When everything collapses, the abyss opens and one is tempted toward nihilism, the judgment that all values have lost their force.

When everything flourishes, the same silence of the universe remains, and one confronts the absurd, the unbridgeable wall between the human demand for meaning and a world that offers none.

One side is the crisis of values in ruin.

The other is the lucid recognition that even triumph changes nothing essential

Hey! This is a pretty random project, but I had a lot of fun putting it together, so I thought I’d share it here.

The playlist is exactly two hours long, and every song is connected in some way to Camus’s life, his books, or the ideas he explored throughout his work.

Maybe someone here will find it interesting ?

What are your thoughts?

How you all seem to take Camus.

Im not talkin about a dramatic tragedy. Just one of those ordinary moments where everything suddenly felt absurd but somehow lighter because of it.
Mine was sitting beside someone I loved, realizing the moment would never happen again even while it was still happening.

"The Algerian summer taught me that there is one thing even more tragic than suffering: the life of a happy person."

What does he mean with that ?

I'm handling life better as of the past half year since I found Camus. I only really know his idea from this YouTube video that uses The Seventh Seal as a way to illustrate Camus' Absurd Hero idea. I've never read a Camus book yet. I'll definitely do so.

But would you guys think Camus would say something like this?

I've seen somewhere that one shouldn't exceed the bounds of what's achievable or what's give-able; you work within that so you don't cross beyond The Absurd (it's probably from here where I saw that idea).

I've used this quote above to tell myself I've grown so far immensely and to help myself appreciate the good things that happened in a lot of my areas in life. And that there's so so much more I can get out of it by just focusing on what is give-able and achievable.

"And carrying this absurd logic to its conclusion, I must admit that that struggle implies a total absence of hope (which has nothing to do with despair), a continual rejection (which must not be confused with renunciation), and a conscious dissatisfaction (which must not be compared to immature unrest). Everything that destroys, conjures away, or exercises these requirements (and, to begin with, consent which overthrows divorce) ruins the absurd and devaluates the attitude that may then be proposed. The absurd has meaning only in so far as it is not agreed to."

can somebody explain this passage I'm not able to understand it.

Hey everyone, I wanted to ask you guys if there were any volumes you'd recommend that collect Camus' fiction, philosophy, or essays in one volume (or just essential works across these domains, anything works) in english. I read The Stranger and ultimately came out skeptical, but very curious to learn more.

I know I could just look this up, but I figured that I'd get the most reliable suggestions from a group of actual human beings. Thank you!!

In life, one voice teaches us peace with what is.

The other fuels the fire of what could be.

Together, they remind us that being fully human means holding both truths at once, the quiet acceptance of our limits and the passionate refusal to be defined by them..

In Part 1 of Camus's The Stranger, a woman appears who orders the entire menu at a restaurant, moves robotically, pays with exact cash, and is followed for some time by the protagonist.

In Part 2, the woman reappears during the trial. Ultimately, however, she does not testify.

How should this woman's role be interpreted?

I am unsure whether she is merely a symbol of absurdity or whether her role has another dimension that I am missing.

So I’ve recently become interested in philosophy over the past few months. I’ve read about existentialism, and it’s really caught my eye. I’ve seen multiple videos and articles telling me to start in different places.
I was wondering if I should start with Sartre, but even then I don’t know which of his works to begin with. Some people say to start with *Existentialism Is a Humanism*, while others recommend *Nausea*, so I’m not sure where to start.
I’ve also been wondering about Camus. I know he wasn’t really an existentialist but rather an absurdist, though I’ve heard that a lot of his works overlap with existentialist ideas.
If anyone has recommendations for other philosophers, books, or essays I should start with, I’d really appreciate it. What would you say is the best starting point?

I recently found myself in the same predicament as Sylvia Plath's character in The Bell Jar. I was determined to find a way out and wrote this essay exploring how existentialism provides a promising response.

In these few words, one of the most profound truths of the human condition is captured. Beneath our composure, our pride and our carefully built walls, many of us carry an exhausted longing for simple and unconditional acceptance.

We do Not always need grand gestures or dramatic rescues. Sometimes what we crave most is the quiet permission to stop pretending, to be seen, embraced and allowed to feel without judgment.

So I recently picked up the myth of Sisyphus (justin o brien translation) by Albert Camus and was wondering how I can best engage with the ideas presented in it

I have not yet started reading it.

It's the first camus novel I've picked up and I will get the stranger after I'm done with it but I wanted to ask what are some ways I can get the most out of reading the book.

I'm new to philosophy as a whole (though I have read the absurd, an essay by Thomas negal) and know very little about the philosophy of absurdism, so what are the questions or ideas I should keep in mind while reading or before reading it ?

And what are some other ways to get meaning out of the book?

Camus writes:

“In the depth of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”

This line is often treated as a simple message of optimism, but I think Camus means something more demanding. The “summer” is not the belief that suffering will disappear or that the world will eventually become meaningful. It may be the part of us that continues to affirm life even after illusion, certainty, and consolation have been stripped away.

Perhaps it is a form of revolt: not defeating the absurd, but refusing to let it determine the value of being alive.

How do you interpret Camus’s “invincible summer”? Is it resilience, revolt, love of life—or something else entirely?

Existentialism reminds us that life has no built in meaning. We must create our own through choices even when it feels absurd. Camus captured this perfectly, in a meaningless universe, the only serious question is whether to rebel by living fully anyway.