Customer Reviews:
 Let the hell of the present be your kingdom April 26, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Albert Camus, who will not call himself a philosopher, who will not "sit on a judge's bench" here, in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus, describes an "absurd sensitivity" he feels prevalent in this age. He is concerned with the principle that "for a man who does not cheat, what he believes to be true must determine his action." Consequently, how should someone, in finding the world absurd, find resource to continue in that world. Indeed, for Camus, "there is but one truly philosophical problem and that is suicide."
He clubs philosophers, scientists and religious acolytes together for their leap into construction and the world of their belief; "the leap does not represent an extreme danger, as Kierkegaard would have it. The danger, on the contrary, lies in the subtle instant that precedes the leap. Being able to remain in that dizzying crest - that is integrity and the rest is subterfuge."
Aware of the dangers of ignorance and enthusiasm, Camus propounds a life of self-exhaustion and permanent revolution, concerned not only with the quality of life, but with its quantity; "a man's rule of conduct and his scale of values have no meaning except through the quantity and variety of experiences he has been able to accumulate." But this is not a blank cheque for violence, "one must not be a dupe", it is the means for art to realise its ultimate importance; "the great work of art has less significance in itself than the ordeal that it demands of the man and the opportunity which it provides him of overcoming his phantoms and approaching a little closer to his naked reality." Absurdity provides us with a justification for authentic creative effort.
Technically, Camus does not impress, as Sartre's or Heidegger's analyses do. But we have to appreciate him on his own terms, he even asks for our "indulgence" in his preface. He is not concerned with drawing up irreproachable ontological walls, building closed systems or universes, but with providing some light by which to see how everything we do is already contained within walls which we only have to create within to be free. Less impressive than his fiction, yes, but still immensely influential.
The five other essays in this collection, especially Summer in Algiers and The Minotaur, both lyrical eulogies to the cities and the country in Africa, provide counterweight to the main essay; uneasy as a philosopher, here Camus shows his true colours, simply those of a great writer.
 outstanding November 14, 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Parts of this book are revalatory. The account of someone "awakening to absurdity" - the sense of meaninglessness which render everyday gestures and actions seem unreal, staged - is masterly. But it is how he expands upon this that makes this book consructive - can 'man' find away out of this malaise towards new connection's or is suicide the only free act left to him? Camus' says that concomitant to the feeling of absurdity is a loss of hope - instead of projections into the future, all that man can possibly do is effect a revolt in the present against "his obscurity". It is the possibility of establishing a "new way of seeing" through which (ermm...) redemption could come.
The Paradox of Life: Meaningful or Absurd? May 6, 2006
11 out of 18 found this review helpful
The myth of Sisyphus is an ancient Greek myth - the
book of the same name by Camus is about the
philosophy of suicide, or rather the absurdity of
life. He believed suicide to be the only proper
subject of philosophy. Albert Camus, like Jean Paul Sartre (e.g., in Sartre's _Age of Reason_), is brilliant at
conveying his [existentialist] philosophy through his
novels and plays.
Sisyphus was a Greek hero, i.e., less than a god
but higher than a man and consequently is doomed to
never die. As you know, the ancient Greeks and Romans
believed the heavens above are occupied by Heroes
and Villains slugging it out eternally: the age-old
belief in the never-ending fight between good and
evil (cf. St George vs the dragon] even as we speak.
Sisyphus's task is to forever roll a massive boulder
up a mountain, for each step forward, the boulder
rolls two steps back, so of course he never reaches
the top for all his toils as he has to forever begin again from the bottom.
Camus takes as his premise, the dualistic nature of life: we strive to make life meaningful, and yet the end result is death. English intellectuals tend to be quite pusillanimous on a topic whose logical conclusion is that the only meaningful solution to the absurdity of life and the dearth of religion is suicide (Camus is atheist), for it follows the dualistism of existence (light/dark, male/female, day/night, etc).
 Too dense and obscure October 15, 2005
8 out of 13 found this review helpful
I am a huge fan of Camus, and absurdism is a view of life that has a lot of meaning for me, so I had high hopes for this collection of essays, famed for being the definitive absurdist statement. Unfortunately I was left hugely disappointed.
The first half of the book is given to a series of essays discussing the implications of absurdism for our reasoning, for the priorities we choose in life ('The Absurd Man') and the purpose of art ('Absurd Creation'). These essays are dense, wordy and obscure, and Camus' unusually verbose prose and vague language served only to confuse his message. I think that I understand Camus' ideas reasonably well from his fiction, and these essays clarified very little. The essay 'The Myth of Sisyphus' is tiny by comparison, only four pages, but it succeeded for me where the others fail. It is vintage Camus, beautifully setting up his ideas simply and directly. The rest of the book can be left aside, but this one short essay is essential for Camus fans. The rest of the book is given to essays that are part absurdist philosophy, part prose poem about life in Algeria. They are strangely compelling, and show where I think that Camus' strength lies, in subtly combining philosophy and art. The early essays are too self-consciously pompous. The later ones are Camus on top form.
In short, I found that I didn't gain much from reading this collection that I hadn't already got from Camus' vastly preferable fiction ('The Outsider', 'The Plague', 'Exile and the Kingdom'), and would really recommend reading the latter in preference to this collection. Having said that, 'The Myth of Sisyphus' does have some excellent moments, but I found too much of it to be hard work.
Camus' philosphy August 19, 2002
29 out of 33 found this review helpful
If you are at all interested in Camus' philosophy you must read these thoughts on the Human Condition based around the story of Sysiphus who was condemned to pushing a great boulder to the top of a mountain only to see it rolling back to the bottom again. Camus' thoughts are not as bleak as pessimists might first imagine. Essential reading for insights into 20th century takes on the absurdity of out condition.
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