Watch the video, below, and think on Camus’s notion that thinking readdresses how an individual sees her world.
Class Notes: CLASS NOTES baruch engl 2150 spr 2013 4 17 13
* New Reading: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Flow
25 thoughts on “Class XV. // Camus and the Absurd pt. 2 // New Summary Assignment // + NEW READING”
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According to Albert Camus in “An Absurd Reasoning,” from the Myth of Sisyphus and other essays, what does “feeling of absurdity” really mean.This suggests that suicide amounts to a confession that life is not worth living. All our actions, desires, and reasons seem absurd and pointless. The feeling of absurdity is closely linked to the feeling that life is meaningless. People should rather face the consequences of the absurd rather than accept fully the idea that life has no meaning,.
In Albert Camus’ “An Absurd Reasoning,” from the Myth of Sisyphus is an essay about the “absurd” and if the realization of lack of meaning in life and the existence of absurdity often lead to suicide. He starts off by describing what the absurd is where death is the ultimate punishment and hope is something a person holds on for tomorrow yet being closer to tomorrow means being closer to death. When he says, “From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all,” contributing to the idea that human beings live without realizing that no matter what, death will come and if one realizes this, the will see less meaning in life.
He also explains that there is no such thing as “true knowledge” that human beings will die before achieving the true knowledge and there are many things in the world that not even science can explain which contradicts the human reasoning with a world that can’t really be solved. In the end, Camus says that the three solutions to the absurd is rebellion, passion and freedom.
Why is it so important to earn good grades? According to Suli Breaks’s spoken word titled, “I Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate”, earning good grades has become a social norm. Suli Breaks through his spoken word expresses how society has led one to believe that in order to succeed in life, one must have an education or a degree and that exam scores and one’s GPA is used to measure success and intelligence. According to Albert Camus’s essay, “An Absurd Reasoning”, and as discussed in class, this is absurd, the feeling of absurdity is the “divorce between man and this life, the actor and his setting…” (6). Camus states that as men begin to question the reason or meaning behind their actions, they do not find anything and as a result all of their actions become meaningless and absurd. Camus suggests that men become strangers in their own world as they become aware of a life without meaning or purpose, creating a “divorce” in their lives. Similarly, as one begins to question why one strives to get an education and have an excellent GPA, the only response that arises is that it will lead to a better future. However this response only exists because society has said so. Suli Breaks and other individuals become aware of this and a “divorce” arises, as stated by Camus, between men and this world, between students and their pursue for education.
In Albert Camus’ essay of “An Absurd rReasoning,” he talks about life being absurd and how an absurd life may lead to suicide. In his essay he says that people are looking forward to the next day and the next day just brings them closer to death. This brings him to his point that life is absurd and meaningless doing the same thing day after day is absurd according to Camu. This brings him to his point of revolt, he says that nearly all of existence is a consistent revolt, where an individual knows the limits that will hold him back from what he wants. The individual eventually revolts and goes to get what he wants, this relates to most of our lives and my life specifically. Knowing that I might have something important to do, but wanting to do something that I want is my revolt to this absurd life.
Albert Camus’s Absurdity is presented in an incredibly complex way. In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus seeks to define Absurdity, but not to necessarily assign any positive or negative connotation to the concept. The Absurd refers to a divorce between a perception (expectation, assumption, etc.) and reality. The simplest example which he brings up is the human individual’s perspective on the universe, which is obviously subjective, and how impossible it is for a human mind to grasp the “truth” of the universe in any objective way. The divorce, the difference between the two, is Absurdity. Similarly, any divergence between the real world and my expectation can be considered the Absurd. If I expect a cake waiting for me when I enter my English class every day, it would be quite absurd — reality tends to disappoint, anyhow.
What is absurd in our society? If one were too spent a little too much time in one’s own head, everything would be absurd. However, one clear example of absurdity in pop culture is found in rap music videos. Within rap videos, I search for the meaning of life. However, the extravagant lifestyle led by rappers leaves my little brain confused. My expectation of life through rap videos is to make it rain in the club and to get crunk with shawties and so forth. Sadly, this seems terribly impractical for me. I don’t got green cash money flowin, so I cannot live in the pictured lifestyle. “Pourin mo champagne on deez bitches” seems but a fleeting dream — this is absurdity at its finest. Also, this paragraph is absurd; you wouldn’t expect me to write like this, but I did. Represent.
