MYTH OF SISYPHUS
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origin of all that is human, a blind being who desires to see and who
knows that the night has no end, he is always on the march. The rock
still rolls.
I leave Sisyphus at the bottom of the mountain. He will always
regain his burden there. But Sisyphus teaches us that superior loyalty
which denies the gods and lifts the rocks. He too judges that all is
well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither
sterile nor futile. Each grain of the stone, each mineral gleam of that
mountain overcast by night, to him alone, constitutes a world. The
struggle itself toward the summit is sufficient to satisfy a man's heart.
One must imagine that Sisyphus is happy.
(Translated by Delmore Schwartz)
HOPE AND THE ABSURD IN THE WORK OF FRANZ KAFKA
T
HE WHOLE
of Kafka's art consists in compelling the reader to
re-read him. His denouements, or their absence, suggest explanations,
but explanations which are not clearly revealed and which require,
in order to appear well founded, that the story be re-read from a new
angle. Sometimes, there is a double possibility of interpretation–
whence the necessity of two readings. This is what the author was
seeking. But it would be wrong to want to interpret everything in
detail in Kafka. A symbol is always in the realm of the general, and,
however exact its translation, an artist can only restore movement
to it: there is no word for word correspondence. Besides, nothing is
more difficult to understand than a symbolic work. A symbol always
goes beyond him who would use it and makes him say in fact more
than he is conscious of expressing. In this respect, the surest means
of laying hold of it is not to provoke it, to take up the work in no
deliberate spirit, and not to look for its secret currents. For Kafka,
in particular, it is fair to consent to his game, to approach the drama
by its appearance and the novel by its form.
At first sight, and for a detached reader, these are disquieting
adventures which carry off trembling and stubborn characters in
pursuit of problems which they never formulate. In
The Trial
Joseph
K . . . is accused. But he does not know of what. Doubtless, he is
bent on defending himself, but he does not know why. The lawyers
find his case difficult. Meanwhile, he does not neglect to make love,
to eat and read his newspaper. Then he is judged. But the courtroom
