Myth of sisyphus and other essays

Myth of sisyphus and other essays

He admits that he stands at a certain point on a curve that he acknowledges having to travel to its end. Welcome back. No one else but Camus could have wrote this work, as soon as you enter myth of sisyphus and other essays world, the world around you becomes less apparent. Conditions of Use Privacy Notice Interest-Based Ads ©Amazon. Full catalog record MARCXML. Taking the absurd seriously means acknowledging the contradiction between the desire of human reason and the unreasonable world. I did like the other essays included as they sort of helped me to prove my point in this.

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The Plague. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt. The Fall. Being and Nothingness. Jean-Paul Sartre. What other items do customers buy after viewing this item? Man's Search for Meaning. Viktor E. Start reading Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle hereor download a FREE Kindle Reading App. Customer reviews. How are ratings calculated? To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, myth of sisyphus and other essays, we don’t use a simple average.

Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also myth of sisyphus and other essays reviews to verify trustworthiness. Top reviews Most recent Top reviews. Top reviews from the United States. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Verified Purchase. The writings of Camus are always insightful and interesting. This collection of essays is no exception. I thought I’d provide some pertinent information that one might consider when purchasing a used copy of a book such as this. Many books by Camus are required reading in Philosophy college courses.

” I have purchased four books of collections of essays listed as myth of sisyphus and other essays in “Good condition “ written by Camus in the last month and all but one of them has had underlining throughout the book. The copy of this book I received that was listed in “Good” condition had this issue. If people are not aware that this is a possibility, then Amazon should allow customers to point this possibility out to others. People have a right to make informed decisions before they purchase an item on the Amazon Marketplace. I consider myself fairly well read; I am an attorney and I read a lot for work, pleasure and for self-development. This book is pretty challenging.

Since I started it, I have read more than a few lines, scratched my head, reread and still wasn't sure if I understood the intended meaning. I'm not sure if the difficulty is due to a poor translation, or maybe Camus just had an unconventional writing style. I've never read Camus before so I cannot say which is the case. Camus does seem to emphasize making long logical deductive arguments in a fairly verbose style. The book does cause me to contemplate the serious issue of suicide and the meaning of life. and I have has some "aha" moments while reading this. I could imagine that the book could grow on me, it's not the type of book you read straight though, myth of sisyphus and other essays, I think you have to take your time with it. Maybe this book would be good in a class or book club, where people could help each other interpret the meaning, myth of sisyphus and other essays.

You may want to start off with a different translation first, then try this one. Love this book. I know that it isnt technically a philosophical work and Camus always had a desire to avoid the minutae and nitpicking that runs rampant among philosophers, but it is applicable to life, and close to philosophy. When I turned the last page of this book I felt a great sense of freedom at life and a newfound vigor and joy in it as well. Here is a short breakdown of the philosophy. The only true question in philosophy is suicide Since if one should kill oneself the rest is meaningless 2. If there is no way to know anything absolutely as Camus will prove if man can not reconcile his desire to find a meaning in life with his complete inability to find one is life still worth living?

The answer is yes. Absurd man has 3 things that enrich life. My revolt My freedom, my passion. My revolt is that I am aware of my own desire for meaning and inability to find it absurdity and rather than solve this by taking on belief systems or commiting suicide, i stay with it and live in full awareness of it, not running from the concomitant pain. My freedom, since all beliefs are ultimately untenable, everything is permitted, I am free to do whatever I want but at the same time no action can have an ultimate meaning My passion, I live life full of passion even though life is meaningless. Can we be free in the alienation and tedium that defines modern life? Is modern existence so soul crushing that, like Kierkegaard and Walker Percy, everyone walking around myth of sisyphus and other essays "dead dead dead"?

Is there hope for the individual tasked with the absurd. Camus imagines that Sisyphus is happy - concludes that we MUST imagine Sisyphus happy. Camus is wrong of course, myth of sisyphus and other essays. Sisyphus is the paradigm of the utterly alienated individual, myth of sisyphus and other essays, devoid of community, of life, of meaning. But Camus' Sisyphus is the answer to the post WWII view of the absurdity of life. Life having decayed into loathsome total war, elitism, and genocide - became absurd. Can absurd life retain meaning; can the individual retain freedom? Camus's answer is Sisyphus. One must imagine one understands that answer to move past it.

