It’s not about the cigarettes.
Or is it?
Some people smoke because they like it.
Some smoke because they’re trying to kill the time between two pointless thoughts.
But Camus?
Camus smoked because he had to—like some writers write, some drink, and some can’t stop touching their own damn face.
It’s an addiction, sure. But it’s also an act of rebellion.
A middle finger to the absurdity of life. He was a man trying to deal with the chaos of existence while simultaneously lighting another cigarette.
1. Camus Was Not Just a Philosopher—He Was a Smoker of Ideas
Albert Camus, the French-Algerian philosopher and writer, is most famous for his exploration of the absurd—the belief that life has no inherent meaning, and yet we keep searching for it.
His novel The Stranger (or L’Étranger in French), features a man named Meursault, who doesn’t care about societal norms or conventions, including the death of his own mother.
Camus saw humans as caught in a cosmic joke, which is why I think he lit up so many damn cigarettes.
Life’s a joke, might as well laugh with a smoke in hand.
So here he is: smoking as an act of defiance, a refusal to conform to the rules of existence—rules we all pretend to follow just to get by.
2. The Rebel with a Cigarette in Hand
In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus explores the idea of the absurd hero.
Sisyphus, condemned to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity, realizes the absurdity of his fate.
But the twist is, he embraces it. He continues his task because he’s fully aware of the futility.
That’s Camus’ philosophy in a nutshell: embrace the chaos, find your meaning even when everything is meaningless.
And what better way to do that than with a cigarette?
The slow burn, the inhale of smoke, the little death with each puff. I can almost see him, a rebel against the absurd, chain-smoking and staring into the void.
3. The Smoke as a Symbol of Alienation
Smoking wasn’t just a habit for Camus; it was a declaration of separation.
His characters, particularly in The Stranger, are distant from the world.
They don’t conform to social expectations. They live on the edge of society, disconnected from the majority.
The cigarette? It’s the perfect accessory for the isolated, the outsider.
Every drag was a silent rebellion, a reminder to the world that Camus wasn’t playing by your rules. He was living by his own.
4. Camus’ Existential Crisis Was Just Like Yours, Only With More Cigarettes
Let’s face it: existential crises are overrated. We’ve all had them—sitting on the couch, staring into the abyss of Netflix, wondering if we’re all just fooling ourselves.
But Camus? His crisis was on a different level.
He took the absurdity of life and smoked it out like a bad habit.
The meaning of life? Yeah, he didn’t believe in any of that nonsense.
Yet he kept on living, trying to make sense of it with each puff.
It’s the cigarette that symbolizes his ability to face the darkness without flinching.
You don’t smoke when things are easy. You smoke when everything’s messed up.
5. The Dual Nature of the Cigarette: Death and Life
Camus’ life was often consumed by contradictions. He was a man who believed in rebellion and the absurdity of life but still searched for some meaning in the chaos.
He was constantly grappling with death and meaninglessness, and what better way to remind himself of this than lighting up a cigarette?
The cigarette is a slow march toward death, an intimate acknowledgment that no one gets out alive.
But it’s also life. The smoke, the flick of the lighter, the tiny moments of relief between drags—that’s life in its rawest form.
6. Influence of Smoking on Camus’ Writing Style
Camus’ smoking habit undoubtedly influenced his writing, or at least the vibe of his characters.
Think of Meursault in The Stranger, indifferent to the world around him. The cigarette is as much a part of his existence as the thoughts he rarely shares.
It’s not just a filler for awkward moments; it’s his way of saying, “I don’t care.”
Camus wrote in a detached style, almost clinical in its delivery, much like the precise, deliberate drag of a cigarette.
It’s a rhythmic, almost mechanical way of getting through life. Like a smoker with their pack, Camus made a habit of confronting the absurd with calculated indifference.
7. Death and Cigarettes: A Slow Burn
There’s something deeply ironic about the way Camus lived his life.
A man who wrote about absurdity, existential rebellion, and the ultimate meaninglessness of everything, yet couldn’t escape the grasp of his cigarette addiction.
Maybe it was his way of sticking it to the universe.
“Yeah, I know I’m going to die. But let me die on my terms. With a cigarette.”
And in a way, that’s the most human thing he could have done. Embrace the inevitable, but do it with style. Smoke in one hand, absurdity in the other.
Vonnegut’s Take on Cigarettes: The Absurdity Intensified
Now, I can’t help but think of Kurt Vonnegut, another master of existential absurdity.
Vonnegut, too, played with the absurdity of life, and like Camus, he didn’t shy away from discussing humanity’s ridiculous dance with mortality.
But here’s where Vonnegut kicks up the absurdity a notch—he often used cigarettes as a symbol of the ultimate indifference.
For Vonnegut, cigarettes weren’t just a coping mechanism for absurdity; they were a part of the cosmic joke.
They were meaningless, but they gave Pilgrim some sense of control over his fractured existence.
Just like Camus, Vonnegut’s characters find themselves in a world they don’t understand, and they smoke to blur the edges.
They puff away their frustrations, anxieties, and confusion—because why not? Life’s a joke anyway.
Vonnegut doesn’t romanticize the cigarette. No, for him, it’s just another way of saying, “What the hell else are we going to do? Quit? That’d be too easy.”
It’s a funny, sad, tragic, and ultimately pointless little thing. Just like life itself.
Summary Table:
| Point | Description |
|---|---|
| Camus and the Absurd | Camus believed life is absurd, and cigarettes were part of his response. |
| Rebellion with a Smoke | Smoking was a symbolic act of defiance and rebellion against life’s meaninglessness. |
| Symbol of Alienation | Cigarettes became a symbol of Camus’ characters’ isolation and detachment from society. |
| Existential Crisis & Smoking | Camus embraced his existential crisis, facing life’s meaninglessness with a cigarette. |
| Cigarette as Death and Life | The cigarette embodied both death’s inevitability and the preciousness of life’s fleeting moments. |
| Influence on Writing Style | Camus’ detached writing style reflected his personal indifference, much like the cigarette. |
| The Ironic Slow Burn | Camus smoked as a way to cope with the absurdity of death, choosing to live on his own terms. |
So there it is. Camus, a man who could’ve been sipping wine, painting the great questions of life in a sunlit cafe, but instead, he was smoking his thoughts away, letting the ashes fall as reminders of our doomed condition.
It’s a slow death, sure.
But maybe that’s the point. Maybe in the end, it’s not the smoke, but the awareness of it, that makes us human.
PS: And here’s a little warning for all the loser hipsters out there who think they can copy Camus by lighting up their own smokes while pondering the meaning of life.
Sure, you might think you’re channeling some deep existential rebel vibes, but let me tell you something: you’ll only end up with lung problems and looking like a pretentious fool.
Camus wasn’t trying to be cool. He was grappling with the futility of it all, and the cigarettes were just a part of that—NOT a fashion statement.
Keep your “deep thoughts” to yourself, and maybe consider picking up a book instead of a pack of smokes. Trust me, you’ll be doing yourself a favor.
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