Albert Camus in “An Absurd Reasoning,” from The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, claims that a man is divorced from the world but is at the same time tied to it by a feeling of Absurdity. Camus continues his essay by defining three stages in that connecting element. First is an unexpected occurrence – something out of the ordinary that breaks “a chain of daily gestures.” Second is “an impulse of consciousness”, that enables one to become aware of that event. Third stage is a recovery, when a full understanding of events helps one determine his further actions. If Camus is right in his conclusion that “the man depends on the Absurd, the Absurd depends on the man,” then confirmations of it must constantly be found in the everyday life, in mass media, art or in pop-culture. For instance, a movie Schindler’s list with a revolt against holocaust of Jewish people as a leitmotiv, fits perfectly into Camus’s theory. Based on a true story, it tells about a German businessman Oskar Schindler who owned a factory and used cheap labor of Jewish people. It was his daily routine, something quite normal, something he was accustomed to. However, as the World War II unfolded, he clearly saw the fate that awaited his workers – death in concentration camps or gas chambers. Those occurrences, apart from being inhumane, were undoubtedly outside the previous mechanical routine. They’ve awakened Schindler’s consciousness and made him revolt against Nazi regime. He was no longer concerned about profit he had once hoped to make and tried to save as many as he could.
Is the persistence towards yearning to understand certain worldly ideas and objects stopping humans from being happy? According to Albert Camus’ essay, “An Absurd Reasoning,” Camus talks about how the contradictions in life—the absurd–can lead to suicide (3). Then, he leads the reader to the method of living a happier life. He explains what his theory of living with the absurd: (1) consciousness of the absurd and the world that contains the absurd, (2) freedom of the body to do what it wants, and (3) revolt against the absurd. Camus goes on to say that the absurd he is talking about is the “divorce” between the human and the world. He/she may want a large buffet for dinner made within five minutes. But the request becomes unfulfilled and the question “Why?” appears. He/she begins to feel that the world is becoming unclear and feels separated from the world.
Can this theory be applied to pop culture today? Well, here is an example. Recently, two fifth-graders plotted to kill a girl in their class. Why is this considered absurd? It’s a contradiction to what most people think about kids. Children are thought to be either cute, innocent, bratty, etc. But, rarely are they ever thought to be potentially dangerous to others with the intent to hurt someone else to that extent. So what is the solution to this absurdness? Camus believes that the solution is to accept fate as it is. He relates this back to the myth of Sisyphus. He says that even though Sisyphus is aware of his fate, he can be happy even when rolling back a large rock up a mountain countless times. If there is no hope for a better alternative, there is no need to feel utterly depressed about not obtaining it.
Clement Mucha
“Is one to die voluntarily or to hope in spite of everything?”
Through reading Albert Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays”, I realized some ideas that paralleled the truisms implicated in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgmesh’s conquest to find a manner of becoming immortal is emulated partly within Camus’ philosophies regarding the human conceptualization of death.
At first, Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, was not willing to accept the reality that his best friend Enkidu had passed, thus he set out on a journey to seek immortality for himself because he was so traumatized and afraid of death that he wanted to avoid it altogether.
A piece of Camus writing pertained directly with the escapades the Gilgamesh underwent. Camus writes, “I know another truism: it tells me that man is mortal. One can nevertheless count the minds that have deduced the extreme conclusions from it. It is essential to consider as a constant point of reference in this essay the regular hiatus between what we fancy we know and what we really know, practical assent and simulated ignorance which allows us to live with ideas which, if we truly put them to the test, ought to upset our whole life. Faced with this inextricable contradiction of the mind, we shall fully grasp the divorce separating us from our own creations. So long as the mind keeps silent in the motionless world of its hopes, everything is reflected and arranged in the unity of its nostalgia.” Gilgamesh, as half God and half human was so determined and confident that he was destined to find a path leading to immortality. This idea plagued his mind and it was the driving factor behind his entire adventure.
Eventually, he came to a realization that it was a hopeless goal. This correlates directly to another piece from Camus’ essay: “This elementary and definitive aspect of the adventure constitutes the absurd feeling. Under the fatal lighting of that destiny, its uselessness becomes evident. No code of ethics and no effort are justifiable a priori in the face of the cruel mathematics that command our condition.” Here, Camus conveys the exact hopelessness that Gilgamesh feels towards the end of his endeavors.
In Albert Camus’ essay of “An Absurd Reasoning,” Camus suggests that suicide amounts to a confession that life is not worth living. In his essay he relates absurdity to life being meaningless, and most people who look at their life as something meaningless are usually the one who have suicide on their mind. Though we may never have tried to rationalize this feeling philosophically, the feeling of absurdity is one that we have all experienced at some point in our life. In moments of depression. Camus makes people realize that suicide is not a solution to absurd, the feeling of absurdity is a part of life it is what makes us the individuals we are.
As we discussed in class pop culture in today’s society is very absurd because most rappers describe the meaning of life as gangbanging in which convinces our youths to do the same thing instead of looking at the bigger picture of life and knowing there is more meaning to life other than what rappers talk about.