Insofar as these stories seem comprehensive and final, Camus also regards them as incredible. They explain things such as what the world is, how it came to be, and what a person’s basic relationship to it is. People are born into narratives (or “myths”) that provide basic orientation. The first stage-naïve harmony-is the human default. In the early pages of The Myth, Camus develops an account of human development that traces a person’s possible growth from (1) an early state of harmony with the world to (2) a moment of destabilization to, finally, (3) a state of clear-eyed honesty about one’s inability to make final sense of the world. There we find that Camus makes a helpful distinction between the mere feeling of absurdity and absurdity in general. Hopefully, this will also put you in a better position to engage critically with his novels in which we are introduced to absurd characters (Meursault) and situations (a plague).īut, we really have to turn to Camus’ early philosophical essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, to get a more explicit idea of what he means by the concept. I am willing to bet that if you understand more about what Camus means by life’s “absurdity” you won’t find it nearly so ridiculous. In this brief essay, I want to complicate this presupposition. A philosophical novelist who emphasizes life’s essential absurdity is not exactly someone you want to spend time with, much less learn from. I am guessing you might also be a little turned off by this emphasis.

If you know anything about the work of Albert Camus, you are likely aware that “absurdity” is a central concept in his novels and essays.

Camus essay the myth of sisyphus