The general public may know Logan Paul best for his scandals involving filming a dead body and tazing rats. He's found himself the subject of the internet's ire several times in the past months, but no one has stopped to consider his literary impact. When given the context of The Stranger, Paul's shenanigans seem eerily familiar.
For example, Logan's greatest controversy is a video he posted about discovering a suicide victim in Japan's Aokigahara forest, which is famously the site of many suicides. His reaction was totally emotionally removed, much as Mersault was when he killed Raymond's man. The emotional impact one might expect from that proximity to death was absent; Logan Paul laughed, and Mersault worried about the inconvenience that the death would represent.
They also share a distinct disregard for animals. Mersault seems totally unfazed by Salamano's abuse of his dog, despite the clear brutality of his beatings. Similarly, Logan Paul has proven insensitive towards the plight of animals. He got in hot water with many animal rights groups, including PETA, for posting a video featuring himself tazing a dead rat, a clear show of insensitivity to the dignity of nonhuman animals.
The strange parallels continue with the treatment of women. Mersault seems content to befriend Raymond, a violent man whom he witnesses viciously beating a woman. Similarly, Logan Paul's brother Jake Paul's girlfriend has alleged that he abused against her. Regardless, Logan Paul has continued to work with his brother.
The similarities between Mersault and Logan Paul are uncanny. Maybe, they're a little too uncanny. I propose that the personality we know as "Logan Paul" is a part of an elaborate sort of production, where actors play out the story of The Stranger through social media and video streaming services like YouTube. It would follow, then, that we are leading up to the shooting at the end of Part 1.
But that's just a theory, A GAME THEORY. Thanks for watching.
Just a thought.
It is an intriguing thought and given the evidence presented it is hard to disagree with such a well flushed out analysis. I look forward to seeing more correlations between the fictional and real Stranger pop up throughout the novel. This was a good read and an interesting perspective for sure. Thank-you for broadening my horizon on this intriguing topic.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very interesting comparison, that so far makes sense. Especially considering with the book there has been talk of Mersault being a sociopath. Would you say that Logan is?
ReplyDeleteThe comparison between these two is very compelling. Both display signs of struggling to understand relate to others. They also both have a lot of room to develop and hopefully learn from their experiences, nice job with this!
ReplyDeleteYour title really grabbed my attention. Your first sentence made me laugh because it was so direct. I like how you compared Logan and Mersault. Especially the part when you compared their insensitivity towards animals.
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