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Abyss Watcher, Self-Terminator, Truth Seeker

Oct 8, 2018

I guess Antwan and I are of about the same age group. When I was younger, existentialism was really popular. I was much into Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. Although very difficult, I read the 1,500-page JPN translation of Sartre's "Being and Nothingness." It was 43 years ago.

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Abyss Watcher, Self-Terminator, Truth Seeker

@OhMyAngelaLove

Oct 8, 2018

(1) When I opened Camus's "The Myth of Sisyphus" (in its JPN translation) when I was 19, it was ten at night. I couldn't stop turning the pages. I had to devote a lot of time to each page not because it was hard but it was very much of substance to me.

Abyss Watcher, Self-Terminator, Truth Seeker

@OhMyAngelaLove

Oct 8, 2018

(2) When I finally reached the last page, it was already five in the morning. I stayed up all night. I've loved Camus all my life. In the abovementioned book, he tackles the issue of suicide on the very first page. youtube.com/watch?v=UD28gi

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antoine sugar

@joedan346

Oct 8, 2018

Camus pissed me off with that whole "you must imagine Sisyphus happy" bullshit. I was like "What!" That's the same thing the optimists tell you: Just think happy thoughts. Be positive. And so on. Or did I misinterpret Camus? OED? What say you?

Abyss Watcher, Self-Terminator, Truth Seeker

@OhMyAngelaLove

Oct 8, 2018

I don't quite remember that phrase "Sisyphus happy." It doesn't piss me off at all anyway. Besides, perhaps Camus was being masochistic. I tend to be that way, so I don't mind it at all.

antoine sugar

@joedan346

Oct 8, 2018

It's at the very end of the text. Camus writes that one must embrace the struggle, that all is well, that it's neither sterile nor futile, and "one must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Abyss Watcher, Self-Terminator, Truth Seeker

@OhMyAngelaLove

Oct 8, 2018

In my understanding, existentialism is like "Yes, everything is meaningless. But live on anyway as if you believed in whatever you are doing." It's similar to what Samuel Beckett says at the end of his novel "The Unnamable": "I can't go on, I'll go on."

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youtube.comHarold Pinter on Samuel BeckettHarold Pinter shares some of his memories of Samuel Beckett and performs the last of 'The Unnamable.' Originally broadcast 8 February 1990.

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antoine sugar

@joedan346

Replying to

@OhMyAngelaLove

Well, OK. Live on as if it is meaningful... even if you have to fake it. I think that's what a lot of people are doing, anyway. I think a lot of people know deep down it's futile & meaningless. But they carry on as if it's not. Just make believe. Play act.

4:44 AM · Oct 8, 2018Twitter Web Client

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Abyss Watcher, Self-Terminator, Truth Seeker

@OhMyAngelaLove

Oct 8, 2018

Replying to

@joedan346

(1) What, then, do you think is the best way to cope? Keep teaching the whole world how everything is futile until they're convinced? That again may be futile.

Abyss Watcher, Self-Terminator, Truth Seeker

@OhMyAngelaLove

Oct 8, 2018

(2) People's blind urge to live on, pretending we see more good things than bad ones, is far stronger than that to put an end to everything.

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