I'm committing suicide one day at a time.
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I'm committing suicide one day at a time.
This is a new to me G L Wilson.
I have never heard of this myth.
Is that sentence from it?
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, and it is not a sentence from it what I wrote. The myth of Sisyphus is that he is happy.
Oh...is that your sentence?Quote:
Originally Posted by G L Wilson
I love the Myth of Sisyphus. Camus was a great writer and used that myth very well. I agree with him that you can get used to everything and be happy in any situation life brings you.
but I don't think you do...
I remember reading this work by Camus as an undergraduate, as well as others, but that was long ago. In looking at the wikipedia article on it, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Sisyphus , I wonder what the word "absurd" really means. Camus rejects solutions provided by other philosophers, but I now wonder if his rejection was correct.
Regarding suicide, this is no longer an option for Sisyphus since he is already dead and is in an eternal hell created by the gods just for him. That realization makes me doubt Camus' conclusions where the consciousness of death is prominent, but I would have to re-read the book.
welll looking at the book and then reading this question
Does the realization of the absurd require suicide?
puts into question what absurd mean.
A world devoid of God does not mean absurd or futile because we do live life without god around on a daily basis.
However about the myth one could presume that Sisyhus would kick the boulder to roll to the other side of the mountain hence ridding Sisyphus of his monotonous forever rolling down boulder.
'can I kick it?!! yes you can' is a song that comes to mind.
A stroke of genius and that's one task out of the way.
A twist on how to kick routine out of its habbit.
I take the Absurd to mean the generally bland.
As cacian mentions, I don't see why Sisyphus couldn't just stop pushing the boulder up the mountain. Even if he could not commit suicide anymore, since he's already dead, what's stopping him from discontinuing his torment? Maybe that would be "suicide" in his hell.
Whether the "absurde" is just blandness as G L Wilson suggests or not makes me wonder if Camus really has anything that is worth writing an essay about. We all have bad days. So what? We'll feel better tomorrow.
In glancing at a French version, the absurd sees to be defined by the following:
Ce divorce entre l'homme et sa vie, l'acteur et son décor, c'est proprement le sentiment de l'absurdité.
This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I don't think it would make any more sense to me in English. My question is not so much what this means, but whether there is any point to the essay at all.
One thing I am picking up from the text is a belief, which seems too close to a flip-side of a Christian belief in resurrection, that suicide is a practical way to achieve nothingness (le néant).
Sisyphus has his honour that is all.
If I may, the absurd is representative of a meaninglness reality. It coincides with the falsehoods of civilization and the several synthetic facades that have dominated the ideals of mainstream consciousness. The individual phsyci has often been succumbed by misconception and egotistical bickering. Albert Camus reflects upon the absurdity of self-delusion, which is thence the purpose of Sisyphus. Sisyphus is bound to perpetual torment, it never ceases. The central character of the tale, Sisyphus, is representative of the absurd hero, and in a broader spectrum humanity itself. We as a species continuously attempt to alter the inevitable, but unfortunately the reality to which we are linked will never cease to persist. The boulder continues to tumble down a path, built upon a hope and only in the midst of the occasion where everything reverts back to the former do we recognize the obscurity of our place within the universe.
Those that take the Absurd onto themselves are considered normal.
says who?the absurdist himself?Quote:
Originally Posted by G L Wilson
what honour? the fact that he could not work out that the mountain was cleverer then him?Quote:
Originally Posted by G L Wilson
Quote:
Originally Posted by cacian
It's about the determination, even with the knowledge that it is all futile - there is a determination.