The Labyrinth: An Existential Odyssey with Jean-Paul Sartre

by Ben Argon, Gary Cox (Introduction), Christine Daigle (Afterword)

An original look at the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre—told in cartoons

As graduates embark on the next phase of their lives, what better way to get them accustomed to the rat race they are about to enter than by introducing them to the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre? Cleverly told through the story of a pair of rats trapped in the labyrinth of existence, this allegory humorously conveys the key ideas of Sartre's existential philosophy in graphic-novel form—accessible for students and readers of all ages.

In addition, two reputable Sartre scholars have contributed the introduction and afterword: Gary Cox, a British philosopher with a doctorate from the University of Birmingham, and Christine Daigle, professor of philosophy at Brock University in Canada.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Philosophy, Comics, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels Comics

160 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 2020

About the author

Ben Argon grew up in France surrounded by artists and philosophers of all kinds. This shaped his approach to storytelling, which combines the use of visual thinking and humor. His motto: life is too short to be too serious!

Reviews

[Rosh]

A look at Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist philosophy through comics.

Interesting use of a rat narrator to explain the rat race rushing behind 'cheese'. Covers several abstract concepts such as life and death, freedom, choice, and the meaning of life. All are elaborated upon in an accessible way, with some good metaphors and a few thought-provoking lines. ("The world is different if we are different." - 💯) However, the explanation gets repetitive after a while. I am not sure if this is attributable to the original philosophy or the rat metaphor that is, quite literally, stuck in a maze.

This wasn’t exactly my cup of tea because I am severely allergic to philosophy. The humour and the easy-going writing made it somewhat palatable, but the topic itself and the repetitiveness of the theory also led to a heaviness in the head while reading.

This might be a good option for those who want to understand Sartre's philosophy but are daunted at the prospect or reading lengthy abstract tomes. Then again, my elder daughter loves philosophical and introspective topics, and even she found this book a chore to complete, saying it was repetitive and needlessly dense. So I’m not really sure about its appeal.

Leaving it without a rating because the subject absolutely wasn’t for me, and also because I cannot decide whether to blame the topic or the approach for the resultant headache.


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[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overarching concepts in Sartrean existentialism are introduced in this GN that has a rat in a labyrinth choosing to spend his days looking for cheese - intentionality, indeterminacy and nothingness are presented in a way that will allow the reader to understand the 'essence' of proximal meaning that is so very hard to unravel when following the thread of consciousness Sartre weaves through existance.

[Jolanta (knygupė) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smagus komiksas supažindinantis su Jean-Paul Sartre egzistencializmu.

Patiko idėja - žiurkės labirinte. Viena iš jų laksto paskui sūrį, kita (arba kitas tos pačios žiurkės AŠ) ragina į viską pažiūrėt kitu kampu. Labai fainas knygos apipavidalinimas. Skriptų grafika - pusė velnio.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never really had much patience for philosophy. I took Michael Sandel's philosophical survey course, "Justice," in college and frankly found everything after John Locke to be useless noodling. I'm sure Sartre and existentialism was touched on, but I doubt I was paying attention at that point in the semester. In later years, I remember shrugging after reading "No Exit" and finding Camus' The Stranger annoying due to the sniveling weasel of a narrator.

But, hey, I'll try anything if someone puts it in graphic novel form.

Turns out a lot of this existential stuff lines up with how I live my life, so that's okay. But then they go and say something like, "Nothing is as real as something," and I just can't even. And by the time it comes around to having the freedom to be as much of a psychopath as you want to be, I just want to slap 'em with Locke's social contract and call it a day.

My current philosophy: Sleep, chores, eat, read, Goodreads. Dead yet? If no, repeat.

Bad faith? Mm-kay.

[Katinas Čiobrelis | knygos, kelionės ir kiti įdomūs dalykai · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world is different if we are different

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received an ARC at NYCC 2019. Many thanks to ABRAMS Books.

Prior to Labyrinth, I'd never read anything by or about Jean-Paul Satre. So I can't speak to how accurately this gets his ideas across. What I can say with confidence is that if my undergraduate classes had used graphic novels to teach philosophy, I would have stuck with the subject for longer.

