“It happens that the stage sets collapse. Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, streetcar, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday according to the same rhythm – this path is easily followed most of the time. But one day the “why” arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement”
Kind of? But kind of not. At least not in the way you’re maybe thinking. When Camus says to picture him happy, we’ve gotta assume it’s for more than just the split second at the top before the boulder crashes down again and he’s got to reroll.
In life Sisyphus was very on-the-grind, like his mind was constantly in overdrive, right? He outsmarted Zeus, cheated death twice, he was never not on it. But no amount of forethought or tricksy business is going to effect the rock—the task is immune to thought. It’s just gonna roll. Which means for the first since his death, he can use his mind freely for leisure, not gain, and quiet all the noisy, busy thoughts.
Add to that the certainty and predictability of his task, and a lot of anxiety goes out the window. Nothing spectacular is going to happen, sure, but nothing horrid is either. It’s just a level field of rock roll all day every day. He’s got complete knowledge of his own fate. I’d kill for that kind of certainty! And the afterlife is endless. There’s no pressure—he literally can’t fail because his success isn’t defined by completion—it’s doing the thing at all. If he’s pushing, he’s winning.
Idk. Maybe I’m nuts but a task that leaves you free to contemplate, lets you go at your own pace so long as you’re doing it and which you literally can’t fail at just doesn’t equate to grind culture to me♀️
A two-for-one special going on my “want to read” list from one of my all time favorite authors.
“The Plague”
and
“The Myth of Sisyphus”
by Albert Camus
When I read “The Stranger” in high school (I covered some of this in an earlier post about that particular book) I fell in love with Camus and his writing style. There’s something familiar and comforting about it. Maybe that’s weird but that’s what I love about literature, there’s something for everyone and not everyone does it the same.
I’m excited to get into these at some point but for now they collect dust and sit on my bookshelf.
hate how this guy in this book im reading criticizes camus’ lack of pessimism and insists on how actually the character of meursault is closer to us than the myth of sisyphus because the physicality of life is a greater comfort than the act of rebellion like
1) why are you calling out camus’ lack of pessimism when he says that on his philosophy shines a “neverfading sun” and that he doesn’t think his philosophy can described as pessimist in the first place. like why are you criticizing a point HE DOES NOT MAKE
2) the meaning of the myth of sisyphus doesn’t have end in self-awareness and smug satisfaction for your own rebellion otherwise that’s not rebellion in itself. if you think about a rebellion born out of pride that has still a positive impact on the world around you though perhaps intrinsically meaningless as meaningless is life itself then. then how can you compare the two when one of them is a creative, continuous effort and the other is just passivity lmao
If this myth is tragic, that is because its hero is conscious. Where would his torture be, indeed, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him? The workman of today works everyday in his life at the same tasks, and his fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious. Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn. Albert Camus “The myth of Sisyphus”.
