I don't smoke but the subject interests me, maybe because it strikes me as odd that cigarette smokers don't seem to enjoy it very much. Cigar and pipe smokers enjoy it. Look at them: they have magazines, clubs, internet sites...all sorts of fan outlets. What do cigarette smokers have? Nothing. No clubs, no magazines...zip. They seem to smoke just to satisfy an urge. Why is that? Why the difference?
I think it's because current cigarette smokers don't know how to smoke. They only know how to create mist, and there's no fun in that. Real smoking is almost a lost art.
Pushing a shapeless mist out of the mouth like the two women above is not smoking. It's...I don't know what to call it..."evacuating." Smoking implies that you enjoy watching and manipulating the slowly unraveling thing called smoke.
And why wouldn't you enjoy it? Unlike mist, smoke tells stories. The smoke above, for example: I see four little ghosts happily nibbling on a spinal column til two of them disappear, sending their friends into a panic. Moments later this scene might be replaced by cats attacking a school bus or Indians eating pies. Smoke puts on a show for you, while mist is just...well...mist.
I blame the ascendancy of mist on Flappers from the 1920s who, to judge from photos, didn't have a clue about the art of smoking, but I could be wrong. Maybe the decline of true smoking coincides with inhaling, which I'm guessing began in the 30s or 40s. Inhaled smoke turns into vapor. When you blow it out, it's just formless mist. It has no strings, no crawl, no shape, no imaginary animals or ghosts...it's just a haze. That's a pity because tobacco smoke is capable of so much more. It was just never meant to be inhaled.
Cigarette smokers who inhale like to think that they're superior to noninhaling smokers, but actually the opposite is true. Inhalers have limited imaginations and only smoke to be sedated. People who don't inhale are the real sophisticates. They're intellectually engaged in what they're creating. They enjoy the mysterious drama that unfolds infront of them.
Sometimes I wonder if the whole antismoking movement would have had the same zeal if smoking had prevailed over mist making. My guess is that smoke particles are larger and heavier than mist particles. They tend to cling to the area around the smoker, and fall to the ground at his feet. Mist on the other hand, fills the room and becomes part of the atmosphere that everybody has to breathe, whether they like it or not. Maybe the antismoking people are really just antimist.
Don't get me wrong...I don't advocate smoking. It's just too dangerous, even when it's done right. But if you're determined to do it anyway...well, geez, at least make an effort to enjoy it.
astute observation. i've never noticed, but now it seems so obvious. the most beautiful smoke patterns from a cigarette are always those wafting up from the burning tip, not exhaling from the smoker.
ReplyDeleteZ: Thanks! The smoker still has a creative role to play, but the cigarette contributes more than 50% of the smoke design. I'll do a whole post on that if there's any interest.
ReplyDeleteI smoke a pipe maybe two or three times a year. I'm hoping rarity makes it harmless!
ReplyDeleteBTW, I loved your Muskrats Grand Master costume. Thanks for sharing!
That poster is awesome! It really makes me wish I could have gone to that show.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever noticed the way Nazi's smoke cigarettes in movies? It's like they have a mastery over the cigarette and smoke them almost with contempt and yet with a relish at the same time. And, of course, the cigarette is always used to make them look evil.
ReplyDeleteLester: You mean the nature poster? Yeah, it was pretty good, but how did they prevent passersby from horning in?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment on the Grand Master photo. I tried to find a statue posed like a hood ornament for the pillar, but with no success.
I found a real girl posed like that and attempted to put some marble texture on her, but I never did that before, and the job was taking too long. I'll keep at it and use the picture in a later post.
I wonder if occassional pipe smoking is possible? I have it in my mind that if you smoke a little, you'll smoke a lot, but maybe I'm wrong. Pipes come with filters but my guess is that they inhibit the formation of beautiful smoke.
Shawn: Yes, film Nazis were good smokers, or at least they were good at the ritual of lighting up in a way that underlined their dominance.
ReplyDeleteGood post. This reminded me of an article I read about a therapy for compulsive eaters. The basic idea is to make preparing food and eating a sacred ritual.
ReplyDeleteBasically it tries to change a compulsive eater's relationship to eating from "I just want to eat something to fill this void" to "I want to take a sensual journey with the aid of this meal."
Maybe if compulsive mist making smokers can be changed for the better the same way.
Adam: Right up to a couple of months ago I would have agreed, but now I'm not so sure.
ReplyDeleteOver the past year I've cooked more than ever, and I justified it by telling myself that the elaborate ritual involved would be self limiting...that all that extra cooking would have no effect on my weight. Well, here I am a year later and 10 lbs. heavier.
The sad truth is that even dietetic cooking will directly or indirectly result in weight gain. The horrible, horrible truth is that you shouldn't get interested in cooking if you want to loose weight. Fat people should eat bland food.
In answer to the apparent difference in enjoyment between cigarette smokers and the pipe or cigar crowd:
ReplyDeleteCiggie smokers ARE satisfying an urge. Cigarettes are chemically engineeered to be powerful nicotine delivery systems. The kid who starts smoking 'cos it is cool rapidly becomes addicted to the chemicals thus delivered. After that, he must answer his smoky master ever so often, otherwise he goes through withdrawal symptoms.
The pipe or cigar tobaccos (while containing tars and nicotine, yes) are not filled with additives and specially-bred tobaccos bursting with nicotine. They are by their nature more benign than cigarette tobacco. I can have a pipe or two, or several cigars on a long solo road trip (they keep me awake), and once home, I can go weeks without another. At least for me, they are not addictive.
Generally, too, pipes and cigars smell better to bystanders than cigarettes. [AHEM] There ARE exceptions to that rule!