This is a wonderful format for talking about Big Ideas™. Just look at these two pages.



The images say so much. For those of us who are visual learners, this makes a huge difference. The book makes great use of visual explanations throughout. Often, it is in support of the story being told through dialog. Sometimes, the images speak the loudest.

I can see reasons to distrust this method. The biggest being that images can have a much wider interpretation than words. So by introducing images, there is more space created for disagreement in interpretation. But that always exists when discussing Big Ideas™. Usually we are the better for that and the benefits outweigh any downsides.

I believe this would work best as an introduction to Satre's work. It's like reading a charming and insightful summary before diving into the thinker's actual writing. By giving readers this wonderfully relatable mouse and his quest for cheese, Argon gives us a compass to navigate a dense and often intimidating subject. I'm excited to see what comes next.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great illustrated summary of Sartre’s existentialist philosophy, presenting his ideas in an approachable way without shying away from the sobering concepts they concern or collapsing them into motivational poster slogans. Argon has a lot of fun with the metaphor of a mouse in a maze, and a few pages caused a sudden sharp laugh despite the high-minded topic.

I was also surprised at how much some of the ideas expressed here reminded me of a segment in Joe Pera’s “Relaxing Old Footage” (from around 7:13-10:13) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv-P2... about how we experience time and can construct meaning from it: “Days have cycles and seasons have cycles, but time is not a cycle for us. Just a straight line; one that doesn’t continue forever, but that’s ok. My routine helps me forget this.”

In contrast, Sartre points out that we have absolute freedom to choose what we focus our lives on and pursue (or don’t) and the perspective we take on our situation, not necessarily to encourage positive thinking, but just to note our absolute freedom of choice and the anxiety that responsibility can cause. That anxiety can also lead to falling into a routine and accepting things as facts simply because they falsely reduce our choice and thus the anxiety of greater possibility.

[Dan Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Labyrinth- this is a type of comic I adore. One that on face value could seem a bit silly, using the allegory of a lab mouse to analyze existential questions of human existence, and prove to be thoughtful of and consistently clever

Prior I was not super familiar with the work of Jean-Paul Sartre so this proved to be a helpful to and understanding his work and they way he perceives the function of the mind and society.

Despite dealing with lofty material never took itself too seriously which helped Strike a nice balance and leaving room for the occasional comedy made for a surprisingly entertaining read.

[trestitia ⵊⵊⵊ deamorski · Rating 4 out of 5]

canım Sartre varoluşuna girecek değiliz; ana hatlarıyla görselleştirilmiş bir felsefe aslında. stil gayet güzel, genelde 4 kareden oluşan panellerdeki çizimler yüksek kontrastlı siyah beyaz.

anlatıcı ise fare. sevdiğim hayvanlar arasında değil.

tüm baskılar labirent oyulmuş sert kapak ve "beyaz" kağıda basılmış iken biz nedense karton kapak ve "saman" kağıdına basmışız.
insanı deli edersiniz.

hadi bi' de Camus yapalım, karakterimiz kedi olsun
;;;
deamorksi

[John Blacksad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bu incelemeleri takip edenler uyarlamalara dair fikrimi biliyorlar artık. Bir uyarlama olmasa da bir şeyleri anlatmak için çizgi romanı kullanmak, benim sanat olarak baktığım işi fazla araçsallaştırdığı (ve bu mantık gereği biçimden çok işlevin ön planda olduğu, yahut asgari bir kalite tutturduğu) için mesafeliyimdir. Fakat her insanın zihninde dolandırdığı, erbabınca ağır işlenen varoluşçuluk gibi bir konu üzerine çizginin yumuşaklığı vesilesiyle bir okuma yapma fikrine sıcak baktım. Çok da memnun oldum. İşin sanat kısmında yukarıda bahsettiğim endişeleri haklı çıkaracak yönler var denebilir ama meraklısına rahatlıkla öneriyorum. Başta “kötü inanç” (bad faith) olmak üzere kimi kavram ve yaklaşımlarla tanışmama ve üzerine düşünmeme sebep oldu. Sartre’a dair daha fazla okumak ve bu kitabı tekrar okumak arzusu ile bitirdim.

