Smoking in books

[nashira]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

You are apparently not the only one wondering that. Just for giggles, I Googled "realistic bubble pipe" and the demand definitely outweighs the supply options. Lots of people asking if anyone knows where to get them. I would imagine that smoking-related toys aren't popular with parents these days, which is a shame because after seeing your post I was thinking it would be a fun thing to have.

I imagine that a Meerschaum can be modified with a discrete plastic insert, like maybe the end of a small bubble wand. It would be especially cool if you could find one of those old Disney ones. A Mickey Mouse Meerschaum blowing bubbles...

Wait, how did I get on this topic? Oh, yeah, by surfing MR instead of reading.

I don't imagine parents think they're a good idea anymore, just like the little chocolate or musk stick smokes. But I had all of them and I've never had the urge to have a real one.

Bubble pipes are fun, though! So long as you don't accidentally suck instead of blow and get a mouth full of soap.

[patrickt]

After I read this thread I was thinking of smoking in books I've read lately. Smoking has become perhaps the leading method of indicating that the character has no respect for intrusive rules and petty authority. "He was well aware smoking on the beach was illegal but he didn't even try to hide as he lit his cigarette." "He had already been arrested twice for smoking in his apartment but that didn't stop him from lighting up." "Lt. Weenie had six signs in his office say, "No Smoking" and Detective Manly smiled as he lit his cigarette." "Sidney was arrested for domestic violence when his wife reported that he smoked in their home."

It won't stop there. "The twelve cans of paint to be used to paint his home one of the three approved colors stood by the garage. Karl used a small flashlight to remove the lid of each can and pour in a tablespoon of yellow paint so his house would be a slightly different, and therefore unapproved, color." That daring son of a gun. "But, his neighbor saw him and reached for the phone." Oh, the drama.

What about looking at attractive women? Will we continue to accept this degrading practice in literature?

[Fastolfe]

Originally Posted by patrickt

What about looking at attractive women? Will we continue to accept this degrading practice in literature?

Patrickt, I hear ya. I too hate political correctness creeping into everyday life, be it about smoking, curse words or anything else. As a libertarian, this self-inflicted societal thought police bothers me no end. You can't speak about many things these days without getting stern criticism from do-gooders at best, or running afoul of the law at worse.

On the other hand, smoking is the kind of personal liberty that often infringes on other people's freedom to breathe fresh air. So there is good cause to ban smoking in public places. Trouble is, as you undoubtedly know, banning tobacco wouldn't have worked anymore than banning alcohol worked in the 30s.

That's why the thought police was invented: there has been for at least 30 years a concerted effort by policymakers to make tobacco uncool instead of trying to legislate it out of existence, so that the next generation (that's today's kids, teens and young folks) not only doesn't pick up smoking, but also annoy the living hell out of smokers. It was a long time coming, but it paid off: now laws aren't necessary anymore, people police themselves, to the point of readers and writers wondering on an internet forum whether depictions of smoking people should be banned or curtailed! George Orwell's corpse must be going over 10,000 RPM by now...

The thought police trick has been successful beyond belief; smoking is going the way of the dodos. But it's at a price: the price of blandness, conformity and general pussification of free-speech. Also, many people with an agenda have taken notice of how successful the tobacco smear campaign has been in the long run, and are applying the same tactic in other areas, further encroaching on our liberties and further turning people into sheeple, and that is even more worrying.

[nashira]

Originally Posted by Fastolfe

Patrickt, I hear ya. I too hate political correctness creeping into everyday life, be it about smoking, curse words or anything else. As a libertarian, this self-inflicted societal thought police bothers me no end. You can't speak about many things these days without getting stern criticism from do-gooders at best, or running afoul of the law at worse.

On the other hand, smoking is the kind of personal liberty that often infringes on other people's freedom to breathe fresh air. So there is good cause to ban smoking in public places. Trouble is, as you undoubtedly know, banning tobacco wouldn't have worked anymore than banning alcohol worked in the 30s.

That's why the thought police was invented: there has been for at least 30 years a concerted effort by policymakers to make tobacco uncool instead of trying to legislate it out of existence, so that the next generation (that's today's kids, teens and young folks) not only doesn't pick up smoking, but also annoy the living hell out of smokers. It was a long time coming, but it paid off: now laws aren't necessary anymore, people police themselves, to the point of readers and writers wondering on an internet forum whether depictions of smoking people should be banned or curtailed! George Orwell's corpse must be going over 10,000 RPM by now...

The thought police trick has been successful beyond belief; smoking is going the way of the dodos. But it's at a price: the price of blandness, conformity and general pussification of free-speech. Also, many people with an agenda have taken notice of how successful the tobacco smear campaign has been in the long run, and are applying the same tactic in other areas, further encroaching on our liberties and further turning people into sheeple, and that is even more worrying.