Albert Camus' take on suicide in this book is probably the most important existential text to date. He demonstrates that a man who is doomed to roll a boulder up hill, only for it to fall and start over for the rest of time is not much different from an unsatisfied laborer in a dead end job. In the moments we have that we are conscious are what is most precious to us, we must imagine that we can be happy in those times. Continue to ask life's most important questions, never stop. sarcazm Top Contributor: Pets. Camus is good for fiction. Or probably during the war when he was writing underground articles for the resistance. But I Don't recommend Camus for actual philosophical treatises or arguments as he negates his own points quite often.

He takes liberties with the works of other artists to make his own inferences which could easily be argued against. His position on absurdism is mutable; one can easily argue that suicide - if considered absurd - then easily falls into place with the philosophical concept, myth of sisyphus and other essays. I did like the other essays included as they sort of helped me to prove my point in myth of sisyphus and other essays. You can't say Kafka screwed up writing about absurdism because he included the concept of hope in The Castle, while talking about how essential hope is yourself as an artist in the last essay in the book, for example.

See all reviews. Top reviews from other countries. if you enjoy essays dressed up in book costumes you’ll love the myth of sisyphus! if you’re a fan of my amazon purchase reviews and i know you are you know i suffer from refractory bipolar disorder and also thank you for characterizing my reviews as “helpful”! my comorbid panic disorder and agoraphobia is a fear so overwhelming i’m often unable to leave home and my browser cookies are all, “this woman searches suicide forums and ubereats like, all the time lolz lolz”!

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In a interview, Camus rejected any ideological associations: ""No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked Camus was born in Algeria to a Pied-Noir family, and studied at the University of Algiers from which he graduated in In , Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons to ""denounce two ideologies found in both the USSR and the USA"". Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Photograph by United Press International [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. close ; } } this. getElementById iframeId ; iframe.

max contentDiv. scrollHeight, contentDiv. offsetHeight, contentDiv. document iframe. Enhance your purchase. One of the most influential works of this century, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought. Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide; the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning. With lyric eloquence, Albert Camus brilliantly posits a way out of despair, reaffirming the value of personal existence, and the possibility of life lived with dignity and authenticity.

Previous page. Print length. Publication date. See all details. Next page. Frequently bought together. Total price:. To see our price, add these items to your cart. Some of these items ship sooner than the others. Show details Hide details. Choose items to buy together. This item: The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. The Stranger. The Plague. Customers who viewed this item also viewed. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. The Myth of Sisyphus Vintage International. Albert Camus. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt. The Fall. Being and Nothingness. Jean-Paul Sartre. About the Author Born in Algeria in , Albert Camus published The Stranger —now one of the most widely read novels of this century—in Celebrated in intellectual circles, Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in On January 4, , he was killed in a car accident.

Start reading Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here , or download a FREE Kindle Reading App. About the author Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Read more Read less. Customer reviews. How are ratings calculated? To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Top reviews Most recent Top reviews. Top reviews from the United States. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Verified Purchase. The writings of Camus are always insightful and interesting. This collection of essays is no exception. I thought I’d provide some pertinent information that one might consider when purchasing a used copy of a book such as this. What is The Meaning of Human Lif e? New York, USA: Rodopi, Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus, and Other Essays. New York, USA: Vintage Books, Need a custom Essay sample written from scratch by professional specifically for you? certified writers online.

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. If you continue, we will assume that you agree to our Cookies Policy. Learn More. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. Removal Request. If you are the copyright owner of this paper and no longer wish to have your work published on IvyPanda. Truth Understanding According to Huw Price Key to Success in Life. GET WRITING HELP. Cite This paper. Select a referencing style:. Copy to Clipboard Copied! APA-6 MLA-8 Chicago N-B Chicago A-D Harvard. Reference IvyPanda. To the contrary, once this question is decided in the negative, it opens up a world of far more interesting issues. flag 80 likes · Like · see review. View all 9 comments. Oct 18, Lynne King rated it it was amazing Shelves: philosophy , books-to-read , camus.

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest — whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories — comes afterwards. Only Albert Camus, I believe, could have made that statement. He has an extremely rich and elegant writing style, and yet he seems to open up his heart to the reader and his reasoning is invigorating. Nevertheless I found it very hard to come to terms with The Myth of Sisyphus. It was the meditation on suicide that rather unnerved me.

