"The town itself, let us admit, is ugly."

Well - how about that? First sentence of the novel's second paragraph. Camus - or at least his narrator - is pretty blunt about his feelings for Oran. Let's see what you think!

First, some background information:

Oran is located on the coast of the Mediterranean in northwestern Algeria, a country in northern Africa. (The maps below are from the Facts on File World Atlas database, available through Longview Library's Online Databases page.)

There are about 2 million people living in Oran and the surrounding region, which makes it the second-largest city in Algeria, trailing only the capital, Algiers. Because of its coastal position, Oran has been an important port ever since the city was founded by Moorish traders in the 10th century CE.

Its importance has, of course, led to the city being invaded, conquered, occupied, or otherwise controlled numerous times. The Spanish captured the city from the Moors in 1509. The Turks took over in 1708. The Spanish re-captured the city in 1732, but lost Oran to the Ottoman Empire in 1791. The French took over in 1831.

Several important developments occurred in the 1940s, the decade in which The Plague is set. In July 1940, France surrendered to Nazi Germany. The terms of the surrender gave Germany about three-fifths of France, including Paris and the enire Atlantic coast. The remaining two-fifths remained unoccupied and the French relocated their government from Paris to Vichy. Most historians now agree that the 'Vichy regime' was actually a puppet government controlled by the Nazis, but in any case, Vichy France controlled 'French North Africa', as it was called, until British and American naval troops reclaimed the area in November 1942.

So, some questions:

1) Do you think The Plague is set before or after November 1942? Why?

2) Judging from what he writes after the second paragraph, do you think that Camus (or his narrator) really believes the city is "ugly"? If not, why do you think he describes it that way on the first page of the book? (Feel free to come back and comment again if your feelings change as you read on)

3) And - most importantly - do you think Oran is ugly? Click here to look at pictures taken from the DHD Multimedia Gallery, the Wikimedia Commons, or the Visit Oran website - http://www.visitoran.com/photos/ - which has tons of other images in their Photo Galleries.

(Geographical and historical information adapted from Facts on File World Atlas and CultureGrams World Edition - both available through Longview Library's Online Databases page)

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a good, relaxing holiday break. Because we'll have some rather ugly business to attend to this semester...

How would you feel if you came to class one day and were told you wouldn't be allowed to leave campus at the end of the day? Then you were told the "authorities" weren't sure how long you'd have to stay put. Oh, and - by the way - you're also not allowed to communicate in any way with anyone off campus.

Pretty horrible, huh? But what if it gets worse? What if, after a few hours of being stuck on campus, people - the same people who are stuck here just like you - start getting very, very sick...

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These are some of the nightmarish scenarios that befall the townspeople of Oran, Algeria, in Albert Camus's The Plague. As we go through this discussion, we'll look at the different ways Camus's characters deal with their situation and talk about how we might handle it today.

Since The Plague is a campus-wide reading project, my hope for this discussion blog is to benefit from the various backgrounds and insights of all the different groups reading the novel. English students learning from Biology students, and vice versa. Math students learning from Psychology students, and vice versa. Faculty and staff learning from students, and - well, you get the picture.

So, without further ado, let The Plague begin!