Smoke a Cigarette and Lie Some More

[lunabee34]

thelastgoodname posted HERE about deal breakers in fic which led to a discussion of non-canonical smokers smoking in fanfiction which prompted me to say that I believe most people have smoked at least one cigarette in their lives. That prompted hermionesviolin to make a poll about people's smoking habits. Results viewable to none, so feel free to pop over and take the poll even if you don't want your smoking past or present known. :)

Her poll and TLGN's post got me to thinking about smoking in fanfic and how I feel about it. Before I begin, let me disclaim. I am an ex-smoker. When I smoked, I did so like London at the height of the Industrial Revolution. I was a chain smoker. I smoked because I was alive. And I enjoyed the hell out of it until it made me, as it is wont to do, horribly and violently ill. I now think smoking is gross and horrible and expensive and deadly and I still want to do it really badly sometimes even though I usually don't. I am deluding myself into believing that smoking twice a year on vacation (at New Years and the Fourth) will not hurt me. I still think smoking looks sexy as all get out, even though it's so bad for you and the smell really turns my stomach now. (Isn't it great how you can't smell people on the TV? LOL)

That being said, I know very few people who have never ever smoked. I know lots of people who tried it once or twice and were thoroughly repulsed or who smoked casually now and again and gave it up, but very few people who just never smoked at all. This is probably more a reflection of where and when I grew up and the people I've chosen as friends and acquaintances over the years than anything else, but smoking is one of those things I'm never surprised when people admit they've done before. It seems like a part of adolescence to me--high school or college--that hopefully you grow out of before your lungs are fried.

So I don't get thrown out of a story when non-canonical smokers light up in fanfic. Let's take Sam and Dean Winchester, for example. They are not canonical smokers. They never ever light up onscreen. In fact, Sam says point blank that Dean doesn't smoke in "Fulsom Prison Blues." However, in "Born Under a Bad Sign," Dean's dialogue about Meg!possessed Sam smoking indicates (as least to me! MMV) that Dean was a smoker in the past. Couple that with the fact that the Winchesters practically grew up in bars and other seedy shindigs, the hard life of a hunter, and Dean's predilection for every vice glorified in a Hank Williams song and I can totally believe that one or both of them has smoked in the past and might pick it up again under the right conditions. I can pretty much believe anything of any character under the right conditions. I am coming to realize that I have very, very few ironclad deal breakers in fic.

I want to you know what you all think about smoking in fic. So poll!

[Poll #1561178]

Comments

[emella.livejournal.com]

Hey hey,

Okay so for me it really depends on the character, setting, and the fic.

If Dean were smoking in an AU or in some sort of traumatic post-apoca fic, or after Sam left at a bar or something, I can buy that.

It really depends on a case by case basis for me.

I can completely understand people who say that non-canon smoking is a turn off, because chances are it's completely OOC (which is pretty much like any other story with OOCness, and in a way the smoking topic is sort of like a situational metaphor for all OOC situations, I mean what if Simon was doing hard drugs or Willow became a hooker, it's all just ugly, ugly ooc things.)

I agree that I can't really see certain characters smoking. After looking at the thread linked up there, the thought of Sam and Dean smoking cigarettes is weirder to me than them smoking weed. THAT I can get on board with. Although that's said by a stoner so... yeah
*shiftyeyes*

ANYWAY, good post good topic interesting poll.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Oh, you!!!!! Hey!!! How are you, sweetie? :)

That's a really interesting point you're making there. It's not really canonical behavior for characters to do lots things that we end up writing fic about (rent!boy Draco, pony play!Sheppard, etc). I wonder if people feel differently about those extrapolations of canon because they're sexual.

Good food for thought.

[emella.livejournal.com]

Hey!! I'm doin' okay, busy trying to find a job, I've been super neglectful of lj. :(

How are you?

Yeah, I never thought about the sexual ooc situations, I guess it just shows you that it's different strokes for different folks. :P

Pony play!Sheppard *shiftyeyes* do you have a link? *shiftyeyes*

[ariadne83]

http://filenotch.livejournal.com/78207.html

I am a little ashamed I knew immediately how to find it, but hey it has a memorable title.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Bweeee!

I love you, bb. I was totally gonna ask you for the URL. LOL But you beat me to it.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I'm doing good! Just ready for the semster to be over. I need a new batch of kiddso. These ones are driving me crazy.

[ariadne83]

We so have to get back into writing mode when you're up to it *hugs*

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Yes! I have been thinking the same thing. :) I will also be enlisting your wonderful services for beta when I finish remix!!!!