The absurdity and randomness of Camus’s death are compounded when one considers that he was carrying an unused train ticket for the same day in his pocket. (Photo: X/@wisecamus)
Jan 4, 2025 14:06 IST First published on: Jan 4, 2025 at 14:06 IST
On January 4, 1960, Albert Camus—one of the best-known existential philosophers, although he scorned the title— passed away in a freak accident. He was only 46. It seemed, dare I say, almost fated that the French-Algerian writer-philosopher who wrote so profoundly on the sheer absurdity of the human condition, would pass away in a mishap as random and senseless as the driver losing control of a car (a Facel Vega, the it car in those days) on a clear French road.
The absurdity and randomness of Camus’s death are compounded when one considers that he was carrying an unused train ticket for the same day in his pocket. Had he taken the train— instead of accepting a ride from his publisher, Michel Gallimard, who was also killed in the crash — he might have lived. One wonders whether Camus himself might have smiled at the irony, given how neatly his death fit into the concept of absurdity. Capping the absurdity of it all, Camus is said to have told his friends that the most absurd way to die would be in a car accident.
Sixty-five years after his death, Camus’s philosophy of absurdism feels particularly relevant in today’s world, where uncertainty and chaos reign supreme. Take the conflicts in Russia-Ukraine and the Middle East, the bombing of hospitals and killing of children in Gaza and the erasure of women in Afghanistan. Why go that far? In India, the brutal rape and murder of a doctor on duty in Kolkata underscores the randomness and absurdity of existence. Had she not gone to work that day would she still be alive or would another woman have fallen prey while she held placards demanding justice?
In a world where it is difficult to find meaning in life, Camus’ philosophy might be the only crutch allowing one to go on without giving in to nihilism – the belief that life has no meaning – and embrace life in all its shades, the randomness, chaos, brief interludes of happiness and warmth, and tragedy.
A Sisyphean Existence
Like most, I was introduced to Camus through his seminal work, The Myth of Sisyphus where he uses the Greek mythological figure, who as punishment for deceiving death was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill only to see it roll back down for eternity, to illustrate the absurdity of the human condition. While nihilists would use the legend to underscore the pointlessness of life, where we continue to perform a litany of meaningless chores day after day till the end of time, Camus believed that Sisyphus subverted his punishment by embracing his fate and going on pushing the boulder day-after-day though he knew all his toiling was in vain.
“The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy,” writes Camus. This defiance separated him from other existentialist contemporaries. He argued that humans must continue to live authentically in the face of absurdity by both, shunning the hope of eventually finding meaning or despairing over the pointlessness of it all.
A Happy Death
Camus’s unfinished novel, A Happy Death, written in the early 1930s but published posthumously, explores whether one can be happy in an absurd world, what it means to live and die happy, and whether money can buy happiness. The answer is that one must “will happiness” as Camus believes happiness is not an accidental gift but a conscious act. He contends that living in an absurd world does not give the freedom to do whatever one chooses, take murder, but comes with limits and responsibilities through which one can create meaning.
But what does it mean to have a happy life and, by extension, a happy death? Camus champions the pursuit of lucidity — an unflinching acknowledgement of the absurdity of life as denying the absurd or seeking solace in false certainties is a betrayal of one’s freedom. To live authentically is to face life’s chaos head-on, and yet deliberately choose happiness.
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“Believe me, there is no such thing as great suffering, great regret, great memory… Everything is forgotten, even a great love. That’s what’s sad about life, and also what’s wonderful about it. There is only a way of looking at things, a way that comes to you every once in a while. That’s why it’s good to have had love in your life after all, to have had an unhappy passion —it gives you an alibi for the vague despairs we all suffer from,” he writes in A Happy Death.
Camus also advocates for rebellion. In The Rebel, he contends that revolt is not merely a political act but a deeply personal one—a refusal to accept life’s injustices passively. This rebellion extends to the absurd itself; by choosing to live authentically in the face of life’s meaninglessness, one asserts a kind of defiance that Camus considered the highest form of freedom.
The question remains: Did Camus die a “happy death”? While we cannot know his private thoughts in those final moments, we can infer from his writings that he likely valued the life he had lived. Camus’s philosophy does not demand immortality or perfection. Instead, it celebrates the effort to live meaningfully, however brief the time may be.
aishwarya.khosla@indianexpress.com
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