Camus and Mayer

  Everyone loves music.  It’s probably obvious that no two people have the same taste, but chances are those two people like music..  Music has something for everyone.  It’s a great energizer, relaxer, motivator; any sort of thing one desires!  While most enjoy music, not everyone appreciates it on the same level.  Often times it is simply a soundtrack, merely a backdrop for a different event..  Unfortunately, listening to music this way can take away from one of its most important aspects: its lyrics.  Songwriters, like authors, frequently explore open-ended questions about life and existence, much like the author of a book might.  A classic example of an author whose work revolves around these deep questions is Albert Camus. Camus has written many works dealing with existential topics, such as The Myth of Sisyphus, The Plague, and The Stranger.  As he is a respected author, it is easy to identify similarities between his work and the work of modern songwriters.  Well-respected in his own manner is John Mayer. Mayer's rise to fame came in the late '90s off of his 1999 album, Inside Wants Out.  His stardom has stemmed from his ability to incorporate unmatched guitar skills with lyrics shaped by his struggles with drugs, love, and finding himself.  If we examine the song "Belief" by John Mayer to observe some nihilist and absurdist perspectives which overlap with Camus's The Stranger, parallelisms between classical literature and modern music can be identified in not only this relationship, but in many examples of each of these types of art. While many of Camus's works have been a method for studying nihilism for years, it might appear less obvious that some ideas Camus expresses in his work can be found in modern music.  Central to music is self-expression, and there is no shortage of composers experiencing and expressing their share of despair and sorrow.  John Mayer, being no exception, released Continuum in 2006, in which he combined his musical talent with his intellect to craft a popular yet absurdist and nihilistic album.  John claims that it is easy to feel pessimistic when life gets difficult, just as it does for Meursault following his sentencing.  On the album's track "Belief," John questions the validity of human belief:

We're never gonna win the world

We're never gonna stop the war

We're never gonna beat this if belief is what we're fighting for

(Is there anyone who you can remember

Who ever surrendered

With their life on the line?) (Mayer)
                                                             
Meursault's words near the closing of The Stranger, while varying a bit from Mayer's, reflect a similar pessimistic mindset:

But everybody knows life isn’t worth living. Deep down I knew perfectly well that it doesn’t much matter whether you die at thirty or at seventy, since in either case other men and women will naturally go on living—and for thousands of years. In fact, nothing could be clearer. Whether it was now or twenty years from now, I would still be the one dying (Camus 146). 
    

One of the parallels between these two works is clearly demonstrated by each artists' criticism of belief.  Mayer is sure that belief can only hurt a person; having false hope does no good.  Camus perception of nihilism is similar.  Meursault knows his death is inevitable, and he questions the point of belief if it cannot save him from dying.  From Camus's (and Meursault's) perspective, no form of belief in any sort of god or higher power can alter this.

    It is typical of people to think that everything happens for a reason.  The world seems like a much more logical place when events and occurrences are seen in cause-and-effect relationships.  Meursault, on the other hand, does not see the world in the same manner most people do.  Because he is so aloof and detached, he has difficulty noticing particular causes and effects.  Meursault’s perception of the world is absurd; he sees the events in his life unfold through pure spontaneity:

I was carrying the burden of a sin from which I had to free myself. According to him, human justice was nothing and divine justice was everything. I pointed out that it was the former that had condemned me. His response was that it hadn’t washed away my sin for all that. I told him I didn’t know what a sin was. All they had told me was that I was guilty. I was guilty, I was paying for it, and nothing more could be asked of me (Camus 151).

While Meursault understands he has done something wrong, he is unable to see the event as others do.  He is expected to feel remorse and beg for forgiveness, but in the absurdity that is to him life, he does not see the necessity in doing such things.  Mayer takes a slightly different approach; he posits that the absurdity in life do not cause him to act a specific way, but that the notion of belief creates absurdity:

Belief is a beautiful armor

But makes for the heaviest sword

Like punching under water

You never can hit who you're trying for

Some need the exhibition

And some have to know they tried

It's the chemical weapon

For the war that's raging on inside (Mayer).

He notes that belief is never definite.  It is, to him, something does not produce intended results.  It simply tries to fill a void for some sort of internal conflict.  Similar to Mayer, Meursault feels that the belief that he is asked to have is merely artificial, and cannot benefit him in his predicament.  While both Mayer and Meursault understand that belief is important in the lives of others, they do not see it as a fit for dealing with the absurdities of life.

    
Classic literature enjoys a vast expanse of influence among young artists, especially among those in the music industry.  Pop artists like John Mayer can be seen writing about Camusian topics which are so famously explored in The Stranger.  In “Belief,” valuable questions are raised by Mayer over the concept of nihilism.  He notes that believing is counterproductive, it only serves as a complement to absurdity.  Meursault, in The Stranger, comes to the conclusion that the only way he can accept his inevitable death is to believe even less than he does now.  He sees the world as an inherently absurd place in which nothing he does can compensate for what he has done.  These two nihilist and absurdist views can tie into several existentialist questions.  If there is nothing to believe in, does life have a purpose?  If life is inherently absurd, how is it possible to define one’s self as a person?  While being largely open-ended, these are questions that both Camus and Mayer expand on in their work.  Popular music is something that most people are fortunate enough to experience, and Camusian influences are not something that are solely present in the music of John Mayer.  Popular music can be largely underestimated at times, and contain many prodding questions about how life is perceived and should be lived.