Okay, but what about plays? 'Waiting for Godot' is practically a philosophical treatise in dramatic form. The entire play is about two men finding ways to pass the time while waiting for a meaning (Godot) that never arrives. Their conversations, jokes, and suffering are all attempts to create purpose in a void.
The famous line ‘Nothing to be done’ encapsulates its absurdist, cyclical nature. It’s the ultimate expression of finding meaning—or the lack thereof—in the act of waiting itself, in the human need to persist even when nothing seems to be happening. It’s hilarious, depressing, and profoundly insightful about the human condition of expectation.
Don’t sleep on 'The Stranger' by Camus. The final monologue where Meursault confronts the 'benign indifference of the universe' is a gut punch that perfectly captures absurdist philosophy. It’s a short read, but every sentence feels deliberate, building to that moment where life’s inherent meaninglessness becomes almost liberating. The novel argues that searching for grand cosmic purpose is a fool’s errand; meaning, if it exists, is personal and immediate.
Camus doesn’t give you hopeful platitudes. Instead, he presents a character who rejects societal scripts and finds a strange peace in acknowledging the absurd. It’s bleak, sure, but there’s a raw honesty to it that’s stuck with me more than many cheerier books. For anyone feeling detached or questioning the point of it all, this is essential reading.
George Eliot’s 'Middlemarch' is a monumental study of provincial life, and its final pages contain one of the most famous passages in English literature about ‘unhistoric acts.’ The novel argues that the quiet, anonymous lives of most people, full of small sacrifices, loyalties, and efforts, are what ultimately shape the world for the better.
Its philosophy is deeply humanistic and anti-romantic. Dorothea Brooke’s story, in particular, is about the search for a meaningful life within the constraints of society and marriage. Eliot treats her characters with such psychological realism and empathy that their struggles for purpose feel immediate and universal. It’s a long, immersive journey that rewards patience with immense wisdom.
Hmm, I feel like a lot of these are pretty heavy Western classics. What about something like 'The Three-Body Problem'? The ‘physics as philosophy’ angle, especially the concept of the universe as a dark forest, is a terrifyingly profound take on cosmic meaning and survival. It shifts the scale of the question entirely from the personal to the species and galactic level.
It asks if the meaning of a civilization’s existence is simply to survive in a universe where trust is impossible, and if so, what does that say about our own nature? The philosophical implications of the Dark Forest theory are huge and deeply unsettling. It’s hard sci-fi that functions as a massive thought experiment on existence itself.
Hermann Hesse’s 'Steppenwolf' deals directly with the crisis of meaning for the intellectual who feels alienated from bourgeois society. Harry Haller’s struggle between his ‘man’ and ‘wolf’ natures, and the Magic Theater’s offering of infinite potential selves, is a wild ride. It suggests that meaning might lie in embracing, not resolving, our contradictions.
The treatise on the Steppenwolf included in the novel is a philosophical essay in itself, discussing the suicide of the soul and the possibility of finding humor in the hopelessness of life. It’s a novel for outsiders, for those who feel too complex to fit into simple definitions of a meaningful life. Dark, strange, and ultimately strangely hopeful.
2026-07-24 11:57:19
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The madness of life
Виталий Кириллов
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In the madness of life, we find the madness of life in ourselves. We are a reflection of the madness of life. We are the embodiment of a crazy life.
The story is a mixture of fantasy, a bit of comedy, unconventional romance, and addressing issues that people encounter everyday rolled into one. This ought to leave meaningful lessons about love, one's existence, new beginnings , and dealing with the different nuances of life.
Have you ever dreaded living a lifeless life? If not, you probably don't know how excruciating such an existence is. That is what Rue Mallory's life. A life without a meaning. Imagine not wanting to wake up every morning but also not wanting to go to sleep at night. No will to work, excitement to spend, no friends' company to enjoy, and no reason to continue living.
How would an eighteen-year old girl live that kind of life?
Yes, her life is clearly depressing. That's exactly what you end up feeling without a phone purpose in life. She's alive but not living. There's a huge and deep difference between living, surviving, and being alive. She's not dead, but a ghost with a beating heart.
But she wanted to feel alive, to feel what living is. She hoped, wished, prayed but it didn't work. She still remained lifeless. Not until, he came and introduce her what really living is.
