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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
challenging
medium-paced
challenging
slow-paced
The opening line is amazing, and the book is if course iconic, but it leaves much to be desired. Philosophically, it is quite shallow, and does not represent philosophers or views well. And Camus's solution to the absurd never really seems to solve the problem. Ultimately, Camus is a less philosophically sophisticated and also less adventurous, intellectually advanced and sensitive version of Nietzsche.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Camus makes an attempt to create a structured system of meaning that is logically self-justifying. Pretty good.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Finally read this, this time in tandem with Ben so I actually finished. Camus' vibesy philosophy is a bit more interesting than other philosophy I've read, in that...it's vibesy.
In summary, to prove that I sort of understood what the fuck I was reading:
Humans expect and desire meaning in the world, but the world is total chaos, and the tension between these two things is "the absurd." You can either put your faith in God at this point, commit suicide (which Camus posits as actually kind of a reasonable response to the absurd), or try to live in the absurd as a sort of absurd man, doing stuff even though there's no "point." Camus is interested in a) why people commit suicide b) and how to do that last bit about living in the absurd.
I am interested in the way he sort of re-situates creative work like writing as actually having no meaning, and thus perhaps accessing a bit of it. That makes creative work seem way more approachable.
Random note:
If you read the copy with random essays attached, it makes sense why the essays are attached. They are from earlier in Camus' life and have hints of him grappling with what he would later define as the absurd. I wish I'd read these before actually reading the Myth of Sisyphus. It would have been a nice gentle introduction to the idea.
In summary, to prove that I sort of understood what the fuck I was reading:
Humans expect and desire meaning in the world, but the world is total chaos, and the tension between these two things is "the absurd." You can either put your faith in God at this point, commit suicide (which Camus posits as actually kind of a reasonable response to the absurd), or try to live in the absurd as a sort of absurd man, doing stuff even though there's no "point." Camus is interested in a) why people commit suicide b) and how to do that last bit about living in the absurd.
I am interested in the way he sort of re-situates creative work like writing as actually having no meaning, and thus perhaps accessing a bit of it. That makes creative work seem way more approachable.
Random note:
If you read the copy with random essays attached, it makes sense why the essays are attached. They are from earlier in Camus' life and have hints of him grappling with what he would later define as the absurd. I wish I'd read these before actually reading the Myth of Sisyphus. It would have been a nice gentle introduction to the idea.
medium-paced
Sisyphus (me) is ultimately content (absolutely devastated and hopeless) with pushing his rock up a hill (going to work everyday).