Absurdity

The absurd is born of the confrontation between the human call and the unreasonable silence of the world. ~ Albert Camus

Absurdity is a term for things extremely unreasonable, or as to be foolish or not taken seriously, or the state of being so. "Absurd" is an adjective used to describe an absurdity, e.g., "this encyclopedia article is absurd". It derives from the Latin absurdusm meaning "out of tune", hence irrational. The Latin surdus means deaf, implying stupidity. Absurdity is contrasted with seriousness in reasoning. In general usage, absurdity may be synonymous with ridiculousness and nonsense. In specialized usage, absurdity is related to extremes in bad reasoning or pointlessness in reasoning; ridiculousness is related to extremes of incongruous juxtaposition, laughter, and ridicule; and nonsense is related to a lack of meaningfulness. Students of the absurd or advocates of the importance of recognizing it are often designated Absurdists, and usually consider it one of their major roles in human society to note subtle differences between something that can seem entirely "nonsense" and something which is "absurd", in that absurdity is often hidden within either ultra-seriousness or widely-trusted thought, and actually indicates something beyond any particular notions or definitions of "Good" or "Evil" — or any mortally conceivable concepts whatsoever.

Quotes

Alphabetized by author

The more absurd life is, the more unsupportable death is. ~ Jean-Paul Sartre

• The absurd is born of the confrontation between the human call and the unreasonable silence of the world.
  • Albert Camus, in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)

• In a world where everything is ridiculous, nothing can be ridiculed. You cannot unmask a mask.
  • G. K. Chesterton, in On the Comic Spirit

• There is no idea, no fact, which could not be vulgarized and presented in a ludicrous light.
  • Fyodor Dostoevsky, in "Mr. —nov and the Question of Art" Polnoye Sobraniye Sochinyeni [Complete Collected Works] (1895), Vol. 9

• Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it or simply avoid it.
  • Vaclav Havel, Disturbing the Peace (1986), ch.2

• The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject but man only.
  • Thomas Hobbes, in Leviathan

• We live in a time which has created the art of the absurd. It is our art.
  • Norman Mailer, Canniobals and Christians (1966), "Introducing Our Argument"

• A prophet or an achiever must never mind an occasional absurdity; it is an occupational risk.
  • Oswald Moseley, My Life (1968), ch.12

• From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.
  • Napoleon I of France, speaking about troubles in the invasions of Russia (10 December 1812), as recorded by Abbé du Pradt, and quoted in History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789, to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, Vol. 3 (1842) by Sir Archibald Alison, p. 503; often also translated as: There is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

• I very much like your love of pleasure, and your humour and malice: it is so delightful to live in a world that is full of pictures, and incident divertissements, and amiable absurdities. Why shouldn't things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? They are so, and we are so, and they and we go very well together.
  • George Santayana, in a letter to Logan Pearsall Smith (24 May 1918) in The Works of George Santayana: The letters of George Santayana 1910 - 1920 (2002), p. 319

• The more absurd life is, the more unsupportable death is.
  • Jean-Paul Sartre, in The Words