The joke was rather cheap, true. But we can face The Absurd in various ways:
The Faith, the Sysiphian contentment with our "ordeal", the Beauty of it All or the Comic. (suicide and oblivian as negative options)I chose the easiest way out, but.. I'll try my bit:
Existentialism is a philosophical and literary movement that puts individual liberty up front as well as individual, subjective responsability. Existentialism considers every person a unique entity, a unique being who is master of his own acts and destiny, but also -for better or worse- for the values he decides to embrace.
Camus found in the myth of Sysiphus the perfect metaphor for his existentialism. He founded his reasoning on numerous philosophical treaties (below) and writers such as Dostoïevski and Kafka.
The existentialists make a distiction between 'anxieté' and 'angoisse'. Maybe corresponding with 'anxiety and angst' ?
For Kierkegaard 'angst' is born from liberty and is the discovery of a freedom which, while it is nothing, is dressed with infinite power.
For Heidegger, 'angst' is the very essence of mankind and reveals its fond. For Sartre, angst and anxiety blend. 'Angst' is at the same time angst in front of liberty and in front of the nothingness of death.
'Angst' is not ' fear'. Fear is for exterior things: the world and the others. But angst is in the confrontation with one's self.
Philosophic definition:
"The fact of << living in a myth of Sysiphus >> means that one lives in a repetitive absurd situation of which one never sees end nor purpose.
I've read Camus when I was rather young (my snoot) and remember The Pest and The Stranger as good with no unclearness. I remember having found Sysiphus difficult. Would have to read it again .
Last edited by BranShea; 07/27/08 10:54 AM.
