  1) Artistic activity as an existential choice is a privileged mode of assuming and realising the paradoxical nature of being human. In Camus’ words, artistic activity is one of the key attitudes to face the absurd. Camus’ celebration of art in The Myth of Sysiphus (1942b, 127), which crowns artistic expression as the ultimate form of “joy,” would ring true for the other existentialists despite their noted differences on the question of the absurd. Indeed, many other existentialist writers made similar statements reflecting their own life choices, in particular their decision to pursue a philosophical and literary career. The personal dimension that can be found in many existentialist writings grants these texts a special status in the history of philosophy, since it blurs a boundary that has been essential to the definition of the genre of philosophical writing, viz., the boundary between the theoretical and the biographical, the personal and the general. Marcel’s “metaphysical diary” is a good case in point. More than just an original form of philosophical analysis, the diary illustrates Marcel’s own conception of the true self as a gradual awakening to the “appeal” of being through the combined practices of ontological inquiry, artistic creation and personal engagement. Sartre also wrote an autobiographical account of his discovery of the world of words, Les Mots, without doubt one of his masterpieces. The same can be said of Camus’ last narrative text, La Chute, which mixes autobiography with an ironical account of his philosophy.