I really do not believe philosophers, unless they have contemplated suicide themselves, should air their opinions. I feel sorry, however, for those individuals with dreadful terminal diseases who wish to end their lives and are unable to do so because of legal constraints. Anyway, linking absurdism with suicide was all too much for my psyche and she went into full revolt. I also thought that he was an Absurdist? He was actually a writer and novelist with a strong philosophical bent. Absurdism is an off-shoot of Existentialism and shares many of its characteristics. So I pass from this section of the book which also covers Don Juan rather interesting onto Absurd Creation with Philosophy and Fiction , and to parts that are quite beyond my comprehension.

Here is an example: All those lives maintained in the rarefied air of the absurd could not persevere without some profound and constant thought to infuse its strength into them. Right here, it can be only a strange feeling of fidelity. Conscious men have been sent to fulfill their task amid the most stupid of wars without considering themselves in contradiction. This is because it was essential to elude nothing. Conquest or play-acting, multiple loves, absurd revolt are tributes that man pays to his dignity in a campaign in which he is defeated in advance. The individual that I really felt sorry for was Sisyphus who ceaselessly rolled a rock to the top of a mountain and then the stone would fall back on its own weight.

In the Appendix to this section, hope and the absurd are discussed in the life of Franz Kafka and actually one of the best parts in The Myth of Sisyphus. One really gets a sense here why Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in I found that this essay talked to me and also resonated with me. It was so touching as he describes his feelings upon returning to the place of his childhood, Tipasa, Algeria after an absence of twenty years. I absolutely loved this and there is also a sense of place. This is Camus philosophizing at the highest level, after having lived through a horrific second world war by making comparisons between the two periods.

Plus the descriptions are exquisite. I wanted to go to Tipasa myself when I read: At noon on the half-sandy slopes covered with heliotropes like a foam left by the furious waves of the last few days as they withdrew, I watched the sea barely swelling at that hour with an exhausted motion, and I satisfied the two thirsts one cannot long neglect without drying up — I mean loving and admiring. For there is merely bad luck in not being loved; there is misfortune in not loving. All of us, today, are dying of this misfortune. For violence and hatred dry up the heart itself; the long fight for justice exhausts the love that nevertheless gave birth to it.

In the clamour in which we live, love is impossible and justice does not suffice. This is why Europe hates daylight and is only able to set injustice up against injustice. But in order to keep justice from shrivelling up like a beautiful orange fruit containing nothing but a bitter, dry pulp, I discovered once more at Tipasa that one must keep intact in oneself a freshness, a cool wellspring of joy, love the day that escapes injustice and return to combat having won that light. Here I recaptured the former beauty, a young sky, and I measured my luck, realizing at last that in the worst years of our madness the memory of that sky had never left me. This was what in the end had kept me from despairing. In conclusion, I have my own philosophical views on life, as we all do and only I can choose what direction my life is going to take, be it with a certain amount of serendipitous luck thrown in along the way.

This was not an easy book to read but still it is excellent and succeeded in bringing happiness and optimism to me for the future. And yes, I mustn't forget Rakhi. flag 59 likes · Like · see review. View all 22 comments. Jul 15, Yu rated it really liked it · review of another edition Shelves: non-fiction , french. Sisyphus must be humanism in its fiercest form, but is it as heroic as in Camus' idolization? Because there is no assured eternality and reason knows its limit, man is forced into the corner of absurdity. There are three available options: 1 Turn away from the absurd and leap into spiritual irrationality; 2 Commit suicide and kill one's self-consciousness which is the very source of the break between one and the world; 3 Keep the absurd alive, live unreconciled, revolt consciously, and scorn t Sisyphus must be humanism in its fiercest form, but is it as heroic as in Camus' idolization?

There are three available options: 1 Turn away from the absurd and leap into spiritual irrationality; 2 Commit suicide and kill one's self-consciousness which is the very source of the break between one and the world; 3 Keep the absurd alive, live unreconciled, revolt consciously, and scorn triumphantly. There is no unity between the man and the world, but there is a unity between man and his own crushing fate. It is the consciousness of this unity that fills a man's heart and makes Sisyphus happy. My main objection to Camus' humanism is that it's all consciousness and no action. As Dostoevsky's underground man shows us, mere consciousness doesn't make a man heroic.

Yes one must imagine Sisyphus happy but that's just an imagination and in reality a submission to futility. Awareness of the superiority of one's personal fate should not be the final step. To end with a quote from Achilles in The Iliad : "Xanthos, why do you prophesy my death? This is not for you. I myself know well it is destined for me to die here far from my beloved father and mother. But for all that I will not stop till the Trojans have had enough of my fighting. flag 46 likes · Like · see review. View all 10 comments. Aug 20, Steven Godin rated it it was amazing Shelves: existentialism , france , non-fiction , philosophy , essays. Albert Camus has captured the internal plight of much of the modern world.

