“I rebel — therefore we exist.”
Albert Camus · The Rebel, introduction, in Anthony Bower's translation
Paraphrase or translation
Anthony Bower's English of Je me révolte, donc nous sommes. The introduction argues that rebellion, unlike the isolated absurd, founds a value and a 'we'. Stuart Gilbert did other books. Bower did The Rebel. The dash is the familiar English.
I rebel, therefore we exist. The absurd man of the earlier essay could seem alone. Rebellion, he now says, discovers a limit and a human value in the very act of refusing humiliation, and so discovers other people. A rival reading hears a cartesian pun and nothing more, or a blank cheque for any revolt. The book will spend itself attacking revolutions that betray the limit they began with, including the ones that become murder in the name of history. Another reading thinks he has abandoned the absurd for moralism.
Open the card“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.”
Albert Camus · The Myth of Sisyphus, opening
Paraphrase or translation
The opening sentence of The Myth of Sisyphus, standard English of Camus's French. He means the question whether life is worth living once the absurd is faced, not a recommendation of suicide. The essay answers no.
There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. He means whether life is worth living once the absurd is faced, not a recommendation of death. The essay answers no. A rival reading hears a mood, or an instruction, or a claim that other problems, justice included, are frivolous. He uses the word to force the question of meaning, then spends the essay refusing the conclusion people fear from the first line. The absurd is the confrontation between our hunger for meaning and a world that does not supply it.
Open the card“The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.”
Albert Camus · The Myth of Sisyphus, in Justin O'Brien's translation
Paraphrase or translation
Justin O'Brien. The absurd is not in the person alone and not in the world alone. It is born of the confrontation between a need for meaning and a world that does not answer. The sentence is a definition, not a mood.
The absurd is born of a confrontation: the human need, and the unreasonable silence of the world. It is not a property of things and not a feeling you have on a bad day, though the feeling is how you notice it. A rival reading puts the absurd entirely in the world, as if the universe were hostile, or entirely in the person, as a taste for drama. He thinks both sides are required. Take away the need, or take away the silence, and the absurd does not appear.
Open the card“The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart.”
Albert Camus · The Myth of Sisyphus, closing, in Justin O'Brien's translation
Paraphrase or translation
Justin O'Brien, in the same closing paragraph as 'One must imagine Sisyphus happy.' The struggle, not a hidden purpose of the rock, is what fills the heart. Kept as its own sentence because it is the reason he gives for the happiness, not a gloss someone else added.
The struggle toward the heights is enough to fill a heart. He has just said the universe without a master is neither sterile nor futile, and that each atom of the stone forms a world. The enough is the point. There is no further prize that makes the rolling worthwhile. A rival reading hears a cult of effort, grind as meaning. He is describing Sisyphus's consciousness on the way back down, not selling a work ethic. Another reading wants the rock to stand for something, a career, a cause. The myth refuses the standing-for.
Open the card“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
Albert Camus · The Myth of Sisyphus, closing, in Justin O'Brien's translation
Paraphrase or translation
Justin O'Brien's English of the last sentence. It is a verdict on his Sisyphus, not an order to feel cheerful. The struggle toward the heights, in the same breath, is what he says is enough to fill a heart.
One must imagine Sisyphus happy. The gods had meant a punishment of futile labour. Camus's Sisyphus, walking back down the hill in the hour of consciousness, is superior to his fate because he sees it. A rival reading hears a cruel optimism: tell the worker to be happy with the rock. The sentence is about a myth, his myth, not a management theory. Another reading thinks happiness here means pleasure. He means a life without appeal, lucid, that does not need the gods' permission to be enough.
Open the card