The conflict between the intellectual search for meaning in life when no inherent meaning is to be found there spawned the 1950s philosophy of the absurd explored trenchantly by French Algerian writer Albert Camus in his many books — including centrally, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942).

Each month, save the summer months, Walker Brents III explores a piece of literature, a myth, a body of intellectual, artistic or spiritual work, or whatever strikes his fancy, and each month we find ourselves taken a little deeper into something we either knew nothing about or thought we knew well…