Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus": A Summary

Look, so, nothing matters, right? Shit's fucking weird. We all want to know how the universe ultimately works or who's running the show or whatever, and it turns out - TRICK. FUCKING. QUESTION. No one's running the show, and the world is unreasonable. Ever had some shit happen to you that made you go, "Why the fuck did that happen? There's no reason for that." Turns out, you were right. So our attempts to impose reason on the world will fail. Death and taxes, my friend. Death and motherfucking taxes.

So what do we do? What's the point? Should we just end it if nothing matters? No, says Camus, thats the pussy way out. Instead, we should embrace the fact that nothing makes sense. Don Juan, the fuckaholic that started it all, he embraced the absurd. Life has no meaning, so he. fucked. everything. He didn't try to impose meaning or find meaning or make his own meaning - that shit is useless, and Camus says there's no hope for that, so cut it the fuck out.

Sisyphus, same thing. Sisyphus was punished because he chained death up so humans could live forever, he didn't give a fuck about what the gods said about fate. He was like, "fuck that, I do what I want." When that didn't work, the gods told him he had to roll a boulder up a hill again and again, forever. Sounds like it sucks, right? So why is Sisyphus so goddamned pleased with himself? Because all any of us is doing is rolling boulders up hills, and every time the boulder rolls back down, we're all like "Dude, what the fuck?! I spent all goddamn day rolling that boulder. Fuck." But Sisyphus knows it doesn't matter. He sees it coming. The gods already told him, "What you're doing is meaningless." Once he knew that, he could let go and just be content. Because there's never anything to do except roll boulders. Your options are get pissed when they roll back down, or chill out and not let it bother you. Be content. If you have to do something, you might as well accept it and do it as well as you can. Being pissy just makes you more miserable.

So, to embrace the absurd, you have to acknowledge that life is absurd and live it anyway. Not because you hope you're wrong, but because you know you're right, but living is more fun than not.