Her name was Cathedra. Leave her last name blank, if you will.
Where normal people would read, "And they lived happily ever after," at the end of every fairy tale story, she could see something else. Three different things.
Three words: Lies, lies, lies.
A picture that moves.
And a plea: Please tell them the truth.
All her life she dedicated herself to becoming a writer and telling the world what was being shown in that moving picture. To expose the lies in the fairy tales everyone in the world has come to know.
No one believed her. No one ever did.
She was branded as a liar, a freak with too much imagination, and an orphan who only told tall tales to get attention. She was shunned away by society. Loveless. Friendless.
As she wrote "The End" to her novels that contained all she knew about the truth inside the fairy tale novels she wrote, she also decided to end her pathetic life and be free from all the burdens she had to bear alone.
Instead of dying, she found herself blessed with a second life inside the fairy tale novels she wrote, and living the life she wished she had with the characters she considered as the only friends she had in the world she left behind.
Cathedra was happy until she realized that an ominous presence lurks within her stories. One that wanted to kill her to silence the only one who knew the truth.
Behind the walls of the mind, where words fall silent, the stories no one dares to whisper begin. 'Whisper of Thoughts' is a journey into the corridors of mystery, where passion blends with psychological turmoil in an endless conflict. When thoughts become the enemy, can the soul find its sanctuary? Unravel the tangled threads of secrets in a story that defies the logic of reality. As the narrative unfolds, the protagonist finds themselves caught in a web of cryptic events, forcing them to confront buried secrets from the past while navigating an unexpected and complicated romantic connection.
After my younger brother died, my parents and grandfather all killed themselves.
Each of them died in a different way, but they shared one thing in common:
Before their deaths, every one of them had read my brother's suicide note.
And in that note, there was only a single sentence.
Reporters fought for a chance to interview me. The police interrogated me overnight.
Countless people wanted to know what that sentence said.
But I never told anyone.
Until the tenth anniversary of my brother's death, when I saw a figure standing in front of his grave.
At that moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of excitement.
Because I knew my turn had finally come.
The first thing that struck me about 'The Meaning of Life' is how it mercilessly lampoons the human obsession with finding grand answers. From the absurd musical numbers to the grotesque satire of bureaucracy, it feels like Monty Python is screaming, 'Stop taking yourselves so seriously!' The film’s chaos mirrors life itself—messy, unpredictable, and often ridiculous. The 'Galaxy Song' is a perfect example: it crushes our cosmic insignificance into a catchy tune, yet leaves you weirdly uplifted. Maybe that’s the point? Life doesn’t need a meaning to be enjoyed.
Then there’s the infamous 'Mr. Creosote' scene, where excess literally explodes. It’s a visceral critique of consumerism and gluttony, but also a reminder that chasing pleasure without purpose leads to disaster. The film’s structure—birth, death, and everything in between—mocks the idea of linear narrative, just as life refuses to follow a script. By the end, when the characters hand over an envelope labeled 'THE MEANING OF LIFE' containing a trite platitude, it’s clear: the joke’s on us for expecting one.
Let's not forget children's literature can be deep. 'A Wrinkle in Time' by Madeleine L'Engle. The fight against the IT on Camazotz, a planet where everything is perfectly uniform and controlled. The absence of free will is portrayed as the ultimate evil. Meg's weapon against IT isn't force, but love—her choice to love her brother Charles Wallace, with all his faults. It's a clear allegory that individual choice, even when messy and emotional, is the antithesis of a cold, predetermined fate. A powerful message for any age.
Julian Baggini's 'What's It All About?' dives into some heavy-hitting thinkers while keeping things refreshingly relatable. The book doesn’t just drop names—it weaves their ideas into a conversation about life’s big questions. You’ll bump into Epicurus, who argued that pleasure (but not hedonism!) is life’s goal, and Camus, with his absurdist take on finding meaning in a universe that doesn’t care. Baggini also gives airtime to existentialists like Sartre, who insisted we create our own purpose.
What’s cool is how the book contrasts these views without drowning in jargon. Nietzsche’s 'will to power' gets a nod, but so does Hume’s more skeptical, experience-based approach. It’s like a philosophical buffet—you taste a bit of everything, from Eastern thought to analytic philosophy, without feeling stuffed. By the end, you’re left chewing on how these ideas clash or complement each other in your own life.