I enjoyed this book quite much. Albert Camus is one of my favorite writers, I've read his work since 2021, ranging from the first work I read 'The Myth of Sisyphus', to 'The Rebel', 'Exile and Kingdom', 'The Stranger', among others. What I interpreted about this book is that Camus dwells on the facility of observing life, and all the phenomena it presents to oneself when experimented.
The following parts of the book that resonated with me and my thoughts on them. The text in green indicates the caption from the literary text, and the paragraph below it is my interpretation, thoughts, and analysis of the literary fragment.
"We must put our priciples into great things, mercy is enough for the small ones. Alas! We invent maxims to fill the holes in our own natures. With me, a better word for the aforementioned mercy would be indifference."
As stated in the paragraph, "indifference" is enough for the small things, while principles are delegated to great things; here perhaps is explained that great things are what matter in reality, the crux of the conversation, expertise, or idea. We humans require a subjective motor to ignite our willingness to proceed with such mundane experiences, this subjective mootor is what Camus calls "Maxims", they can be as bizarre as our historically structured psyche wants, but if courage is enough, those maxims will always trascend our objective, mundane experience. Especially if these maxims compel oneself to materialize one's idiosyncrasy, even better if such paradigm becomes fruitful.
"Naturally, a writer has some joys he lives for and that do satisfy him fully. But for me, these come at the moment of conception, at the instant when the subject reveals itself, when the articulation of the work stretches itself out before the suddenly heightened awareness, at those delicious moments when imagination and intelligence are fused. These moments disappear as they are born. What is left is the execution, that is to say, a long period of hard word."
Camus here describes what appears to be the so-called eureka moment. That moment when humans tend to attain a comprehensive view of the abstraction that lingered consciously or unconsciously in one's mind for a while and now acquires a comprehensible shape, narrative, and even methodology map.
"If I am stuck with the notion 'such things are not done', with taboos in general rather alien to my free nature, it's because I am the slave, and an admiring one, of a severe artistic tradition. Since this uneasiness may be at war with my profound anarchy, it strikes me as useful. I know my disorder, the violence of certain instincts, the graceless abandon into which I can throw myself. In order to be created, a work of art must first of all make use of the dark forces of the soul. But not without channeling them, surronding them with dikes, so that the water in them rises. Perhaps my dikes are still too high today. From this, the occasional stiffness... Someday, when a balance is established between what I am and what I say, perhaps then, and I scarcely dare write it, I shall be able to construct the work I dream of. The second reason I've kept these early essays to myself will then be clear: clumsiness and disorder reveal too much of the secrets closests to our hearts; we also betray them through too careful a disguise. It is better to wait until we are skillful enough to give them a form that does not stiffle their voice, until we know how to mingle nature and art in fairly equal doses; in short, to be. For being consists of being able to do everything at the same time. In art, everything comes at once or not at all; these is no light withouth flame."
Our goals are chains that we subjectively cover ourselves with thinking that such goals will cure the contemporary malady of our life. “A work of art must first of all make use of the dark forces of the soul”. However, we would be remiss if we don’t account for the role of mistakes and erroneous approaches, they reveal what is totally inaccurate and wrong, what derail us from that good, and for that, they serve and are labeled as important as any of their antonyms.
"In the dream that life is, here is man, who finds his truths and loses them on this mortal earth, in order to return through wars, cries, the folly of justice and love, in short through pain, toward that tranquil land where death itself is a happy silence. Here still… Yes, nothing prevents one from dreaming, in the very hour of exile, since at least I know this, with sure and certain knowledge: a man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover."
Humans will always be versitile, or perhaps mercurial when it comes of their goals, why? They will always indirectly or directly orbit around "love, wars, cries, and the folly of justice". The process between the present and the attainment of such goal is where life displays itself genuinely as is there where we act upon it.
"Suddenly he realizes that tomorrow will be the same, and, after tomorrow, all the other days. And he is crushed by this irreparable discovery. It’s ideas like this that kill one. Men kill themselves because they cannot stand them-or if they are young, they turn them into epigrams."
What does he means by that? I am young (22 years old as of writing this) and do not turn such realization into an epigram, but perhaps into a form of fuel that ignites the impetus of escaping such future by changing one's future via materialization of creative functional products.
"I don't know any longer whether I'm living or remembering."
Damn, such a thoughtful question, it is not my case by the wya, thankfully to me for making it that way, although I got to admit, there was a time when you remember on a daily basis, instead of living. it is the thought of death and the ephemeral nature of time that frees you from such lifestyle.
"In the suburbs of Algiers, there is a little cemetery with black iron gates. If you go to the far end, you look out over the valley with the sea in the distance. You can spend a long time dreaming before this offering that sights with the sea. But when you retrace your steps, you find a slab that says ‘Eternal regrets’ on an abandoned grave. Fortunately, there are idealists to tidy things up."
