absurdity vs chaos (lesson plan) - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

wilbjammin · 12-03-2003, 02:34 PM

Ok, this may seem weird, but I had to come up with a 20 minute mock lesson plan for my Social Studies program. Our seminar leader was explaining existentialism to us and claimed that existentialists centered their believes on the idea of the universe being chaos. I immediately corrected her, and from ensuing conversation I found her to be very upset with me. Being one to follow things up, here is the mock lesson I came up with. I am curious as to what you think of this lesson, or things that you all thought of as reading these quotes. I have a sheet of quotes and then a brief explanation of how I'll use them:

Quotes:

You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He is, as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid of the passions of this earth. Nothing is told us about Sisyphus in the underworld. Myths are made for the imagination to breath life into them. As for this myth, one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay-covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain.
It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights of gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock. – Myth of Sisyphus – Albert Camus

Absurd. If one kills oneself, the absurd is negated. If one does not kill oneself, the absurd reveals on application a principle of satisfaction that negates itself. The does not mean that the absurd does not exist. It means that the absurd is truly without logic. This is why one cannot truly live on it. - Notebooks Sept 15, 1943 – Albert Camus

The essential quality of poetry is that it makes a new effort of attention, and "discovers" a new world within the known world. Man, and the animals, and the flowers, all live within a strange and for ever surging chaos. [...] But man cannot live in chaos. [...] Man must wrap himself in a vision, make a house of apparent form and stability, fixity. In his terror of chaos he begins by putting up an umbrella between himself and the everlasting whirl. Then he paints the under-side of his umbrella like a firmament. Then he parades around, lives and dies under his umbrella. Bequeathed to his descendants, the umbrella becomes a dome, a vault, and men at last begin to feel that something is wrong.
Man fixes some wonderful erection of his own between himself and the wild chaos, and gradually goes bleached and stifled under his parasol. Then comes a poet, enemy of convention, and makes a slit in the umbrella; and lo! the glimpse of chaos is a vision, a window to the sun. But after a while, getting used to the vision, and not liking the genuine draught from chaos, commonplace man daubs a simulacrum of the window that opens on to chaos, and patches the umbrella with the painted patch of the simulacrum. That is, he has got used to the vision; it is part of his house-decoration. So that the umbrella at last looks like a glowing open firmament, of many aspects. But alas! it is all simulacrum, in innumerable patches. - Chaos in Poetry – D.H. Lawrence

Lesson summary:

Objectives: Students will examine excerpts from texts by Albert Camus and D.H. Lawrence to consider and gain an understanding of the difference between chaos and absurdity and the responses these authors have towards them. Then the students will analyze these responses and discuss the pros and cons for each response.

5 Minutes: Introduce topic, hand out readings. Narrate Myth of Sisyphus quickly. Read through Albert Camus readings and come up with brief list on the board of what absurdity includes.

5 Minutes: Read through D.H. Lawrence except. Identify chaos, write on board. Make differentiations between Lawrence and Camus.

7 minutes: Discuss the responses to chaos and absurdity. Which is better? What are the drawbacks? What seems more accurate? Write notes on board.

3 minutes: Wrap up lesson. Camus = rebellion, Lawrence = simulacrum (cover chaos with a vision). I know this was brief, but the value should be inherent in how we personally view existence and how we react to it. Quickly write down one thing about either Camus or Lawrence that you liked or didn’t like and justify it with at least 2 sentences.

Prepared questions:

What is absurdity, based on what you’ve just read? Chaos?

What are similarities and differences between absurdity and chaos?

What role does suffering have in absurdity? Terror with chaos?

Are there weaknesses with either of this concepts? Strengths?

Personal experiences that lead you to like one more than the other, or to dislike both?

(Note: timing is arbitrary, but I am forced to write something... Ideally, I'd spend much more time with this.)

Locobot · 12-15-2003, 03:00 AM

Camus can do, but Sartre is smarter.

wilbjammin · 12-15-2003, 02:32 PM

Sartre isn't very lyrical... he's smart, but I don't know about smarter. They are different kinds of existentialists. Anyway, Sartre doesn't really spend as much time talking about absurdity as he does talking about choice/in-itself-for-itself be your own God stuff/existential psychoanalysis etc. To draw a difference between absurdity and chaos, you need a good baseline example. I didn't want to dig through Being and Nothingness and his other stuff, when I knew I could easily find a couple quotes in the parabol on Sisyphus.

If you have a good Sartre quote on absurdity, share it with me! I'm always looking for good quotes and new ideas.

