I first read Camus in high school. My sophomore or junior English class was given The Stranger as a reading assignment. I don’t think I quite understood everything that was going on in that book, perhaps due to failure of my teacher to provide context to the story or to the philosophical debate that was the background of the work. Despite my original distaste for Camus sparse writing style I began reading his other works and through Camus I discovered existentialism and such philosophers as Nietzsche, Sartre, Wittgenstein, and many other prominent philosophers.
I’ve read many of the complete works of those listed above, but that was about 10 years ago. I tried to re-read Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Ecco Homo recently and found that I had moved on, had changed that those works didn’t speak to me as they once had. So, I put those books down and moved on to other things… But, in the back of the mind I wondered, “How much have I changed?” If a book that had had such a huge influence on my life then, one of the most influential books I’d ever read, no longer resonated with me how much had changed? Were there other books that I’d find opaque that were once clear? I wanted to find out.
I’ve just started reading Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus and other Essays,” again. The work deals with the issue of suicide and if it makes sense, even in a world that is recognized as absurd. I chose this book because I remember liking it when I first read it, and I wrote throughout the margins my thoughts and comments on the text. My hope is that as I re-read it I can look at my previous thoughts and compare them with what I am thinking now and compare and contrast them, and in so doing see just how my own philosophy and thoughts have changed and in what directions.
This is hopefully just the first of a number of posts on the text and my reactions to it.