What does he means? I am pretty sure this paragraph is a parable.
"There is a feeling actors have when they know they’ve played their part well, that is to say, when they have made their own gestures coincide with those of the ideal character they embody, having entered somehow into a prearranged design, bringing it to life with their own heartbeats. That was exactly what I felt: I had played my part well. I had performed my task as a man, and the fact that I had known joy for one entire day seemed to me not an exceptional success but the intense fulfillment of a condition which, in certain circumstances, makes it our duty to be happy. Then we are alone again, but satisfied."
Camus describes such a feeling with a perfect analogy. When one has dreams, goals, impetus, or any name you want to call the reality we strive for, one tends to indirectly or directly describe or envisage the right agent that will be attaining such reality. Such an agent is an improved version of oneself (at least in comparison with our present self) since attaining such reality involves change, improvement, and enhancement in oneself, one’s abilities, one’s views, etc. Otherwise if one would already possess the aptitudes required for such reality one would’ve already attained it. If one hasn’t attained it, it isn’t about circumstances (at least that’s what we like to think), but about the insufficient knowledge and aptitude required for such a process that materializes such reality. This is why when we do the things we were supposed to do based on such an improved view we feel fulfilled and happy. Accomplished.
"There are people born for pride and for life."
What I understand here is that people, or perhaps let’s use oneself as an example rather than speculating about people’s behavior. One can devote one’s life and time following trends, society’s labels, or people’s praise, however, doing so would lead to an endless pursuit of pride; ‘I did that’, ‘I am this’, ‘I like that’, actions merely done to receive praise, respect, or mere observation from people, which inevitably increases our pride. However, there is a second way to spend one’s time; by actually experimenting life from your perspective and judgment. Creating, materializing, and acting according to one’s intellect, judgment, interest, knowledge, and preeminently, intuition, all derive a unique situation in life in which one experiences one’s idiosyncrasy, instead of a collective idea of what life is supposed to be.
"Living, of course, is the opposite of expressing."
Unfortunately, I have to agree here. Although the act of materializing one’s idiosyncrasy is quite productive and yields to new approaches, an expansion of knowledge, and perhaps tangible byproducts that may improve your life overall, such action is not quite mingled with the act of living. Sure, it is living as you are expressing and materializing yourself, but there is a fundamental lack of human experiences, interactions, and preeminently: emotions. One might feel excitement while materializing, wonder, curiosity, and eureka moments, which are a way of living indeed, however, living also encompass emotions, feelings, psychological phenomena in general, which are mainly derived from human interactions, activities, and contemporary society, which isn’t negative after all as s thanks to other humans, and the mechanisms of society that we get to experience such enriching, empowering, and genuine way of living. When we materialize, we only produce, whereas when we live, we uptake experiences, we get to know others, and we get to know ourselves in the process. I rather say that materializing and living might be different, but they are efficient ways to know yourself, what you want, what you strive for.
"We must learn how to lend ourselves to dreaming when dreams lend themselves to us."
What I understand here is that whenever one dreams, one ought to use such concoction of motivation, courage, envisage, and arrogance and apply them into the materialization of such dream, lending ourselves to the dream, and one must use such moments thoroughly and completely since those are the moments that dreams are lended to us, such moments are ephemeral, and after a few hours, they are gone, leaving only the mesmerizing vestige of the dreams, which serves as a compass for future approaches.
"But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? And what more legitimate harmony can unite a man with life than the dual consciousness of his longing to endure and his awareness of death? At least he learns to count on nothing and to see the present as the only truth given to us as a bonus."
Exactly. Such harmony gives a sense of control. This sense is more gratifying (and therefore, deriving a higher amount of happiness) if it can be quantified. Observing one's progress numerically assures oneself of leadership and advancement in one's life, advancement towards that desired goal that we speculate to be the ultimate source of happiness.
"After all, the best way to speak of what one loves is to speak of it lightly."
Why is that? I hope a pseudo theory on the answer to that question: Because describing what we are fond of lightly compels us to use as concise words as possible in order to avoid leaving a stain on the description if we make it larger. Why is that a concern? Because if we extend our description of the reasoning behind the fondness of such activity, passion, emotion, discipline, or idea, we will not only find discrepancies within our own judgment and reasoning, but also the mundane impetus behind our fondness. Unless we are talking about pure passion…
"Presumption, regression of progress."
Speculation, envy, reminiscense, self-absorption, anger, and any other emotion or action directly loses when faced with materialization. Materialization is the epitome of progress. Despite its accuracy towards the goal, it always reveals the proper path, either by trying, and scoring (following the path as a result), or trying and failing (changing the approach as a result). Trial and error is what drives progress.
First read: October 11, 2024 - December 12, 2024