Arquivo de Notes | Page 283 of 335

The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus

The yesterday that repeats methodically, the daily effort and the time, long time… Then it bursts into the tired mind: “Why?”—Suddenly, the being perceives itself before a crossroads: either he immediately neutralizes the manifestation of astonishment and becomes to the usual lethargy, or he will have to face the question that runs over all the others. If life is not justifiable, if the daily effort is useless, if death is peremptory condemnation, reason demands suicide. Is there a way out? How to find a different solution? Absurd! The mind demands an answer from a mute entity, wants to assimilate the illogical by reason, refuses to admit its impotence. But it needs an answer to exist. And if it is not able to remain silent and simply accept the imposing reality, it is forced to face its fate actively. Suicide is indispensable? the immediate suppression of pain and effort is the most sensible decision? No, says Camus, there is the revolt.

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The Understanding of Human Nature Demands the Detachment From Reason

The understanding of human nature demands, over and over again, the detachment from reason. To deny the irrational manifestations of the human being and external phenomena implies, besides arrogance, the limitation of one’s understanding. The reason, the experimental method, both present themselves limited as tools of reality apprehension. To recognize it is simply to keep eyes open. Knowledge requires humility, recognition of weaknesses, and the courage to go into strange territory. Jung, aware of the possibilities of reason,—and above all, aware of its strength,—sought in the study of religions, mythology, and medieval magic the answers that his analytical method would never be able to deliver because they exceeded its scope. He became perhaps the most brilliant psychologist of all time. For many, however, he was a deserter. And the many remain in their prepotent and monumental stupidity.

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Mere Transcription Exercise

The feeling of being able to write endless pages, only transcribing the permanent psychological war and its endless chapters. Ruthless conflict, continuous affliction, tranquility that rarely comes… Words of the master opportunely recalled: “All my life I have spoken silently and lived in myself entire tragedies without uttering a word.”

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With a Clipboard in the Face of Misfortune

Complications of someone of rare dreams, when they exist, disconnected, vague, abstract, which have always been summed up in mute images, and now frequently come across assaults of infinite variations of misfortune. Wins the study of psychology. It is interesting to note how the rational loses strength as sleep deepens and, in a state of semiconsciousness, presents itself in vigor. Morality, too, is dependent on judgment, or in other words, on rational psychological manifestation. There is also a very clear distinction between the action of unconscious impulses on different levels of sleep. When induced in a state of semiconsciousness, the dream is endowed with a drastically more real character. Oh, dull lines!…

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