the Myth of Sisyphus

This book by Albert Camus is one I have read before, but back in the days before I was running this blog - so after having recently read The Rebel, I decided to revisit it. It's a collection of one long (the titular) & five shorter essays - as follows:

• The Myth of Sisyphus: the main focus of this long essay is the problem of suicide, which Camus sees as being the primary, immediate, philosophical question - is life worth living? The title comes from the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus, who was condemned by the gods to an immortal existence in which he had to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down as soon as this task was completed, and he had to do it all over again - a futile, endless experience, but as Camus concludes, "one must imagine Sisyphus happy". The essay's inner workings are split into four main chunks:
• Absurd reasoning: after explaining the general landscape of existing as a meaning-seeking being in a world apparently lacking definite meaning (a situation Camus calls "the absurd"), this section deals with the limits of rationality in apprehending a meaning to life, the "walls" we encounter in that pursuit, the idea of "philosophical suicide" (that being the circumstance in which thinkers in pursuit of meaning abandon their quests & accept absurdism), and the strange kind of freedom embracing the absurd can bestow upon one.
• The absurd man: three different ways of living in light of the absurd - the absolute pursuit of selfish pleasure, the aesthetic construction of a satisfying drama, and the power-plays of the conqueror.
• Absurd creation: first examining the relationship between philosophy and fiction, then undertaking a deep-dive into Dostoyevsky's character of Kirilov as an example of this done well, before finally looking at the profundity of one's creative effort in light of the absurd.
• Appendix - examines the themes of this essay & how they relate to the tangibility (or lack thereof) of hope in the works of Franz Kafka.
• Summer in Algiers: a reflection on the carefree, childlike aesthetic of life in that city, rooted in an ethic of living bodily & wholeheartedly in the present.
• The Minotaur: a reflection on the city of Oran & how its culture deals with the omnipresent problems of boredom.
• Helen's Exile: a commentary on how western modernism seems to have sacrificed its experience of beauty in favour of constructing a rational future.
• Return to Tipasa: a reflection on how places change when you visit them as an older person to how you enjoyed them as a youth; with a closing exhortation on the importance of holding onto joy.
• The Artist and his Time: ruminations on the vocation of the artist speaking into & acting in history.

   Overall this is a very thought-provoking & life-affirming book. If you're struggling with suicidal thoughts, this might give enough of a reasonable leg-up into confronting the struggle of being with a bit more bravery & stability (though it's far from being the first thing I would recommend to someone in that circumstance); and if you're simply existentially wrestling with the apparent meaninglessness of it all, this perspective from the absurd will almost certainly embolden you to live well despite that. Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in whether life has meaningfulness integrated into it - especially if the notion that it doesn't leaves you feeling lost: here, Camus provides you with a very humane, readable & compelling map.