Sisyphian Cycles: A Meditation between Philosophy and Fiction
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Authors
Schmidt, Ian
Issue Date
2000
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
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Abstract
For Albert Camus, the noted existentialist, Sisyphus is the absurd hero who is
condemned to roll a boulder up a hill only to let it fall. Then he is forced to repeat the
action again for all of eternity. This was his punishment for stealing secrets from the
gods. Sisyphus is the absurd hero, because he has both the audacity to steal from the
gods and the impotence of a eternity of useless toil. Camus feels that these traits
concisely represent the human condition, one of willing and surrendering. In my stories,
I found myself tracing these lines of characters that embrace this absurdity.
The creative process for writing these works started first with a philosophical idea
or concept and then moved to an image or a scene. Maurice Merleau-Ponty would call
this the cogito (I think) before the percipio (I percieve). Some of these writings such as
'What I Mean by Fat (Dialogue on Bad Faith)" and "Causality No More" attempt an
interpretation of a philosophical ideal. Others are more playful with the reciprocity
between fiction and philosophy. The poems "Stillborn" and "Egon Schele's Hands" deal
with Sartre and Merleau-Ponty's views of sexuality. "Viscosity" pertains to Gestalt
reasoning, and "The Alarm Clock" is a both Cartesian and existentialist. When you are
reading these works please keep in mind that they are not intended to be philosophical
tracts, rather they are fictional writings inspired by philosophical ideas.
Description
iv, 30 p.
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U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.