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> 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 , Scott Lurndal wrote: >Bobbie Sellers 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