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The Myth of Sisyphus

Monday 24 July 2006 | general

SisyphusCamus was wrong: Sisyphus had it easy.

There’s little heroism in doing something when you know there’s no hope of success. Later critics called Camus’ creation “existentialism.” It’s really either stubbornness or stupidity. Or boredom. Whatever it was that kept Sisyphus rolling that boulder back up the hill, he suffered no delusions that this time would be different than any other time he’d done it. He pushed the stone up without any hope of success. Not even Camus’ modern re-creation of Sisyphus, Dr. Bernard Rieux, had any hope of curing any of his patients in The Plague.

Sisyphus and Rieux have the luxury of hopelessness.

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