Another great quote from a great book. In the next post I think I will be talking about the past two quotes.
Martyrs, cher ami, must choose between being forgotten, mocked, or made use of. As for being understood — never!
The Fall – Albert Camus (Justin O’Brien – tr)
I don’t know why I have been gone so long. Not much to write about. I read this quote last week, though, and thought to post it. It’s from The Fall by Albert Camus. For some reason I found it very interesting.
A natural balcony fifteen hundred feet above a sea still visible bathed in sunlight, on the other hand, was the place where I could breathe most freely, especially if I were alone, well above the human ants. I could readily understand why sermons, decisive preachings, and fire miracles took place on accessible heights. In my opinion no one meditated in cellars or prison cells (unless they were situated in a tower with a broad view); one just became moldy. And I could understand the man who, having entered holy orders, gave up the frock because his cell instead of overlooking a vast landscape as he expected, looked out on a wall. Rest assured that as far as I was concerned I did not grow moldy. At every hour of the day, within myself and among others, I would scale the heights and light conspicuous fires, and a joyful greeting would rise toward me. Thus at least I took pleasure in life and in my own excellence.
The Fall – Albert Camus (Justin O’Brien – tr)
There is a lot more in the book to talk about, but that will come later.
Sorry about the most recent rut. It seems to be happening a lot lately. This time, instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, I decided I would just post an old (very) short story I wrote several years ago. As you might could guess from the title of this post, it’s called The Train.
“Look at me. Look at what I’ve become. Everything. Nothing. Everything is full of nothing.”
The sudden whistle of the passing train jostled James from his thoughts for a moment. As he looked up he saw countless emotionless faces standing all around him.
“Empty. Life is empty. Life is meaningless.�
Another train signaled its arrival and distracted the thinker once again from his thoughts. The trains were all full of people, and yet, the trains were all empty.
Human existence is after all merely a sequence of events leading from birth to death. Once any single event has passed, that moment is gone forever and exists from then on only as a memory in individual minds. So people are really just memories too. If every moment we live in is a memory as soon as it occurs, the only time a person really exists is the present. And if the present is always changing, then a person’s existence can never be rooted in a specific concrete moment. So, people are really just beings filled with memories, and have no existence other than that. But what fullness does a nonexistent memory hold? None. A person is empty. After the final event, all the memories die forever and thus human history itself is a series of unattached empty events that are all dead.
James saw an old beggar in the corner of the terminal. His jar had but a few coins in it and, like the old man, was about to fall apart.
“If only he realized that his existence was empty and meaningless, he could rescue himself from his plight. Meaningless, meaningless everything is meaningless.�
Another train began to approach. James took his cue and moved to the edge of the deck. As the train came closer, he boarded his train and conquered his existence.
Quotes of the Day features a quote from Albert Camus today. To mark the occasion, I thought I would post it.
There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.
Albert Camus