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eastofmeridian's review against another edition
3.0
There are parts of this that are beautiful and sensible, yet at times I found Camus drags on without saying anything of note. The strongest portion of the book is the final section, focusing on Sisyphus himself. However, in a relatively short book, there is an overabundance of filler that I did not find aided his argument.
hiitsmaz's review against another edition
5.0
I may have only understood 10% of this book ( with the help of many youtube videos and a professor explaining it) but that 10% alone has , is and will help me a lot in living .
And I’m happy I always can return and raise the percentage .
And I’m happy I always can return and raise the percentage .
lithiumln's review against another edition
5.0
C'est donc pour ça que j'ai vécu. Lire Camus parler de Dostoevski, Nietzsche et Kafka dans le même essai.
dyno8426's review against another edition
5.0
This book is a survival guide in the meaningless world that we inhabit. The consciousness of life and the experiences it offers are the heavy boulder that mortals have to push up a hill over and over again like the condemned Sisyphus and all the way at the top, despair at seeing the boulder roll back down to the bottom, from where we gotta pick it up again and carry on this cycle for a hopeless eternity. The precise feeling of absurdity experienced by a conscious mind when placing oneself in the worn out shoes of Sisyphus is the core existential philosophy that Camus offers here. Reading it was a tour-de-force of thoughts and Camus' unbreakable consistency and uncompromising integrity is what made this one of my all-time favourites. For someone without any formal introduction into the schools of thought, philosophical history or ideological evolution, reading it was not smooth sailing; although intuition, abstraction and my personal belief in meaninglessness helped me in grasping with humility what this enriching disruptive book had to offer.
An absurd man is at the focus of Camus' spotlight and he is a man who is conscious of the "absurdity" of the world, i.e. a contradiction existing at the intersection of his mind and the universe around him. The frontiers of human thought and the blank space of the inhuman environment surrounding him evokes the existential Nausea. Camus talks of such a man who has the awareness of the limitations of his Reason and the sensations of the physical world that he can grasp and comprehend, and the silence of the world that responds him. Such a rational man is constantly plagues by his Nostalgia for unification - some understanding of the world, some One meaning which could explain the Existence around him and cohesively occur to his mind and placate his restlessness. But alas, he will never find one. He will resort to two methods in such a scenario which cripple his consciousness - either take a Leap to abandon the absurd by religious ways and belief in some eternity which some God can offer; or eliminate the human factor in this constant state of contradiction by eliminating himself through suicide. The author substitute all other philosophical questions with the sole being how to live with the consciousness of absurdity staring into your face.
Camus says that having "hope" in either way to escape this feeling is giving up the struggle against the absurd. Neither can uphold the integrity of the human condition whose life is a stage with floorboards made of futility and the audience is excruciating silence. To live is to accept an eternal struggle against absurdity and not less despair get the better of you. While it is simultaneously the temptation of human condition to relapse into mind-numbing of habit and sometimes the desperation for a sense of purpose creeps in time and again as withdrawal symptoms, one's life must be dedicated in serving this contradiction that life offers and stare it back into its non-existent eyes. And what matters the most as respite from this tireless and suffering exercise is to keep engaging in the passions that this world has to offer with no inhibiting principle that might compromise the rules of the absurd game - i.e. not forgetting that there is absurdity and no self-fabricated importance is ever allowed. Creating what our limited mind can engage in and experiencing what the material universe has to offer is as far as we can go to pass our time, after that the only certainty that our mind can ever grasp of is bound to gratify us - death.
To say Camus gives hope at the end of all of this by renouncing suicide as a solution would be abusing his work, since that's what exactly he does not want us to do, i.e. hoping when there is no salvation. Only when man's condemnation becomes clear to him and he accepts it in all his humility does he realises the freedom of experience and engagement that life has to offer, even if it is ephemeral. On this stage of appearances and distracting props, act, and dance as if nobody's watching, because nobody really is.
An absurd man is at the focus of Camus' spotlight and he is a man who is conscious of the "absurdity" of the world, i.e. a contradiction existing at the intersection of his mind and the universe around him. The frontiers of human thought and the blank space of the inhuman environment surrounding him evokes the existential Nausea. Camus talks of such a man who has the awareness of the limitations of his Reason and the sensations of the physical world that he can grasp and comprehend, and the silence of the world that responds him. Such a rational man is constantly plagues by his Nostalgia for unification - some understanding of the world, some One meaning which could explain the Existence around him and cohesively occur to his mind and placate his restlessness. But alas, he will never find one. He will resort to two methods in such a scenario which cripple his consciousness - either take a Leap to abandon the absurd by religious ways and belief in some eternity which some God can offer; or eliminate the human factor in this constant state of contradiction by eliminating himself through suicide. The author substitute all other philosophical questions with the sole being how to live with the consciousness of absurdity staring into your face.
Camus says that having "hope" in either way to escape this feeling is giving up the struggle against the absurd. Neither can uphold the integrity of the human condition whose life is a stage with floorboards made of futility and the audience is excruciating silence. To live is to accept an eternal struggle against absurdity and not less despair get the better of you. While it is simultaneously the temptation of human condition to relapse into mind-numbing of habit and sometimes the desperation for a sense of purpose creeps in time and again as withdrawal symptoms, one's life must be dedicated in serving this contradiction that life offers and stare it back into its non-existent eyes. And what matters the most as respite from this tireless and suffering exercise is to keep engaging in the passions that this world has to offer with no inhibiting principle that might compromise the rules of the absurd game - i.e. not forgetting that there is absurdity and no self-fabricated importance is ever allowed. Creating what our limited mind can engage in and experiencing what the material universe has to offer is as far as we can go to pass our time, after that the only certainty that our mind can ever grasp of is bound to gratify us - death.
To say Camus gives hope at the end of all of this by renouncing suicide as a solution would be abusing his work, since that's what exactly he does not want us to do, i.e. hoping when there is no salvation. Only when man's condemnation becomes clear to him and he accepts it in all his humility does he realises the freedom of experience and engagement that life has to offer, even if it is ephemeral. On this stage of appearances and distracting props, act, and dance as if nobody's watching, because nobody really is.
hpolo2o's review against another edition
5.0
What consolidated Absurdism in as plain terms as possible and the resolution of the illegitimacy of suicide within that realm of thought
matmcdonut's review against another edition
5.0
Honestly couldn’t have read this at a better time. Should be mandatory for anyone gripping with the uncertainty and futility of life.
leonardcohenfan69's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced