Life and Lille

Lille in northern France is perhaps not the first place you might think of when contemplating a European city break. In August my wife and I spurned Paris to take the Eurostar to Lille for a few days. I had been told that Lille was a bit like Birmingham. The city boasts a surprising array of museums, art galleries and picturesque squares.

Some of the architecture is interesting. The photograph below was taken in Avenue Le Corbusier close to the railway station. Le Corbusier was a famous architect who designed “machines for living in”.

The photo below was taken at the other side of the railway station.

The train journey from London St Pancras through the channel tunnel passed quickly, which is more than can be said for the initial leg of the journey to London, as someone decided to jump in front of the train coming in the opposite direction. The title of my blog references the writings of Albert Camus and the first sentence of The Myth of Sisyphus is “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.” Camus thought suicide signified the lack of strength to face “nothing”. He thought life an adventure without ultimate meaning and though in some sense absurd it is still worth living. If there is nothing else, then life should be lived to the full and we should derive meaning from human existence. Camus thought it was people that gave life meaning, but the realization of your own extinction, indeed the ultimate extinction of all life, results in a deep sense of anxiety, what some people call “existentialist angst”.

"A world which can be explained, even through bad reasoning, is a familiar one. On the other hand, in a world suddenly devoid of illusion and light, man feels like a stranger."

In the end, Camus rejects both suicide and the evasion of the absurdity of life through religion, which he thought to be philosophical suicide. He concluded that this life, this vale of tears, should not merely be accepted, it must be embraced.