Weekend Reading: Nausea

Nausea was Jean Paul Sartre’s first novel. It told the story of Antoine Roquentin, who settled in Bouville after spending his days traveling. Over time, he generated a nausea feeling for the things he used to enjoy doing or the people he was fond of. He was disgusted with existence while at the same time wanted to find meanings of the existence of things surrounding him.

It is discourteous to capture Sartre’s mind in such a short review. However, I wanted to point how I constantly relate Roquentin’s restlessness to every post-traveling session I made. In every homecoming, my comprehension of things I thought I knew was altered. Travel redefines perception, compromise values, and leaves you feel estrange of the things you were once familiar with. As agonizing as these feelings are, they are exactly the reasons for me to set another journey to find meanings.

– Rassi Narika