Bastille
Day, 1942
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“Mother died today.”
With
this sentence from a French novel, we may begin our examination of
the uneasy relation between Christianity and Islam.
Our
narrator, who knows that he is soon to die, knows also that what is
called “Western Civilization” is really all about money.
Nevertheless, since Mersault now has a date with the guillotine,
money can have no more meaning for him, except as an explanation.
Everything
comes down to the question the priest cannot answer. It is not about
the confession which shall convince Jesus that one is of the ruling
class, and will therefore get one admitted to Heaven. Salvation comes
down to the bare essential: since life has been happy, it also is
acceptable to let go of life.
Curiously,
this agnostic salvation of Mersault echoes the emotional state which
Kirkegaard finds to be the beginning of religious salvation: “In
the infinite resignation there is peace and rest.”1
Woven
about this assertion of the meaning of salvation in the gnostic
sense, we shall see vignettes of men who falsely believe that they
are achieving salvation.
This
return to the Death of The Mother is the final act in the gnostic
drama. Merseult has a friend who is a racist but who likes to use
dark-skinned women. His dark-skinned “girlfriend” describes him
as as a pimp. He has a name2,
but we shall call him Kelly, because he represents the nature of the
demon who has been ruling Earth ever since 4004 B.C. Mother
has been around a lot longer; the frescoes in the Palace of Minos
show her as she used to be in her younger years. She later will make
an appearance as Mersault’s girlfriend Marie, but for the most part
has been repla ced by a religion. This religion honors Mother, but
there is so little actuality of spirit that Merseult simply gets a
headache from standing and walking in the hot sun. He has encountered
one of the sacraments of the Church, but the experience has not
brought him to salvation.
A Weekend on the Beach
Mersault
has been invited to enjoy a weekend on the beach in the company of
Mr. Kelly. He knows that Mr. Kelly is having some trouble from the
brother of a girl whom he is corrupting, and whom he has punished so
cruelly, the brother feels he has a duty to avenge her3.
If Mersault had possessed the dialectical tools to be able to reflect
that Mr. Kelly has been a colonialist agent actively involved in
destabilizing the local culture he might have lived longer. But like
most of the working-class colonialists, he does not have time for
reflection.
For
Mersault, kullu shay is his small group of friends, including the
notorious (among the Berbers) Mr.
Kelly. Ironically, the same is true for the “Arab,” the Berber
whose culture is being invaded. For the most part, they don’t see
the larger perspective, but recognize the strangeness of “the
other” only as a deviation from the familiar pattern. They
therefore become estranged from the true motives for their actions.
When
a soldier kills, it is an act of alienated labor. In the same way,
Mersault’s shooting of the “Arab” is almost accidental.
Mersault himself blames the sun. The hot sun had given him a
headache. Was he suffering from a minor sunstroke, or was this
headache, like the headache at his mother’s funeral, the symptom of
a gnawing moral discomfort?
Salvation from What?
Mersault
is now in the same position as our veterans. However, since the State
must maintain the illusion that there is no war between the settlers
and the Berbers, Mersault is arrested. He is condemned to death.2
This
is the outcome of his quest to find worldly salvation through
adventure and exploration. He feels, nevertheless, entitled to laugh
at the priest who comes to offer him salvation in the next world.
After all, was it not the Church which manufactured this culture-war
in the first place?
Perhaps
it was the sun. Or perhaps, the Death of Mother had simply induced a
historical trauma, transporting Mersault into a wormhole, causing his
body to act as though he were a 12th century Crusader. He
is justified, now that he has come to recognize that the litanies of
the Church are actually war-chants against the Saracens, in
questioning the priest’s brand of salvation. If that is where
salvation lies, Mersault is already there.
Although
the action happens in Algeria, the book is published in Paris, which
was reeling under enemy occupation in 1942. Given the nature of the
times in which this book was published, there must be a hidden
message, and perhaps this is it. So long as we are marching to the
drumbeats of 7th century or 11th century
crusaders, white men in black boots shall find themselves accused of
“accidental” shootings of “Arabs.”
Since
we know that the sun has no malice, perhaps we should begin by
examining the historical trauma that goes into replay mode whenever
our reason is stunned.
1
1
Kirkegaard, Fear
and Trembling. ()
2
2
Raymond
3
3
I am here taking the liberty to present the tale from the Berber’s
perspective.
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