Some of us young things don't like smoking just because it smells awful and we can't breath properly around it. Plus it's not especially good for anyone. My grandfather who owned the pipes included - he got emphysema from it. My mother probably has it to some degree as well. But as long as I don't have to hang around it? I honestly don't care what people do to themselves.

But I really laughed at the image of George Orwell

Though I wonder if he wouldn't be more concerned about CCTV and the like... Or satellite tracking.

[The Old Man]

Originally Posted by Fastolfe

The thought police trick has been successful beyond belief; smoking is going the way of the dodos. But it's at a price: the price of blandness, conformity and general pussification of free-speech. Also, many people with an agenda have taken notice of how successful the tobacco smear campaign has been in the long run, and are applying the same tactic in other areas, further encroaching on our liberties and further turning people into sheeple, and that is even more worrying.

My Hour
By Robert W. Service

Day after day behold me plying
My pen within an office drear;
The dullest dog, till homeward hieing,
Then lo! I reign a king of cheer.
A throne have I of padded leather,
A little court of kiddies three,
A wife who smiles whate'er the weather,
A feast of muffins, jam and tea.

The table cleared, a romping battle,
A fairy tale, a "Children, bed,"
A kiss, a hug, a hush of prattle
(God save each little drowsy head!)
A cozy chat with wife a-sewing,
A silver lining clouds that low'r,
Then she too goes, and with her going,
I come again into my Hour.

I poke the fire, I snugly settle,
My pipe I prime with proper care;
The water's purring in the kettle,
Rum, lemon, sugar, all are there.
And now the honest grog is steaming,
And now the trusty briar's aglow:
Alas! in smoking, drinking, dreaming,
How sadly swift the moments go!

Oh, golden hour! 'twixt love and duty,
All others I to others give;
But you are mine to yield to Beauty,
To glean Romance, to greatly live.
For in my easy-chair reclining . . .
I feel the sting of ocean spray;
And yonder wondrously are shining
The Magic Isles of Far Away.

Beyond the comber's crashing thunder
Strange beaches flash into my ken;
On jetties heaped head-high with plunder
I dance and dice with sailor-men.
Strange stars swarm down to burn above me,
Strange shadows haunt, strange voices greet;
Strange women lure and laugh and love me,
And fling their bastards at my feet.

Oh, I would wish the wide world over,
In ports of passion and unrest,
To drink and drain, a tarry rover
With dragons tattooed on my chest,
With haunted eyes that hold red glories
Of foaming seas and crashing shores,
With lips that tell the strangest stories
Of sunken ships and gold moidores;

Till sick of storm and strife and slaughter,
Some ghostly night when hides the moon,
I slip into the milk-warm water
And softly swim the stale lagoon.
Then through some jungle python-haunted,
Or plumed morass, or woodland wild,
I win my way with heart undaunted,
And all the wonder of a child.

The pathless plains shall swoon around me,
The forests frown, the floods appall;
The mountains tiptoe to confound me,
The rivers roar to speed my fall.
Wild dooms shall daunt, and dawns be gory,
And Death shall sit beside my knee;
Till after terror, torment, glory,
I win again the sea, the sea. . . .

Oh, anguish sweet! Oh, triumph splendid!
Oh, dreams adieu! my pipe is dead.
My glass is dry, my Hour is ended,
It's time indeed I stole to bed.
How peacefully the house is sleeping!
Ah! why should I strange fortunes plan?
To guard the dear ones in my keeping --
That's task enough for any man.

So through dim seas I'll ne'er go spoiling;
The red Tortugas never roam;
Please God! I'll keep the pot a-boiling,
And make at least a happy home.
My children's path shall gleam with roses,
Their grace abound, their joy increase.
And so my Hour divinely closes
With tender thoughts of praise and peace.

[Fastolfe]

Originally Posted by nashira

Some of us young things don't like smoking just because it smells awful and we can't breath properly around it. Plus it's not especially good for anyone.

Yes, but the difference with my still young, but apparently older self is that when I picked up smoking, I forced myself to enjoy it because it was the cool thing to be seen doing.

Don't think for a second my first cigarettes were enjoyable. I clearly remember retching all the way to school when my mates and I decided to become cool. I spent my first week as a smoker being seasick, and my last 25 years addicted or fidgety because I was trying to quit.

You escaped my fate because, smoking being uncool now, you could see it - or rather smell it - for what it really is, not through the lens of advertisement and fashion. Good for you, and good for me too, because now that I've stopped, I'm not all that keen to smell it and be tempted to pick it up again.

