Marie asks whether he wants to marry her. Meursault could say yes, but it makes no difference to him. There is something disarming about that answer. It also saves him asking what he actually wants… This convenience is what Thom Hamer examines in his reading of The Stranger. [1]
His hypothesis: Meursault understands that the world owes him no justification. Yet he keeps the other half of Camus’s absurd at a distance: our persistent need for meaning. Insisting on the absence of objective meaning would shield him from disappointment and the responsibility of choosing. Facing execution, his wish to begin again comes too late. Hamer connects this retreat into immediacy with Kierkegaard’s aesthetic existence. Meursault becomes more than Camus’s ready-made spokesman: his lucidity can also provide shelter.
One step remains debatable: must a life be organised around a project to have meaning? Hamer gives lasting commitment considerable weight. Yet swimming and affection already matter to Meursault; the author acknowledges this. Why would these attachments not suffice? Questioning indifference need not turn every pleasure into a life project.