[Jennice Mckillop · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a graphic novel 2 explain Sartre’s philosophy of existentialism. It uses the example of a mouse chasing after a piece of cheese. He just must have that cheese. The drawings of the mouse and the object of his desire were sad.
However, this rendition does make the theory more manageable, but not any more convincing that the plain text.
I don’t buy it. I never did.

But, it also reminds me of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. Chapter 1:2
“ Meaningless! Meaningless! Says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
Then this Teacher came to the conclusion that is vital for living :”Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.”
(12:13)
Now Sartre did not believe in God so he would reject this conclusion.
Too bad.

[Daniel Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

"By sticking to the path, I'm just fooling myself. I'm just trying to escape my responsibilities, my choices. I'm trying to flee what I truly am...ever-changing and free."

This is a very entertaining, very short read wherein a cartoon mouse chasing a slice of cheese through a labyrinth monologues about the teachings of Jean-Paul Sartre. Very cute, but also genuinely hard-hitting and emotionally validating as a self-help pep talk. To be free is scary. To be free is to let others be free. To be like anybody is to be nobody. We are responsible for the lives we have, and we get the lives we deserve. Life's a silly game we can't win. But we can make our own rules, and that's just as freeing.

[Ashleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literally bless Ben Argon for making this graphic novel so I did not have to read 600 pages of Being and Nothingness. Concise and easy to read, this still made my brain hurt which makes me even more thankful I did not have to suffer through the original. A godsend.

[Shelby Koning · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's such a short read filled with big concepts and quite in line with my own ways of life, perspective shifts give me life. Reading this helps ease the intimidation of philosophy and readies me for my goal of reading Sartre's actual work

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever way to depict one philosopher's odyssey using rats.

[Jj Burch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun way to learn
About philosophy, life
And just existing

[Eli Poteet · Rating 3 out of 5]

i try to remain practically skeptical whenever i happen upon existentialists bc although i cannot keep up in conjecture- i can resist the opportunity to completley gaslight myself beyond comprehension. sooooooo go ahead n pick up this book if you wanna witness a rat get gaslit with assorted cultistish rhetoric.

[STEPHEN PLETKO!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

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This book is dedicated “to all the racing rats in the world”

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“This thought-provoking graphic novel…is inspired in general by the existentialist philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, and in particular by his major work from 1943, “Being and Nothingness” [said to be the ‘bible of existentialism’]…

[It] is an accessible…gateway into the complex, profound, and highly relevant thought of Sartre, a work that will help and inspire people of all ages to go and read more about existentialism.”

The above (in italics) comes from the introduction of this graphic work by French cartoonist Ben Argon. He “makes small comics to answer big questions.” The Introduction is by British philosopher and Sartre scholar Gary Cox while the Afterword is by another Sartre scholar, Canadian professor of philosophy Christine Daigle.

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 to 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was a key figure in the philosophy of existentialism and one of the leading figures in twentieth century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre’s work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, & literary studies and it continues to influence these disciplines. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in literature.

Existentialism is based on the doctrine that concrete, individual existence takes precedence over abstract, conceptual essence (or simply, “existence precedes essence”) and holds that human beings are totally free & responsible for their acts and that this responsibility is the source of their feelings of anxiety.

In this graphic work, the author translates the often intimidating theories of Sartre into simplistic comic art in this breezy introduction to Sartre’s existential philosophy. That is, philosophy is told in cartoons!

A rat in a maze stops running long enough to ponder the meaning of life: is it enough to “chase the cheese” or could there be more to existence? As he traverses the maze, new possibilities and questions arise.

In concise, well-organized chapters, this comic finds bite-sized approaches to expansive concept (like the nature of reality). Complex, abstract ideas are presented with clarity.

The interesting 3D cover of this book is based on the 1818 oil painting entitled “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” by German Romantic artist Casper David Friedrich.

Be sure to carefully read the Introduction and especially the Afterword (both mentioned above). These clarify what was conveyed in the comic strip.

