Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!panix!.POSTED.panix2.panix.com!not-for-mail
From: jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Smoking. Was: Clarke Award Finalists 2001
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2025 17:37:25 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: Public Access Networks Corp.
Message-ID: <102s94l$sra$1@reader1.panix.com>
References: <102p80r$7v6$1@panix2.panix.com> <102qvdj$26rs3$1@dont-email.me> <102s0fe$2eqt2$1@dont-email.me> <GPf4Q.234265$VIE2.181216@fx33.iad>
Injection-Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2025 17:37:25 -0000 (UTC)
Injection-Info: reader1.panix.com; posting-host="panix2.panix.com:166.84.1.2";
	logging-data="29546"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@panix.com"
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test77 (Sep 1, 2010)

In article <GPf4Q.234265$VIE2.181216@fx33.iad>,
Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:
>Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> writes:
>>
>>
>>On 6/16/25 22:45, Titus G wrote:
>>> On 17/06/25 07:00, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
>>> snip
>>>> but all that I can remember about them is: more smoking than in Doc Smith.
>>>>
>>> 
>>> I was surprised at characters spending more time smoking cigarettes than
>>> sticking to the plot in some recent reads.
>>> Meet the Tiger. Leslie Charteris.
>>> The Ministry of Time. Kaliane Bradley.
>>> Hardwired. Walter Jon Williams.
>>> The worst was non SF, Vengeance by Benjamin Black.
>>
>>	Books I read in the 1960s and thoughly enjoyed were recently
>>reopened and closed for the very same reason as I found the smoking
>>scenes too objectionable. And nearly every character just had to have
>>another cigarette to talk to friends or tell off the enemies.
>>	I myself never seriously smoked tobacco at any time but most
>>was after i was 25 yoa.  The smoking did not offend me when i read
>>the books the first time. Now it disgusts me to read about it. The
>>result of anti-smoking propaganda or the thought of my former
>>room mate who had smoked since she was 14 yoa and died at
>>75 of brain cancer that had spread from a lung cancer.
>
>As a lifelong non-smoker, I recall having difficulty enjoying
>a restaurant meal due to smokers at the next table, walking out
>of a bar smelling like an ashtray, or trying to survive a six
>hour flight in the last non-smoking row of an airplane.
>
>I'm happy that all three are no longer issues.

At work, I explained to a horrified student that certain heavy 
benches are spaced the way they are to make room for the ash-tray
stands that used to be at regular intervals in that hallway. 

-- 
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll