


Presidents recite speeches. They don't write them.
posted by clevershark at 8:45 PM on August 12, 2006


My first thought this morning when I read that Bush is reading Camus: What? Is there a comic book version available?

Have these people no shame -- putting out such blatant B.S. about Bush's summer reading list?
posted by bim at 8:48 PM on August 12, 2006


If NASCAR driver Jean Girard can read The Stranger while driving around the track and drinking macchiatto, our President is free to enjoy Camus as well.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:55 PM on August 12, 2006


Bush teaching foreigners literature and language, questioning the imperial demands of his job....um, no.
posted by kozad at 8:59 PM on August 12, 2006


I was just going to say, maybe he's just a big fan of the Cure.
posted by keswick at 9:01 PM on August 12, 2006


Well, you would expect your average Yale grad to be able to read at an advanced level...
posted by Hal Mumkin at 9:07 PM on August 12, 2006


keswick: or Billy Joel!
posted by bink at 9:13 PM on August 12, 2006


OK, sorry to have to put on the nutcase hat again, but I'd say what we've got here is clearly another case of Bush
administration code language to the lunatic Christian right. The rapture crowd. It's like Condi's "birth pangs" comment (via homunculus). Disturbing indeed.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:42 PM on August 12, 2006


This is one of the most shitty posts I've ever seen here.

Jesus Christ. It's a wikipedia link and a bungled link to what I assume is a jokey image (I couldn't be bothered) with the "main" link (an insubstatial wire service bit) mistakenly left out. What a fucking joke.

Bush has had enough scorn. Well, not enough, but Dr. Boom definitely deserves some. For this crap post.

It's crap.

Crap.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:28 PM on August 12, 2006


If NASCAR driver Jean Girard can read The Stranger while driving around the track and drinking macchiatto, our President is free to enjoy Camus as well.

That's exactly what's happening, folks. He saw it in Talladega Nights.

Officials also noted that he was watching Highlander, because he'd heard it won an Oscar for being the best movie ever.
posted by First Post at 10:56 PM on August 12, 2006


Man, The Stranger effed me up at age 13. He might want to avoid that one, opting instead for The Fall or maybe The Myth of Sisyphus. For some reason the mention of Bush reading Camus has me picturing him with a goatee, a clove cigarette and drinking vermouth, but I think that's Stephin Merritt's fault.
posted by shoepal at 11:30 PM on August 12, 2006


C'mon, this is hardly a difficult book, despite its elegant ideas. It is short too. Bush is no dummy, he just fails to think.

wouldn't you think Team Bush might recognize that announcing that he's reading The Stranger, in which our anti-hero kills an Arab, and feels no remorse for it, might be taken the wrong way?

One would hope so, but apparently not (please see my comment above regarding thinking). Good post.
posted by caddis at 12:32 AM on August 13, 2006


I'd feel better if he were reading The Plague, since it's (ostensibly) about war. But yeah, creepy.

Also, how would the Christian Right feel about him reading a book that's so anti-religion? Camus is an atheist's atheist.
posted by cowbellemoo at 12:32 AM on August 13, 2006


know thy enemy
posted by caddis at 1:01 AM on August 13, 2006


Hey, this is good, right? What was that other post, about Bush being all about Zen now? Maybe this means he's getting more thoughtful. Or, the media is trying to make him seem that way. In any case, I support it!
posted by Laugh_track at 1:29 AM on August 13, 2006


"Maybe this means he's getting more thoughtful"

Hmmm... a more thoughtful Bush. That could be even worse.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:22 AM on August 13, 2006


Well, you would expect your average Yale grad to be able to read at an advanced level...

But I wouldn't necessarily expect your below-average Yale grad who coasted through the college program and everything else in his life, and is not known for reading anything but speeches, to read at that level.

It's not believable. To address the OP's wonderment: Bush doesn't care about Muslim people, unless they're Saudi sheiks.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:07 AM on August 13, 2006


My recollection, from reading it in high school, is that it should be solidly within his reading level. If you were going to pick some classic 20th Cent. Lit for Everybody, you could do a lot worse than "The Stranger"

Whether he gets anything out of it or not? You're guess is as good as mine.
posted by hwestiii at 5:35 AM on August 13, 2006


Camus believe it?
posted by Flashman at 5:56 AM on August 13, 2006


Camus is no racist, "the stranger" is a definition of the Absurd that's all, and a great book by the way, especially if you can read it in french.
posted by zouhair at 6:21 AM on August 13, 2006


Who waits until they are sixty to read The Stranger?
Thats when you re-read it for the fortieth time.
Maybe he will read Catcher In The Rye for Christmas
vacation.
posted by archaic at 6:25 AM on August 13, 2006


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