The Myth of Sisyphus and other essays (1942)

Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus can be seen as a sort of prelude to his later essay "The Rebel," the former dealing with suicide and the latter dealing with murder. While giving a great deal of consideration to suicide and murder to both works, Camus, ever the romantic, decides that while suicide and murder should not be judged in the ways traditional religious and state morality judges them (the executioner much more strongly condemned than the murderer in The Rebel, and the passive man of apathy more condemned than the suicidal in the essay of discussion), suicide and murder are really not the best responses to the state-sponsered terrorism of totalitarian regimes. Camus' Sisyphus declines suicide, and while his fate may seem daunting, he stands in defiance of the gods as a symbol for potential, as a symbol for hope. As a future educator, my question to other educators would be as follows: Has anyone tried to work out thoughts of suicide in teens with art that in its very content addresses suicide? Post-modern society is incredibly "referential," but too often altogether skirts around topics instead of tackling them head-on in all their grit like the Moderns of the former half of the previous century attempted. I, personally, do not believe that purely by bringing up the subject of suicide in the classroom, especially as portrayed as the wrong choice by Camus, that we would see mass suicides of youth; I, on the other hand, see addressing such subjects through real communication as constructive, not only towards fighting physical suicide, but towards fighting emotional, spiritual, and intellectual suicide; In other words, apathy. ( )

Since it is 'the thing' nowadays to put lots of sparkly gifs and pics in a review, who am I to differ?

































"They bear away from their light, while their strict lord Death bids them to dance... and the rain washes, and cleanses the salt of their tears from their cheeks."

Absurd enough.

to be continued..

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“The preceding merely defines a way of thinking. But the point is to live”

The final sentence of Camus’s “An Absurd Reasoning” which is the first and longest of this collection of essays; originally published in 1942. In a preface to his essay Camus said that it dealt with “an absurd sensitivity that can be found widespread in the age and not with an absurd philosophy which our time properly speaking has not known” The key word in all this is absurd, just what did Camus mean by the absurd?

This collection of essays along with his first novel [L’Etranger] and his play [Caligula] brought Albert Camus literary fame. He advised that for a full effect they should be read together, because they all to a certain extent dealt with his ideas of an absurd sensitivity.. It would appear that the essays are the best place to start, because they define what he meant by the absurd and although the novel and the play certainly stand alone there is much to be gained in understanding the actions and thoughts of his main characters who live in an absurd world.

The essay “An absurd reasoning starts off dramatically with:

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.” .

Camus may claim that his essay is not philosophy and Jean-Paul Sartre agreed with him claiming that Camus had not read widely enough, but to me it certainly reads like philosophy. A subject that I have often struggled with, but I will attempt to give a very brief outline of the absurd…….

Camus says that the thinking man wants to understand and feel there is a meaning to his life. This basic deep seated need is in most of our hearts, however we live in an irrational and unreasonable universe and when we understand this, then our life becomes absurd, because we realise that we will never discover a meaning to our life.

“The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world”

Suicide is not the answer because when we realise that life has no meaning, we are better off for that and can get on and live our lives. We should live solely with what we know and always be conscious of the absurd and should revolt against all that we find ridiculous around us. Once we realise that we have no future and our life ends in our death and that death can happen at any time, then we should be courageous in how we choose to live.

Camus then tackles the issues where he stands in opposition to the existential philosophers particularly Jasper, Chestov Kierkegaard and Husserl. Camus claims that their reason leads them all to recognise an irrational world, but they do not leave it there to deal with the issues. They all make some kind of leap to escape from this human condition. They provide hope by deifying the forces that crush them.

In his essay The Absurd Man Camus takes his thoughts further by giving examples of absurd lives: he chooses Don Juanism, Actors and Conquerors. In a further essay he considers the creation of an absurd work of art and plays particular attention to Dostoievsky as he feels that all of Dostioevsky's heroes question themselves as to the meaning of life. The final essay is the brilliant “Myth of Sisyphus” whom Camus casts as the original tragic Absurd hero. Sisyphus who was condemned by the Gods for eternity to push a rock up a mountain only to see it roll back down to the bottom..

In my penguin Modern Classics edition there are in addition five other shorter essays and "Summer in Algiers" which was an early essay written in 1938 already contains much of Camus’s thoughts on the absurd. In fact he makes Algiers sound like an absurd city

“it is completely accessible to the eyes, and you know it the moment you enjoy it. It’s pleasures are without remedy and its joys without hope. Above all it requires clairvoyant souls – that is without solace.”

“Everything here suggests the horror of dying in a country that invites one to live. And yet it is under the very walls of the cemetery that the young of Belcourt have their assignations and that the girls offer themselves to kisses and caresses”

The importance of Camus essays on the absurd should not be underestimated in gaining further insight to his novels and plays. They are interesting and thought provoking and with the addition of the five other essays, this little penguin classic is a winner. A five star read
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Just a few points: Camus articulates well what many people think or feel, whether you accept or reject those thoughts, and he follows them to their logical end; he references existential philosophers but a good knowledge of them on your part isn't necessary to enjoy or gain from the book (Camus wasn't an existentialist and much of The Myth is an argument against them); it isn't dense or difficult philosophy, in fact it borders on a manifesto or manual of living. If the following quotes from the essay intrigue you, read it:

"The theme of the irrational, as it is conceived by the existentials, is reason becoming confused and escaping by negating itself. The absurd is lucid reason noting its limits."

"Is one going to die, escape by the leap, rebuild a mansion of ideas and forms to one's own scale? Is one, on the contrary, going to take up the heart-rending and marvelous wager of the absurd?"

"[The absurd man] wants to find out if it is possible to live without appeal."

The other essays, and interview, in the book are insightful and beautifully written, but the main draw is the Myth.
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Just a few points: Camus articulates well what many people think or feel, whether you accept or reject those thoughts, and he follows them to their logical end; he references existential philosophers but a good knowledge of them on your part isn't necessary to enjoy or gain from the book (Camus wasn't an existentialist and much of The Myth is an argument against them); it isn't dense or difficult philosophy, in fact it borders on a manifesto or manual of living. If the following quotes from the essay intrigue you, read it:"The theme of the irrational, as it is conceived by the existentials, is reason becoming confused and escaping by negating itself. The absurd is lucid reason noting its limits.""Is one going to die, escape by the leap, rebuild a mansion of ideas and forms to one's own scale? Is one, on the contrary, going to take up the heart-rending and marvelous wager of the absurd?""[The absurd man] wants to find out if it is possible to live without appeal."The other essays, and interview, in the book are insightful and beautifully written, but the main draw is the Myth. ( )