Albert Camus

The handsome, brooding philosopher who made absurdism cool. Camus was a working-class kid who became a goalkeeper, journalist, resistance fighter, and Nobel Prize winner - all while looking like a 1950s movie star. His big idea? Life is absurd (meaningless), but that's actually liberating. Instead of despairing or turning to religion, just... live fully anyway. His metaphor was Sisyphus, condemned to roll a boulder uphill forever - but Camus insists we must imagine him HAPPY. Why? Because the struggle itself is enough. Tragically, he died young in a car crash with an unused train ticket in his pocket, which feels absurdly fitting. His last unfinished novel was about... absurdity, of course.