Things I'm wondering about today-existentialism

Is there a God? If there isn't, what is the purpose of life? If the universe doesn't care about me, should I?

Actually, nothing so dramatic today because who cares about the universe-I fixed a huge problem at work this week and I have Japanese eggplant I'm going to cook this weekend. I'm wondering specifically about existentialism and Albert Camus. During our book discussion for The Postman Always Rings Twice, we discussed how Camus had said it inspired him to write The Stranger. I mentioned that I didn't know much about Camus besides he was an existentialist and got a funny look from someone who said, "I wouldn't say that."

This bugged me-did I have it wrong? So I went to teh googul. Trying to side-step the whole definition of existentialism (which no one really understands no matter what they say), it's a slippery movement. I guess the trend is to declassify some former existentialists including Camus, who considered himself an Absurdist. Camus in fact rejected the label. The Camus Society of the UK though says it's perfectly reasonable to label him an existentialist, however they don't get hung up on labels (that's so existential. Uhm, I guess.)

I don't want to cite 1000 sources. The bottom line is academics are torn but it's pretty much ok to say he is, even if he thought he wasn't (The Myth of Sisyphus was evidently intended to challenge existentialists. I don't read much philosophy because, not to brag, I don't understand it.) So, if someone tells you that Camus was an existentialist, there's no need to look at them as if they said, "Jane Austen was the greatest American writer of the Belle Epoque, much better than her contemporary John Dos Passos."