The Myth of Sisyphus
Ratings70
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings70
Average rating4.2
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • An internationally acclaimed author delivers one of the most influential works of the twentieth century, showing a way out of despair and reaffirming the value of existence. 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 presents a crucial exposition of existentialist thought.
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Reviews with the most likes.
“This world has a higher meaning that transcends its worries, or nothing is true but those worries.”
Not a full review but I just wanted to talk about this sentence that really stuck with me. I guess because it's a little scary. I am agnostic (or an atheist since people don't like the label of agnostic), so to believe in a higher power/meaning doesn't come as naturally or comfortably to me. At the same time, the alternative, that my worries are the most real thing in the world, is frightening and somewhat disheartening.
I definitely don't believe this sentence to be the ultimate axiom of life but I do believe that there's some truth to it. so the question holds: do I want my worries to be real and indispensable, or do I want to believe that there's a meaning far greater?
Such an enchanting way of expressing ideas and a deeply interesting read from a philosophical perspective. Camus tackles the existential question from quite a dramatic but cohesive form.
a Big minus was that i have not read kafka, kierkegaard or dostoyevsky enough to fully absorb the references. However there were some great notions and remarks about life, the meaning and meaninglessness of it and a postmodern view into Eurpean (western) culture.