12-03-2003, 02:34 PM	#1 (permalink)
wilbjammin * * *	absurdity vs chaos (lesson plan) Ok, this may seem weird, but I had to come up with a 20 minute mock lesson plan for my Social Studies program. Our seminar leader was explaining existentialism to us and claimed that existentialists centered their believes on the idea of the universe being chaos. I immediately corrected her, and from ensuing conversation I found her to be very upset with me. Being one to follow things up, here is the mock lesson I came up with. I am curious as to what you think of this lesson, or things that you all thought of as reading these quotes. I have a sheet of quotes and then a brief explanation of how I'll use them: Quotes: You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He <i>is</i>, as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid of the passions of this earth. Nothing is told us about Sisyphus in the underworld. Myths are made for the imagination to breath life into them. As for this myth, one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay-covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain. It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his <b>suffering</b>, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights of gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, <b>he is superior to his fate</b>. <b>He is stronger than his rock</b>. – <i>Myth of Sisyphus</i> – Albert Camus Absurd. If one kills oneself, the absurd is negated. If one does not kill oneself, the absurd reveals on application a principle of satisfaction that negates itself. The does not mean that the absurd does not exist. <b>It means that the absurd is <i>truly</i> without logic</b>. <b>This is why one cannot <i>truly</i> live on it</b>. - <i>Notebooks Sept 15, 1943</i> – Albert Camus The essential quality of poetry is that it makes a new effort of attention, and "discovers" a new world within the known world. Man, and the animals, and the flowers, all live within a strange and for ever surging chaos. [...] <b>But man cannot live in chaos</b>. [...] <b>Man must wrap himself in a vision, make a house of apparent form and stability, fixity</b>. In his <b>terror</b> of chaos he begins by putting up an umbrella between himself and the everlasting whirl. Then he paints the under-side of his umbrella like a firmament. Then he parades around, lives and dies under his umbrella. Bequeathed to his descendants, the umbrella becomes a dome, a vault, and men at last begin to feel that something is wrong. Man fixes some wonderful erection of his own between himself and the wild chaos, and gradually goes bleached and stifled under his parasol. Then comes a poet, enemy of convention, and makes a slit in the umbrella; and lo! the glimpse of chaos is a vision, a window to the sun. But after a while, getting used to the vision, and not liking the genuine draught from chaos, commonplace man daubs a simulacrum of the window that opens on to chaos, and patches the umbrella with the painted patch of the simulacrum. That is, he has got used to the vision; it is part of his house-decoration. So that the umbrella at last looks like a glowing open firmament, of many aspects. But alas! it is all simulacrum, in innumerable patches. - <i>Chaos in Poetry</i> – D.H. Lawrence Lesson summary: Objectives: Students will examine excerpts from texts by Albert Camus and D.H. Lawrence to consider and gain an understanding of the difference between chaos and absurdity and the responses these authors have towards them. Then the students will analyze these responses and discuss the pros and cons for each response. 5 Minutes: Introduce topic, hand out readings. Narrate Myth of Sisyphus quickly. Read through Albert Camus readings and come up with brief list on the board of what absurdity includes. 5 Minutes: Read through D.H. Lawrence except. Identify chaos, write on board. Make differentiations between Lawrence and Camus. 7 minutes: Discuss the responses to chaos and absurdity. Which is better? What are the drawbacks? What seems more accurate? Write notes on board. 3 minutes: Wrap up lesson. Camus = rebellion, Lawrence = simulacrum (cover chaos with a vision). I know this was brief, but the value should be inherent in how we personally view existence and how we react to it. Quickly write down one thing about either Camus or Lawrence that you liked or didn’t like and justify it with at least 2 sentences. Prepared questions: What is absurdity, based on what you’ve just read? Chaos? What are similarities and differences between absurdity and chaos? What role does suffering have in absurdity? Terror with chaos? Are there weaknesses with either of this concepts? Strengths? Personal experiences that lead you to like one more than the other, or to dislike both? (Note: timing is arbitrary, but I am forced to write something... Ideally, I'd spend much more time with this.) __________________ Innominate.

12-15-2003, 02:32 PM	#3 (permalink)
wilbjammin * * *	Sartre isn't very lyrical... he's smart, but I don't know about smarter. They are different kinds of existentialists. Anyway, Sartre doesn't really spend as much time talking about absurdity as he does talking about choice/in-itself-for-itself be your own God stuff/existential psychoanalysis etc. To draw a difference between absurdity and chaos, you need a good baseline example. I didn't want to dig through Being and Nothingness and his other stuff, when I knew I could easily find a couple quotes in the parabol on Sisyphus. If you have a good Sartre quote on absurdity, share it with me! I'm always looking for good quotes and new ideas. __________________ Innominate.

12-15-2003, 03:00 AM	#2 (permalink)
Locobot is awesome!	Camus can do, but Sartre is smarter.