More Later

“Accept the human condition? I believe that, on the contrary, revolt is part of human nature.”

– Albert Camus “Contradictions” in Cahiers Albert Camus II: Youthful Writings p. 210

This one short “essay” from 1933 is full of the foundational aphorisms that Camus builds upon for his later philosophical works. The title, Contradictions is one of the concepts at the heart of understanding and accepting Absurdism. The Myth of Sisyphus won’t be published until 1942, so it’s interesting to see the different components that form his later essays, novels and books in their “proto” form in his early writings. It’s reassuring to me, and I hope others, to see that these trains of thoughts and ideas we have don’t need to be birthed fully formed, but can grow and evolve on their own until they reach maturity, just as his did. I’ve enjoyed reading his youthful writings, but I think if it was all I had to go on, I would be left wanting more. That said, I still want more even after his later publications, but this is the blessing and curse of those who die too early. He’s also composed a few essays on death in this volume, which, while not foreshadowing, are also strangely comforting. Camus ends this essay with, “More Later.” I have inadvertently done this a few times myself in this project, so I hope to hold up my “promise” even if I can’t hope to climb to his heights. I’m going to mine this essay over the coming weeks, and look into what he sees as the human condition at this point in his life. More later.

-DA

Cahiers II Albert Camus Youthful Writings https://amzn.to/2CXuqO1