[stmercy2020]

Hmm.  An interesting question, Alex! 

After careful pondering of the idea, I do not recall having a smoker in any of my stories.  I would like to believe that that's because I write in the things that are most familiar to me, and as I am a professional vocalist, smoking would not be in that realm. 

That is not to say that I have not smoked.  I stopped for my health.

My mother would have beaten me to within an inch of my life if I had continued after she'd caught me.  I started in fifth grade at the tender age of 10 (thanks to the neighbor next door–who by the way was an Olympic athlete in Women's hockey later!) and stopped about six months later.  My mother had discovered a bit of ash stain on an article of clothing and whupped the truth out of me. 
I was also encouraged not to spend time with that neighbor anymore, since it was getting me into trouble.  (Since the aforementioned neighbor had also taught me how to box, and got me into several fights, well…you can imagine that Mom wasn't real pleased.)

Anyhoo, would I make one of my characters smoke?  I guess it would depend on the character, but I'm inclined to say no, simply because after studying voice in college and seeing ALL sorts of photographic and video demonstrations about what your throat looks like even after a short period of smoking, I would be rather grossed out.

(might I suggest:  http://www.entusa.com/voice_box_cancer.htm  just to see what I mean?  Not a kick or a message, just interesting pictures.  And the biopsy video is fascinating!)

Again though, I suppose it depends on the character.  I'd never rule it out, because you know all our characters and stories ACTUALLY exist on some parallel universe, and we're only seeing it in the window in our minds  😉

-Kate

Heh.  I can't claim professional status anymore (only been paid to sing a couple of times; been paid to not sing on one memorable occasion, too) but my Mom was a medical doctor and I got to see all the pretty pictures of what happens to a smokers throat and lungs when she was studying for her exams many, many years ago…

And I actually ran several games over the years operating on the theory that all fictions exist concurrently and separately, with artists and dreamers having a sort of pinhole opening through which the alternities were witnessed.  All good stuff until the barriers that keep things separate start to break down for one reason or another… ;D

[AlexG]

What an interesting question.

Hmm.  An interesting question, Alex!

And here, I thought all of my questions posed in the past were interesting.  😉

You make a good observation, Fonk – it does add to the sin-ister aura of a black hat to have him or her as a smoker.

But then, how about the professorial sage with a pipe in hand . . .  😉

“I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
~ Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens (1907)

[JimmyDimples]

Ah yes, Trischman's Paradox:  "A pipe gives a wise man time to think and a fool something to put in his mouth."

The problem is, now I'm more inclined to include a character that smokes now.  *sigh* See what happens when you hang around the wrong crowd?

[Silent One]

Sorry about that, my mom always warned me about being a bad influence . . .

[David C. Matthews]

I don't smoke, myself, and I don't have many friends who smoke (but that's because I don't have many friends  ;D ), and I find smoking to be a disgusting habit, so it's something that usually doesn't occur to me to have one of my characters doing.  When I do (and it's a rare occasion), it's usually to show a villain(ness) smoking cigarettes (as in Panel 2 of this page of my first Satin Steele comic)… unpleasant people engaging in unpleasant habits, ne?  (Almost makes me want to go back and add a scene of Winston lighting up in the Tetsuko comic.)

[Vollar-Tile]

Hmm…. It's never crossed my mind.

I don't smoke, don't have close friends that do (which is just luck I guess), wouldn't start because I couldn't afford it in the first place, and I don't like the idea of addictions, but I got nothing against it when it comes to the fiction realm. Come to think of it, one of the characters I'm planning for my own series may smoke and drink sometimes; a short jerk who leads a crew of thieves and has a  big ego, and enjoys an occasional cigar and cigarette, because that's his character.

It's not like it's worst than 98% of the rest of the stuff fictional characters go through.  😛

But they can! …. Because they're fictional.

[stmercy2020]

Just realized- I have included a smoking character in one of my serial novels.  Lisette Boudreaux, Phil's, Dicey's, and Dasia's grandmother of the calculating and scheming sort, is a smoker.

[AlexG]

A secondary corollary to this would be whether or not the inclusion or the refusal to do so in a story isn't culturally driven depending upon what area of the world you call home.   8)

For example, given the dogmatic anti-smoking propaganda in the United States I would assume that someone from here would be less inclined then someone from Europe, South America or Asia – but then again maybe not.  ???

“I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
~ Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens (1907)

[Silent One]

But since America is the land of free and the home of the brave aren't you more likely to find a rugged individualist ready to buck the trend?  ::)

[AlexG]

But since America is the land of free and the home of the brave aren't you more likely to find a rugged individualist ready to buck the trend?  ::)

To use the words of your earlier posting: Is this directed at me?  ::)

Being a maverick I certainly don't subscribe to the status quo within the community of female-only TFing – but then, you already knew that.  😉

“I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
~ Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens (1907)

[Author]

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