I have been a successful smoker for many years and am only satisfied with not smoking for reasons of pure reason. My desire is to go out on the balcony right now, light one up, inhale properly, and stare into nothingness, in the simplest sense of that advertising slogan from the 80s that so wonderfully defied health evidence: ‘I like smoking’.
The idea that smoking can be a good thing has been lost on the public. The opposite is true: In movies and television, cigarettes mark the characters who smoke as shady, wicked, and offbeat. This is also the case in the mini-series “Black Doves”; Keira Knightley’s character of the clever, eloquent, good-looking and caring wife of the British Foreign Secretary is not what she appears to be – but a spy who betrays her husband not only professionally, but also sexually and emotionally. The crumbling of her perfect image is initiated by receiving a cigarette from her secret service boss – those sneaky women!
It’s all the more pleasing that the series revises its view of fags in the later episodes. First, in a flashback that shows the beginning of love between two characters in a pub: Sam and Michael have a pouch of tobacco in front of them, roll one each, and recognize each other. The first walks out, and the second follows. Nothing more needs to be shown. The brightest beacon for smokers: off to the corner of the lepers, stand together, smoke and talk, everything else follows.
And when the day has seen a few deaths, you can retire to the edge of the bathtub, exhausted. With this in mind, a camerawoman friend recently told me that she only smokes when filming – if she didn’t, all sorts of people would come up to her during breaks wanting something. But if she has a cigarette in her hand, they leave her alone.
In other words, smoking is recognized as an “activity” – which is no small thing in a work-fixated world. The smoker is an image that may be despised, but at least it doesn’t bother you. The cigarette is a magic wand that casts a spell. Smokers are invited to enter at any time, while it keeps non-smokers at a distance.
Smoking is an activity that serves no one and is neither productive nor valuable at first glance. For this reason alone, apart from all the health aspects, no one needs to be surprised at the disappearance of cigarettes from the world of operative reason. Non-smokers complain that their vaping colleagues have more break time – the positive effects of an earlier death on the pension fund are irrelevant (has anyone ever calculated this against the costs of health insurance?).
The productivity of smoking corners has consistently been underestimated – mainly by those who have never been in them. It’s slightly melancholy that another previously accepted time-out has been lost behind the scenes.
Drink?
– Yes, please.
