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#sartre #existentialism #Jean-Paul Sartre #existentialist #comic #existential

"It is very little time that I have gained, then is the whole struggle vanished at once, and I can rest in halls of roses and endlessly talk to my Jesus."

Kierkegaard wanted his epitaph to say simply “The Individual”; his wish was not granted.

#kierkegaard #existentialism

“You will see great sorrow, and in that sorrow you will be happy. This is my last message to you: in sorrow seek happiness. Work, work unceasingly. Remember my words, for although I shall talk with you again, not only my days but my hours are numbered.”

Dostoevsky, the Brothers Karamazov

#Dostoevsky #the brothers karamazov

Letter from Sartre to Simone de Beauvoir about La Nausee

#la nausée #jean-paul sartre #sartre #existentialism #nausea

"and the sorrow did not deceive him as life had done"

#fear and trembling #kierkegaard #soren kierkegaard #existentialism

onlyexplosions

“I had perfected a little speech which was always well received…that I was nothing, that it was not worth getting involved with me, that my life was elsewhere and not related to everyday happiness- a happiness that maybe I should have preferred to anything, but there you were, it was too late.”

-Camus, the Fall

#camus #the fall #albert camus

#nietzsche #god is dead #existentialism

#kafka #franz kafka

And I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more.

Franz Kafka

#franz kafka

Sorry, last photo I'll post of Camus

#camus #albert camus

#calvin and hobbes #existentialism

Camus

#camus #albert camus

the Plague

Camus' the Plague has led me to believe that in the midst of tragedy, one cannot find comfort in anything:

"Even the past, of which they thought incessantly, had a savour only of regret. For they would have wished to add to it all that they regretted having left undone."

"...And thus there was always something missing in their lives. Hostile to the past, impatient of the present, and cheated of the future"

"This misfortune which had come from outside and befallen a whole town did more than inflict on us an unmerited distress with which we might well be indignant. It also incited us to create our own suffering and thus to accept frustration as a natural state."

"For at the precise moment when the residents of the town began to panic, their thoughts were wholly fixed on the person whom they longed to meet again. The egoism of love made them immune to the general distress and, if they thought of the plague, it was only in so far as it might threaten to make their separation eternal."

#the plague #albert camus #camus

"One must imagine Sisyphus happy"

...but how?

Camus is so confident in the ultimate happiness of Sisyphus' condition. How can Sisyphus possibly find happiness leading such a pointless, exhausting existence? As I zoom out and look at Sisyphus' situation, I realize that there are two possible scenarios, or reactions, that he can take. 1) He can throw all his energy into the task at hand. As Camus puts it, "his rock is his thing." He can take pride in his labor despite the lack of reward, and the work itself adsorbs him fully and becomes his way of life. 2) He can put all his energy into resenting his life... resenting the gods for condemning him, resenting the pointlessness of his labor. The act of resenting itself gives his life meaning. He has a cause to revolt against. His awareness of the absurd and his discontent save him from perpetual boredom.

We can consider Sisyphus a hero because of his ability to find happiness despite the futility of his situation. He is a hero because he is conscious and endures his consciousness. What about Meursault in the Stranger? He leads his life the complete opposite way as Sisyphus; Meursault lived a passive existence, without really committing to anything or anyone. After being sentenced to death, he does not rebel against his sentence, but rather, accepts it. "Well, so I'm going to die. Sooner than other people will, obviously. But everybody knows that life isn't worth living. Deep down I knew perfectly well that it doesn't matter whether you die at thirty of at seventy...I would still be the one dying." (114) To Meursault, the absurdity of life is death, and he accepts it without a struggle. For Sisyphus, the absurdity of life is that death will never come; he has no real conclusion or endpoint to anticipate.

So how is Meursault a hero? Meursault is a hero because he is aware of the absurdity of life when no one else is. He is criticized by society because of this awareness. In this way, he is a victim. Society did not let him continue to live his simple and innocent life and instead forced him to evaluate himself. Society called him guilty.

Meursault is a hero in a different way that Sisyphus is. While Sisyphus is a hero because he found a meaning in life when there was no meaning, Meursault is a hero because he is content with leading a life without meaning.

#the stranger #the myth of sisyphus #camus #albert camus

#albert camus #camus

Albert Camus

I really love this photo

#albert camus

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