Camus' teen goth Saint-Just...

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Another query - does anyone know the source, if any, for Albert Camus' description of Saint-Just (presumably while a law student) living in a room with black walls with teardrop patterns and the shutters closed? This sounds too teen-angsty to be true, but would be wonderful if it was (reminds me of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, when in a fit of depression he paints his bedroom black but Noddy's bells keep showing through!). Camus mentions it in the Saint-Just chapter of 'The Rebel'.

Comments

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Thank you - that's wonderful - very OTT! I do hope it's true (because I think that's uncannily like the student bedsit I lived in - dark purple walls and a skull on the desk), but if he means skull wallpaper sadly it sounds rather unlikely...

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

I know I have written it in French somewhere in my notes, but that's somewhere at home. I should check it again. I'm pretty sure I translated it badly too, for the simple reason that I don't even entirely understand what Michelet meant in the original French, especially in the important part of "a room taut with black and white skulls". -_-; He was probably raving.

What's "OTT"?

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

"Over The Top". Camus has 'tears', I think, though I was reading Camus in translation (cheat!), but he's probably got it wrong, because skulls seems more appropriate. I don't know - taut, to convey a sense of stifling or overwhelming, maybe - like being 'wired'?

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

I have Camus in French, and I do remember I've read the part and he says 'tears' (larmes). Hm. Maybe it's an element of old house decoration I don't know. ­>.> Not that I know much on house decoration to start with.

I think he said that the black (probably drapes/curtains?) and white skulls were sort of 'suspended', but I don't quite remember. I think Michelet is a victim of Fr Rev Historian Crack, which has killed so many brain cells over the last two centuries. -_-