http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgfgFpFaxgw
Comparing The Stranger and existentialism to Edguy’s “King of Fools
The song “King of Fools” has lyrics that show existentialist themes like individuality and not following absolute systems, and some lines can be compared to scenes in The Stranger when Meursault is being questioned by his Lawyer and the judge during his trial. The song’s lyrics describe a character, who is similar to Meursault in that he lives the way he wants to rather than the way society wants him to, however the song’s character seems to have more emotion, in particular anger, while Meursault doesn’t express his feelings outwardly. The song goes on to describe how the character doesn’t follow the crowd and absolute systems and chooses to walk his own way, calling the leader of these people the “King of Fools.”
What do you think when you spit in my face? How does it feel to accuse and to haze? Now look at me, I’m not one of your kind, and I prefer to stay behind. The first verse is demonstrating a couple of existentialist themes. The first two lines represent alienation, as the speaker is describing how the other people don’t understand him and mock him for how he lives his life. The line “I’m not one of your kind” alludes to not only this, but also individuality, because the speaker is describing how he chooses not to follow the crowd and their absolute systems because he wants to live his own life. This attitude can be directly compare to Meursault’s, although Meursault never explicitly states it in the book as the speaker in the song is. The other people mocking the song’s speaker could also be compared to when the judge calls Meursault “Monsieur Antichrist” because he doesn’t understand the way that Meursault lives his life.
We don’t wanna be like you, don’t you get that King of Fools? We don’t mind your life is trite, you are the King of Fools. The chorus begins with the speaker saying he doesn’t want his life to be like the others who blindly follow the King of Fools and absolute systems. The next line uses the world “trite,” which means lacking in originality or freshness. In this line, the speaker is mocking the others for their lives being controlled by absolute systems. We are never gonna be like you, we don’t follow – King of Fools, you’re the blind who lead the blind. In this line, the speaker is saying that even the leaders of this absolute system are blind as well as the followers, and nobody is making choices for themselves. Since the chorus is kind of insulting to the others, this is where I think the song’s character differs from Meursault. While Meursault is largely emotionless and often keeps to himself, the speaker in the song is quite angry and insulting the others.
The line “And walk the wicked way!” is used multiple times throughout the song, and it is a very important line in the song. The speaker isn’t saying the way he “walks” or lives his life is actually wicked, he’s saying in the eyes of the others, his strange way of living is unusual and they shun him for it, so in their eyes it is wicked.
You feel at ease as you flock with the masses, what do you see with your heads in their asses? This is the most existentialist line in the song. It uses harsher language to really push the message of the song. In this line, the singer describes how he sees the rest of the people, all in one huge flock. Not literally, of course, but they’re all following the same absolute systems that he doesn’t like. He says “What do you see with your heads in their asses” to describe how many of them there are, so many that they’re so close to each other their heads are figuratively up their asses. This shows just how different this character is from Meursault, because Meursault very much keeps to himself and isn’t really outspoken about how he lives his life, in fact, Meursault might not even be aware how existentialist his life is, meanwhile the speaker in the song is very much aware of how he lives his life and is outspoken and insulting to the people who don’t share the same views as him. The next line, Keep on railing at what I believe, call me insane and I am proud to be, describes even more that even though these people make fun of him he’s still proud and stands behind his choices, which is something that existentialists do. This line I think best represents the scene in The Stranger when the lawyer is questioning Meursault. Meursault mentions that “I had pretty much lost the habit of analyzing myself…I probably did love Maman, but that didn’t mean anything. At one time or another all normal people had wished their loved ones dead” and the lawyer, shocked “Made me promise that I wouldn’t say that at my hearing or in front of the examining magistrate.” Even though the lawyer is not directly insulting him for his beliefs, Meursault has chosen that he wants to live and feel this way and the Lawyer warns him against expressing this because he feels that it is strange.
It is very clear that the song “King of Fools” has a lot of specific existentialist themes and can be directly connected to Albert Camus’ The Stranger.
World Studies World Literature 