When a person begins to question his own monotonous reality, seeking to find meaning behind his daily motions of life and failing to find any at all, he comes to contemplate that void. He exemplifies the fact that the earth revolves around the sun. People lived and died in pursuit of t Albert Camus has captured the internal plight of much of the modern world. People lived and died in pursuit of that knowledge, and yet the question and answer alike do not matter, because we live in accordance to social structures and norms that are man-made and will one day be reformed, replaced, or blinked out of existence.

The insignificance of human life in comparison to the infinite void of space and the abstract concept of time, which rules over humanity, is the notion which can manifest in the minds of men and bring about absurdity. He suggests that suicide amounts to a confession that life is not worth living. He links this confession to what he calls the "feeling of absurdity", that on the whole, we go through life with meaning and purpose, with a sense that we do things for good and profound reasons. Occasionally, however for some at least, we might come to see our daily lives dictated primarily by the forces of habit, thus bringing into question the following, if one feels that the embodiment of freedom is lost to a drone-like existence, all of our actions and reasons for them to a degree become pointless, with a feeling of absurdity linked to meaningless, meaningless to death by ones own hand.

The book delves deep into "absurdity" a concept which is at the backbone to the book however is never fully explained with clarity. Definitely an essential book for those interested in nihilism as the alternative rather optimistic take on the concept is enlightening and on the contrary to common belief of the concept being parallel with pessimism. Camus in basic terms simply implies that we start to live before the habit of thinking on a deep level takes hold, thus avoiding the consequences of the meaningless nature of life, through what Camus calls an "act of eluding. One the main attributes used throughout his fiction, that of "exile" is also included heavily as a comparative for this essay.

No one else but Camus could have wrote this work, as soon as you enter his world, the world around you becomes less apparent. Ending with with a discussion of the myth of Sisyphus to complete this work, who, according to the Greek myth, was punished for all eternity to roll a rock up a mountain only to have it roll back down to the bottom when he reaches the top. Sisyphus, the absurd hero, and his punishment are representative of the human condition, he must struggle perpetually and without hope of success. Says Camus, so long as he accepts that there is nothing more to life than this absurd struggle, then he can find happiness in it.

A thought-provoking book, that is not a casual read, it's probably best suited to die-hard Camus fans, and those studying Existentialism or philosophy. View 1 comment. Mar 03, Jason rated it really liked it Recommends it for: slaves, idiots, conceited philosophy students, kafkaphiles, morons. Okay, so the basic premise in this book is that there are two schools of thought involved with becoming conscious as a man. There is one in which you become conscious of God, accepting faith as the channel between this world and the next. Existence is a matter of order, one that is concrete and follows the compelling obligations towards the God whom you commit your faith. The other option is the absurd, for which this book is written. The problem asks is it possible not to commit suicide in a me Okay, so the basic premise in this book is that there are two schools of thought involved with becoming conscious as a man.

The problem asks is it possible not to commit suicide in a meaningless world and without faith in God. The absurd man simply states, I and my plight are ephemeral, but I still choose life. The comparison to Sisyphus is made through this absurd man. A man who is doomed by the gods to perpetually push a rock up a mountain which becomes steeper as it moves up. Eventually slope takes the better of the effort and as a matter of prescribed definition the rock falls down the hill; to which, the man, Sisyphus, must start again. It is presupposed in an existence without explanation that it is unreasonable to assume anything concrete. Fuck it. Saying, I live it. It would be a crime to strip my life of the possibility of something. Even if I am a slave I can sing.

Really, the impetus is for responsibility. What I do in this life is directly reflected in this life. If I steal, then there is recourse. If I lie; but what if someone lies to me? Morality lines things within the sights of God, establishing guilt. What is guilt? I feel guilt for not abiding to my addiction. Who can identify the real factions of guilt, who can identify its sincerity. Everything begins with lucid indifference. Anything that I do has no value. On the other hand, I am living and I am breathing and in a strange way I have a personal freedom unpronounced by most people who establish their own freedoms.

All I have to do is have faith in my freedom and like a majesty that is lain out in silver robes before me, it is there. I only have to respect that I am living in a free slate, unmitigated by a stratified moral imperative that limits so many people from following intuition and there actual imperative needs. Do you believe in destiny? That we all have a purpose and it is designated by our need to imbibe the principles of our life into a system that we can identify for ourselves. There is that mode of philosophy that says that we are the people whom we are, we are meant to be these people, this specific type of person completely genuine to himself and totally as that self. My identity is the world surrounding me combusting into a single frame that I can represent justly by my merely living life as I should be doing it.