Still, I think the intellectual cost of implanting the anti-tobacco reflex into people's minds is rather high, probably as high as letting the tobacco industry spread the idea that smoking was cool years ago.

[Jellby]

Most of the time, I don't need to know if a character smokes or not, just as I don't need to know whether he prefers chicken or beef, and I don't need to know every time she scratches her nose. If smoking (or chewing gum, or whistling...) adds something to the story or atmosphere, then it's OK, of course. But just adding a smoker because you need one of each (plus a gay or lesbian, plus a black person, plus a muslim, plus a handicapped...) is not the best technique, I'd say.

[Freeshadow]

1.) the ides to misuse a white lady for soap bubbles is obscene. *shrug*
2.) I started smoking 'cos I wanted to - never minded about so called coolnes and what the mob thinks of me. Apart from that - pipe doesn't really "go with the masses"
3.) hmm... bystanders: even in the times when smokers weren't kind of hunted down - I'd never have smoked pipe in very crammed or small places - so in fact I recieved by far more mositive comments about being something like a walking incense stick dispenser than complaints. Funny enough it have been mostly life-long non-smokers who liked the aroma of the tobacco mixtures.
In contrary to that, the worst (i.e. nearly spitting their complaints out) are the ex-smokers...

[nashira]

Originally Posted by Fastolfe

Yes, but the difference with my still young, but apparently older self is that when I picked up smoking, I forced myself to enjoy it because it was the cool thing to be seen doing.

Don't think for a second my first cigarettes were enjoyable. I clearly remember retching all the way to school when my mates and I decided to become cool. I spent my first week as a smoker being seasick, and my last 25 years addicted or fidgety because I was trying to quit.

You escaped my fate because, smoking being uncool now, you could see it - or rather smell it - for what it really is, not through the lens of advertisement and fashion. Good for you, and good for me too, because now that I've stopped, I'm not all that keen to smell it and be tempted to pick it up again.

Still, I think the intellectual cost of implanting the anti-tobacco reflex into people's minds is rather high, probably as high as letting the tobacco industry spread the idea that smoking was cool years ago.

You're slightly overestimating the "anti-cool" factor, when I was in High School, not so long ago, it was still very cool/popular to smoke. Maybe it's because I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, I don't know. Mostly with the popular girls, though I'm sure I just noticed them more because they smoked in the toilets and there was only two sets of those so I was bound to run into them everyday, versus the boys loo's, which I didn't go near.

While I had the "Ew! Smokes." reflex, a great deal of my classmates didn't. Including one of my best friends apparently, who smokes.

Of course I did go to school with a frightening amount of idiots....

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I wonder if it's illegal anywhere yet. I'm sure it will be. A few years ago, Jean-Paul Sartre was honored in Paris but they had to delete all the cigarettes in his photos.

There was a Dutch children's movie that won't be sold in the US for now: people smoke in it (pipe) and a child is riding a bike without a helmet...

[Kingpool7]

Smoking in books does not bother me one bit. Probably because I'm smoker myself.

I did discover one strange PRS-650 function when smoking tho. I can turn page with smoke when I blow it directly to TS, it is annoying, so I can not smoke anymore when I read books. I think it has to be good for my health .

[The Old Man]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

There was a Dutch children's movie that won't be sold in the US for now: people smoke in it (pipe) and a child is riding a bike without a helmet...

I wonder what the PC folks are doing with this one:

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by patrickt

After I read this thread I was thinking of smoking in books I've read lately. Smoking has become perhaps the leading method of indicating that the character has no respect for intrusive rules and petty authority.

That's pretty much the impression I get from characters who smoke, too: The smoking becomes a major symbol of part of their character, as opposed to a minor affectation or an aside; the character does it to piss someone off, or because they are rebellious in general, or because they are so powerful that no one can tell them not to light up, etc.

I mostly write SF, so it is mostly suggested that smoking has pretty much passed on, it's just not done in the future. Of course, there's no reason writers couldn't envision a future world where lung cancer has been eradicated with a pill, or we have a new plant to smoke that doesn't harm the body. But smoking is just an affectation, and its lack of use today suggests its decline in popularity. We'll see if it continues to decline, or resurges in the future.

[Fastolfe]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Of course, there's no reason writers couldn't envision a future world where lung cancer has been eradicated with a pill

That's not science fiction, it exists today: a cyanide capsule will quickly eradicate a lung cancer, or indeed any cancer, chronic headache, diabetes or bunion you might be suffering from.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Fastolfe

That's not science fiction, it exists today: a cyanide capsule will quickly eradicate a lung cancer, or indeed any cancer, chronic headache, diabetes or bunion you might be suffering from.

You've got that wrong: The pill doesn't eradicate the malady; it simply removes the ability for it to hurt you any more.