Esther
2025년 6월 29일
We're pushing back Ocean Vuong's new novel. Instead, we're reading Camus's <The Myth of Sisyphus> for our July meeting.
For the first time, I’m having second thoughts about a book choice I’d already made. I’m talking about our next book, <The Emperor of Gladness>. The more I think on it, the more it seem... inaccessible in more than one way. So I’m going to push it back until a nice, friendly paperback edition rolls around. In the meantime, I’m proposing something else, Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus. A book that meets us where we are, but still asks us to climb.
What a picture. A man pushing a rock up a hill, only for it to roll back down. Over and over again. It’s such a simple image, almost cartoonish, and yet the older I get, the more it brims with meaning. Yes, futility is there. But there’s also something quietly defiant in that repetition. A kind of stubborn grace. The same spirit behind that often-quoted line about planting an apple tree even if tomorrow’s the end of the world - was it Spinoza? Luther? The point is: there’s dignity in doing the thing anyway. There’s something transcendent in sticking with it, doubts and all.
The Stranger was my first Camus, back in college. That cool detachment, the sun, the sweat, the murder - it stayed with me. Then came a few short pieces, and The Plague during the corona days, when it felt less like fiction and more like someone writing from just down the road. Last year, I read The Fall, which left me unsettled in all the right ways. Camus has this way of laying bare the human condition - its loneliness, its absurdity, its strange beauty - without dressing it up too much. Reading him, I catch myself hoping for that one flicker of light that would make it all feel meaningful. As if it’s still up for debate.
Now we come to The Myth of Sisyphus, which I’m told is a proper work of philosophy, though don’t let that put you off. At its heart, it asks the most basic - and perhaps most terrifying - question: is life worth living? Camus won’t answer it for you. That’s not really his style. But I do think he’ll give you something to chew on. Maybe even something to hold onto.
Enjoy the read. And see you in July.
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The Myth of Sisyphusis one of the most profound philosophical statements written this century. It is a discussion of the central idea of absurdity that Camus was to develop in his novel The Outsider. Here Camus poses the fundamental question: Is life worth living? If existence has ceased to retain significance when confronted with the fragmented reality of the human condition, what then can keep us from suicide? Camus movingly argues for an acceptance of reality that encompasses revolt, passion and, above all, liberty.
하루하루 되풀이되는 무의미한 노동, 관계, 불안 속에서 카뮈는 그리스 신화 속 ‘바위를 굴리는 남자’ 시지프를 소환한다. 카뮈는 이 끊임없는 반복 속에서, 오늘을 살아가는 우리의 모습을 본다. 우리는 매일같이 일하고, 버티고, 무언가를 이뤄보려 애쓰지만, 세상은 좀처럼 그에 대한 답을 주지 않는다. “왜 사는가?”라는 질문 앞에서, 세상은 침묵한다. 카뮈는 이 침묵과 충돌하는 인간의 갈망을 ‘부조리’라 부른다. 만약 우리가 이유도 목적도 없이, 그저 무의미한 세상에 던져진 존재라면, 과연 이 삶은 계속 살아갈 만한 가치가 있는 걸까? 그렇다면, 우리는 어떻게 살아야 하는가? 『시지프 신화』는 바로 이 질문에 정면으로 맞서며, 절망에 잠식되지 않고도 삶을 견디는 놀라운 방식에 대해 이야기한다. 카뮈는 이 책을 통해, 우리 모두가 언젠가 반드시 마주하게 될 그 질문에 단단한 사유의 언어로 답한다. (교보문고 책 소개 발췌)
Date: July. 27, 2025
Time: 5pm
Venue: Esther’s
Join us for an evening of camaraderie and intellectual stimulation. Admission is free, but attendance is restricted to individuals of college age and above. You can sign up for the meeting via Karrot (당근 모임) or secure your spot through Kakao (에스더어학원).
세종에 거주하고 있는 외국인을 포함해 교사, 강사, 회사원, 공무원 및 가사일을 하시는 분들에게도 원서독서를 장려하고 자유롭게 토론할 수 있는 문학적/문화적 소통과 교류의 공간이 되고자 합니다. 해당 책을 읽고, 영어로 소통이 가능한 대학생 이상의 성인에 한해 누구나 무료로 참석할 수 있습니다. 2025년 7월 모임의 책으로는 Albert Camus의 <The Myth of Sisyphus>를 읽습니다.