I do not need to live up to this social strata of an impartial development towards nowhere, rather I should live life as I make fit, feeling good. Feeling established. So what if my endeavors are rooted to rolling a rock up a hill at least I have something to do, in the formation of my universe I need a place to put what is concrete, even if there is nothing concrete. As analogous creatures, if we do not have any basis to compare then we are no more capable of being thoughtful than a bar of soap. And at the last moment before my death, that is how I could acknowledge that I was alive. Or how I am still alive, whatever.

flag 38 likes · Like · see review. View all 6 comments. Dec 17, Patrick rated it liked it Recommends it for: philosophers, dorm room and otherwise. Shelves: books-read-in There was a part of me that really, really, really wanted to give this book 4 stars because of the way it made me think about life and consider and reconsider my own notions about the meaning we make in our worlds. It contained some really interested ideas regarding the philosophy of absurdism, which I would best describe as something of a happy medium between existentialism and nihilism, though I understand Camus himself might consider it nihilism's polar opposite. That said, I can't say I reall There was a part of me that really, really, really wanted to give this book 4 stars because of the way it made me think about life and consider and reconsider my own notions about the meaning we make in our worlds.

That said, I can't say I really liked it. There were some interesting ideas eloquently described, but Camus gets a little too bogged down in his own verbosity. Perhaps I'm shattering the windows of my own glass house when I say this, but his writing just seemed a bit too showy for me. It seemed as if he had things to say, very interesting, thought-provoking things to say, but he would rather dance around them with flowery language and arcane examples rather than just come out with them. In short, while I really enjoyed the ideas in this book, I simply can't say that I enjoyed this book. Camus had enough interesting sentiments to keep me going, but it definitely got to the point where it became a chore to read.

When you find yourself questioning whether you should read the book you brought onto the T or the 'Metro', you know it's maybe not the most enthralling book. flag 35 likes · Like · see review. Jan 04, Helga rated it really liked it Shelves: philosophy , french , nonfiction. O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible. There is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. The title refers to Sisyphus from the Greek mythology, whom Zeus punished to forever rolling a rock O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible. The title refers to Sisyphus from the Greek mythology, whom Zeus punished to forever rolling a rock up a hill in the depths of Hades, from which, the stone would fall back of its own weight.

flag 32 likes · Like · see review. View 2 comments. Jun 24, Edita rated it it was amazing Shelves: albert-camus. Likewise and during every day of an unillustrious life, time carries us. But a moment always comes when we have to carry it. Yet a day comes when a man notices or says that he is thirty. Thus he asserts his youth. But simultaneously he situates himself in relation to time. He takes his place in it. H Likewise and during every day of an unillustrious life, time carries us. He admits that he stands at a certain point on a curve that he acknowledges having to travel to its end.

He belongs to time, and by the horror that seizes him, he recognizes his worst enemy. Tomorrow, he was longing for tomorrow, whereas everything in him ought to reject it. That revolt of the flesh is the absurd. At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky, the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we had clothed them, henceforth more remote than a lost paradise. The primitive hostility of the world rises up to face us across millennia, for a second we cease to understand it because for centuries we have understood in it solely the images and designs that we had at- tributed to it beforehand, because henceforth we lack the power to make use of that artifice.

The world evades us because it becomes itself again. That stage scenery masked by habit becomes again what it is. It withdraws at a distance from us. Just as there are days when under the familial face of a woman, we see as a stranger her we had loved months or years ago, perhaps we shall come even to desire what suddenly leaves us so alone. But the time has not yet come. Just one thing: that denseness and that strangeness of the world is the absurd. flag 28 likes · Like · see review. View all 7 comments. Jul 23, Matthew Ted rated it it was amazing Shelves: philosophy , lit-writ-french , essays , non-fiction , translated , 20th-century. The other essays included are interesting and I read them a few years ago with the titular essay which remains as one of my favourite essays ever written.

