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THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND At
first sight, the Outsider is a social problem. He is the
hole-in-corner man: “In
the air, on top of a tram, a girl is sitting. Her dress, lifted a
little, blows out. But a block in the traffic separates us. The
tramcar glides away, fading like a nightmare. Moving in both
directions, the street is full of dresses which sway, offering
themselves airily, the skirts lifting; dresses that lift and yet do
not lift. In the tall and narrow shop mirror I see myself
approaching, rather pale and heavy-eyed. It is not a woman I want -
it is all women, and I seek for them in those around me, one
by one…” This
passage, from Henri Barbusse's novel L' Enfer, pinpoints
certain aspects of the Outsider. His hero walks down a Paris street,
and the desires that stir in him separate him sharply from other
people. And the need he feels for a woman is not entirely animal
either, for he goes on: “Defeated, I followed my impulse casually. I followed a woman who had been watching me from her comer. Then we walked side by side. We said a few words; she took me home with her... Then I went through the banal scene. It passed like a sudden hurtling-down. Again, I am on the pavement, and I am not at peace as I had hoped. An immense confusion bewilders me. It is as if I could not see things as they were. I see too deep and too much." Throughout the book, this hero remains unnamed. He is the anonymous Man Outside.
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