Finally, who is this book for? Designed for both the studious and dabblers alike, this guide works as an accessible primer for one of the twentieth century’s weightiest thinkers.

In conclusion, this comic book conveys with humour the key ideas of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential philosophy!!

(2020; introduction [v to viii]; 5 chapters; afterword; main narrative 150 pages; about Jean-Paul Sartre; acknowledgements)

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[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cartoon look at the experience of acting, living, feeling, living human individual using Jean-Paul Sartre's theory of only by existing and acting a certain way do we give meaning to our lives. The book is for those who wonder about the meaning of life, but do not want an in-depth academic read.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes hard to separate the visual imagery from that most hated who moved my cheese book, but overall a great intro. The fore- and afterward are both valuable, as well. Love the catchy cover design!

[Elizabeth Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, kinda amazing.

It's the perfect amount of philosophical and entertainment to keep a newcomer to philosophy interested and thinking.

Love it! Would love it if more books like this were made on different philosophers!

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to existentialism and Jean-Paul Sartre’s ideas. Yes, told by a rat with simple graphics. It works. Read it more than once. JPS would have loved it.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great to revisit what I learned in college. I see clearly what Sartre was trying to say to the world. Fun graphics and metaphors.

[Ross Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have some quibbles, but they're with Sartre's philosophy itself, not Argon's book. This book does a phenomenal job of laying out said philosophy in a surprisingly digestible way.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great intro read into Sartre's theories of existentialism. Utilizing a metaphor of a mouse in a maze, a number of complex ideas on being, existing, and meaning are broken down with cute art.

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good intro and easy to digest presentation of philosophy and existentialism.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This made me want to read more on philosophy. Does anyone have any recommendations for accessible works in this area? I don’t think I’m ready for the full Being and Nothingness experience! 😄

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate philosophy! But this graphic novel about the ideas of Sartre is accessible and easy to follow. I really like it! I wish I had this in philosophy class oh so long ago.

[Eric Piotrowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. The art is engaging, the subject matter is important, and the introduction + conclusion testify to the greatness of the actual contents. But it just didn't help me very much. I've studied a little bit of philosophy, but I'm a neophyte with Sartre. The rats here are cute and there are some vivid depictions of certain ideas — but overall it feels scattered and disjointed.

Each page feels like its own missive, addressing some part of Sartre's corpus. The biggest problem is that it doesn't flow together or provide anything more comprehensively useful to a person like me. While reading, I kept wondering why we didn't get some more fleshed-out characters to which the reader could relate. I get the whole No Exit thing embodied by the maze, but all we really get here is: Cheese, Stuff, Run. The books and films and podcasts about philosophy I find most valuable are the ones that explore real-life examples and thought experiments. (There's a reason people love discussing The Trolley Problem.) This book doesn't offer very much concrete material into which we can sink our teeth.

The art is appropriately frenzied, but it feels frenetic and jagged in a way that I generally don't prefer. The lettering is great, the layout is crisp, and the use of black + white contrast is superb. (The computer effects are kept to a fitting minimum.) I can totally see myself reading more books from Argon, but I can't recommend this one with any gusto.

[Tamar Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Labyrinth is a visual adaptation of core elements of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist philosophy. It presents existentialism through the metaphor of two mice characters trapped in a high-walled maze. The two, identified by their fur color: the book is printed in black and white, so the narrator mouse is white while its interlocutor is black. This enables the pair to have a dialectical conversation about the meaning of life, freedom and constraint, and the possibility of meaning-making.

The possibilities of visual representation, however, are not fully realized in the graphic novel. The basic metaphor is simple but powerful, and yet is not developed or creatively engaged in the exposition. Most of the action (and critical interaction) is not in the visualization, as in *Maus*, but in the dialogue between the two mice characters - in other words, it’s verbal and not visual. Though *The Labyrinth* serves as a basic introduction to existentialist thought, it does not explore ideas deeply. I actually found that one of the most interesting parts of the book was its introduction by Gary Cox, which offers a remarkably lucid though brief introduction to existentialism. It made me put Cox’s intro to Sartre on my reading list, despite being familiar with Sartre’s life and thought.