[ Post a Response | The Sublime Desire of Cigarette Smoking ]
Posted by vesperae How about this: 1) I want to provide a place for discussions involving people who smoke and enjoy it, and/or for people who have an interest in understanding the experience of why people smoke and enjoy it. 2) I believe that an important part of the experience of smoking is knowing that it is dangerous, risky, and "bad", and that it is this aspect of smoking (the "Sublime", or "darkly beautiful" aspect) that actually makes it much more attractive and psychologically pleasurable than if smoking were as dangerous as drinking coffee or eating chocolate, both of which have significantly addictive physiological properties, but neither which are dangerous, risky, or bad for us. At least not in the quantities that most consume them. 3) DS SF conversation that focuses on an outsider's / non-smoker's perspective tends to objectify the dangers and risks of smoking in others without wanting to relate to the smoker's experience of them. In fact, this type of non-smoking DS SF perspective often actively wants to not empathize with the smoker's experience, because attempting to empathize with the smoker's experience can work against the sadistic pleasure of thinking about a smoker's physical decline, mounting risks, and eventual demise. 4) DS SF conversation that focuses on an outsider's / non-smoker's perspective typically likes to play with the idea that the smoker is either helpless to overcome her addiction to nicotine, and is therefore either weak, or is the victim of an evil industry (that a sadistic DS SF perspective enjoys relating to), or that she is simply stupid, and deserves to die as the result of her foolish decision to smoke, and to continue smoking. 5) I think that people who have actually given some thought to their relationship to smoking, and to the more Sublime dimensions of the experience of smoking, have something much more interesting to say, for both mainstream and SF audiences, than those who prefer to fantasize about the smoking of others from "outside" the experience. 6) Continuing to provide a place for DS SF conversation that focuses on an outsider's / non-smoker's perspective will almost certainly drive away and/or discourage from posting smokers who don't have an SF, but who might otherwise post here. Am I making any sense? * * * * *vesperae
on August 8, 2007, 11:20 pm, in reply to "Re: Please Read / Refocusing Our Purpose Here: Appreciate the FYI"
Hey SpyPlane, 
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