My review of Sisyphus alone is elsewhere for some reason, here. The other essays "SUMMER IN ALGIERS", "THE MINOTAUR or THE STOP IN ORAN", "HELEN'S EXILE", "RETURN TO TIPASA" and "THE ARTIST AND HIS TIME" pale after the first. The latter essay was interesting to see Camus talk about the "artist"; the essay about Algiers is nostalgic and wel The other essays included are interesting and I read them a few years ago with the titular essay which remains as one of my favourite essays ever written. The latter essay was interesting to see Camus talk about the "artist"; the essay about Algiers is nostalgic and well-written too, but then again, wouldn't we adore to read every writer on their homeland?

flag 23 likes · Like · see review. Nov 23, Gorana rated it it was amazing Shelves: philosophy , , 20th-century , existentialism. Since it is 'the thing' nowadays to put lots of sparkly gifs and pics in a review, who am I to differ? and the rain washes, and cleanses the salt of their tears from their cheeks. view spoiler [to be continued.. hide spoiler ] flag 22 likes · Like · see review. Apr 18, Gary rated it really liked it · review of another edition Shelves: favourites. Whenever I have 10 to 15 minutes to think I pull it out and find some marked passages and try to decipher them.

It is difficult to put into words the profound effect MoS has had on me. It feels like colours are more vivid, the grass is green, the monotony is ever present but it passes into ambiguity as soon as I notice it. Life may have no meaning but that opens up so many doors. flag 20 likes · Like · see review. Nov 22, Jason Koivu rated it liked it Shelves: fiction. It's been 20 years since I've read The Myth of Sisyphus. Although I've wanted to write a review about it ever since joining Goodreads I haven't, because I don't remember it very well. And yet, every time I go through my books-read list and I see it sitting there unreviewed, I get the urge to write one and then I remember that I don't know the book well enough, so I drop it.

A few months later I repeat the cycle. It's sort of like pushing the proverbial boulder up the hill and having it roll back It's been 20 years since I've read The Myth of Sisyphus. It's sort of like pushing the proverbial boulder up the hill and having it roll back down, and then trying again and again with the same result. Wish I could remember what this book was about flag 19 likes · Like · see review. Aug 22, Bettie rated it really liked it Shelves: summer , suicide , books-about-books-and-book-shops , e-book , absurdist , lit-crit , nonfiction , lifestyles-deathstyles , essays , philosophy. And that is indeed genius: the intelligence that knows its frontiers. Description: One of the most influential works of this century, this is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought.

Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide: the question of living or not living in an absurd universe devoid of order or meaning. Opening: There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or i And that is indeed genius: the intelligence that knows its frontiers. All the rest—whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer. And if it is true, as Nietzsche claims, that a philosopher, to deserve our respect, must preach by example, you can appreciate the importance of that reply, for it will precede the definitive act. These are facts the heart can feel; yet they call for careful study before they become clear to the intellect.

Dipping into this as an aside to my current bedside read Nine Lives and that the Jains are in the news this week. So many high star results, so few words. Is that because no-one wishes to contemplate death? I was peeved to see there was little to console the half dead - those in coma, probable death by cancer, alzheimer's etc. For such a short entry, this should occupy the thinking person's mind for all lifespan. Nothing is inconsequential here. Leaving home at a young age, he first lived with the Christians in Palestine, before eventually being expelled from that community and adopting the life of a Cynic philosopher and eventually settling in Greece.

He is most remembered for committing suicide by giving his own funeral oration and cremating himself on a funeral pyre at the Olympic Games in wiki sourced - An Absurd Reasoning - The Absurd Man - Absurd Creation - The Myth of Sisyphus - Appendix: Hope And The Absurd In The Work Of Franz Kafka - Summer in Algiers: Opening: The loves we share with a city are often secret loves. Old walled towns like Paris, Prague, and even Florence are closed in on themselves and hence limit the world that belongs to them. But Algiers together with certain other privileged places such as cities on the sea opens to the sky like a mouth or a wound.

In Algiers one loves the commonplaces: the sea at the end of every street, a certain volume of sunlight, the beauty of the race. And, as always, in that unashamed offering there is a secret fragrance. In Paris it is possible to be homesick for space and a beating of wings. Here at least man is gratified in every wish and, sure of his desires, can at last measure his possessions. flag 18 likes · Like · see review. Apr 09, Mehrsa rated it it was amazing. Really beautiful and thoughtful essays about a post-God or more accurately, post-afterlife, society. What to do with the absurdity of life and why live at all? Apr 09, Adrian Colesberry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition.

Classic for a reason. This book is a tonic for any agnostic or cynic struggling with the whole meaning-of-life thing. Camus, in a way that I find totally satisfying, solves that problem without the standard religious cop-out of locating meaning outside this world.