Ben lerner atocha5/24/2023 The hardest part of quitting would be the loss of narrative function it would be like removing telephones or newspapers from the movies of Hollywood’s Golden Age there would be no possible link between scenes, no way to circulate information or close distance, and when I imagined quitting smoking, I imagined “settling down,” not because I associated quitting with a more mature self-care, but because I couldn’t imagine moving through an array of social spaces without the cigarette as bridge or exit strategy. He is in Madrid when Al Qaeda bombs trains at the Atocha station, yet his detached attitude contrasts painfully with the engagement of his Spanish friends. More important than the easily satisfiable addiction, what the little cylinders provided me was a prefabricated motivation and transition, a way to approach or depart from a group of people or a topic, enter or exit a room, conjoin or punctuate a sentence. “because the cigarette or spliff was an indispensable technology, a substitute for speech in social situations, a way to occupy the mouth and hands when alone, a deep breathing technique that rendered exhalation material, a way to measure and/or pass the time.
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