| Chapter 1: | The Fall |
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Chapter 1
The Fall
A Communicative Risk in
an Age of Absurdity
—Albert Camus, Nobel Prize for Literature
Acceptance Speech, 1957.
One meets the absurd in the inherent contradictions of human existence. Unfortunately, the risk of taking action in such circumstances is found not only in the action itself but also in the consequences of taking or avoiding action. Often the most appropriate action is obvious to an outside onlooker, whereas the person living through the experience fails to readily see what action is necessary in a given moment. At other times, as the saying “hindsight is 20/20” suggests, the choice becomes obvious only after the decision-making moment has passed. In The Fall, the last novel he completed and published during his lifetime, Albert Camus