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monat2 's review for:
The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
by Justin O'Brien, Albert Camus
I was honestly pretty confused / lost about 40% of the time (Camus often writes in unnecessarily confusing language and I'm also a noob at reading philosophical texts). But nonetheless, I enjoyed the premise of The Myth of Sisyphus and Camus's walk-through of the philosophy of absurdism. Essentially, the essay is a powerful affirmation to life and rejection of suicide, encouraging us to accept and embrace the absurdity and inherent meaninglessness of life. Just like Sisyphus was cursed to the same, repetitive, futile task of pushing a rock to the top of a cliff only for it to fall back down, the tasks we do in this irrational, absurd world are repetitive and monotonous. But despite this, if we ultimately accept the meaninglessness of the world, we can still find happiness in our Sisyphian lives.
The other essays in the book were quite different and honestly kind of boring to read through (though I liked "Return to Tipasia" which had beautiful prose and nostalgic themes and "The Artist and His Time" which is an interview with Camus about art and politics).
I might have misinterpreted a few ideas, but overall, this book was really insightful and transformative-- it has changed my view of the world and how one can make meaning and happiness out of this life, here and now.
The other essays in the book were quite different and honestly kind of boring to read through (though I liked "Return to Tipasia" which had beautiful prose and nostalgic themes and "The Artist and His Time" which is an interview with Camus about art and politics).
I might have misinterpreted a few ideas, but overall, this book was really insightful and transformative-- it has changed my view of the world and how one can make meaning and happiness out of this life, here and now.