[Here] is an online version of the passage we read today. I hope the great discussion that we started today can continue via this thread... (whoops... I just said 'hope').
As far as he is concerned, his fate does belong to him. As long as one is absolutely and perfectly absorbed by their own illusion, the truth becomes irrelevant.
An illusion? It seems to me like he's aware of what's going on. I agree that his fate does belong to him: he has himself, he has what he'd doing. It's like, his thing to do. So he claims it. Everybody does that, regardless of right. Like, "I'm a doctor." Or "I'm a teacher". Instead, he's like, "I'm a rock-pusher."
The quote that most stands out to me is "...the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this earth."
Do the passions of this earth necessarily come with a price? And what exactly is that price?
any being that is aware of what is going on, in a pointless existence devoid of feeling, excitement, or change, cannot possibly be content unless their actions bring them some form of pleasure. I can only see the eternal pushing of a stone up a hill only brining some pleasure if the one pushing can in some sense numb themselves to the toil, shut themselves out from their external reality and revel in their ability to withdraw into themselves.
Why would Sisyphus bother to take any pride in his work, besides to comfort himself in his misery?
That is exactly the price that one must pay for the passions of the earth. For no passion may be experienced, may be lustfully enjoyed WITHOUT the realization that it works towards nothing, that the end of the journey is inevitably without a point, and that the significance of the beginning has disappeared in the pointlessness of the end.
Sisyphus does not pay this price, so he therefore is not able to take part and pleasure in the passions of the earth. But this does not make him happy, not by standards that we can understand.
5 comments:
I recall several members wanting to talk about 'fate' this past spring. Camus claims of Sisyphus, "His fate belongs to him."
Do you agree?
I can see some very intersting arguments going either way with this one...
i.e. "Sisyphus' fate belongs to Sisyphus."
As far as he is concerned, his fate does belong to him. As long as one is absolutely and perfectly absorbed by their own illusion, the truth becomes irrelevant.
An illusion? It seems to me like he's aware of what's going on. I agree that his fate does belong to him: he has himself, he has what he'd doing. It's like, his thing to do. So he claims it. Everybody does that, regardless of right. Like, "I'm a doctor." Or "I'm a teacher". Instead, he's like, "I'm a rock-pusher."
The quote that most stands out to me is "...the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this earth."
Do the passions of this earth necessarily come with a price? And what exactly is that price?
any being that is aware of what is going on, in a pointless existence devoid of feeling, excitement, or change, cannot possibly be content unless their actions bring them some form of pleasure. I can only see the eternal pushing of a stone up a hill only brining some pleasure if the one pushing can in some sense numb themselves to the toil, shut themselves out from their external reality and revel in their ability to withdraw into themselves.
Why would Sisyphus bother to take any pride in his work, besides to comfort himself in his misery?
That is exactly the price that one must pay for the passions of the earth. For no passion may be experienced, may be lustfully enjoyed WITHOUT the realization that it works towards nothing, that the end of the journey is inevitably without a point, and that the significance of the beginning has disappeared in the pointlessness of the end.
Sisyphus does not pay this price, so he therefore is not able to take part and pleasure in the passions of the earth. But this does not make him happy, not by standards that we can understand.
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