Candy and I had yet another back-and-forth rumination about romance, this time about smoking:
Sarah:Question for you: smoking characters in romance novels. Not characters that are hot and described in puerile incendiary terms, or characters who are actually aflame, but characters who engage in tobacco inhalation as an indulgence or a habit.
You rarely see smoking characters nowadays in contemporaries. In historicals you see them indulging in snuff, pinching all manner of whatnot between their cheeks (The dudes, not the ladies. Or the buttcheeks) and cigars, cigarillos, and maybe cigarettes make appearances as vices that are part of the costume. But in a contemporary published in the last ten years, and that’s a loose estimation, you don’t often see a character smoking.
In late 80’s Nora Roberts Silhouettes, which are the only reprints of old series romances that I’ve read, sometimes a heroine will smoke now and again, but nowhere does Roberts describe her heroine with a two-pack-a-day habit. I know I’ve read a western contemporary where the hero was a Marlboro man down to the dangling cigarette, but I cannot for the life of me remember the title. I think the last character I read smoking a cigarette was the villain in Crusie/Mayer’s Don’t Look Down, now that I think on it.
How has smoking become such a non-occurance, when in reality so many people do smoke cigarettes? Social pressure? Can a character smoke in a novel without it being perceived as a flaw? Is it a flaw if a character smokes?
Candy: That’s an excellent question, actually, and something I haven’t noticed.
Corollary: are villains more likely to smoke in romances?
Several different explanations pop up in my head about the lack of smoking among protagonists:
– A lot of people hate the smell. Cigarette breath != sexy. Well, I, personally, don’t mind it too much, but I know lots of people who do.
– The odds of all sorts of diseases increase by so much that if there was a hero or heroine who smoked, I’d think “Oooh, hey, lung cancer in 20 years. Sweeeet.” Which isn’t romantic, and it interferes with the HEA.
– It’d be a lot more acceptable if they portrayed a character struggling with it and triumphing at the end.
– Addictions aren’t particularly sexy or romantic, unless used in the context above.
Sarah:I am curious as to whether one can trace the use of cigarettes in romance fiction among protagonists alongside the increasing negative publicity surrounding smoking. Whereas a heroine who smokes in a 80’s romance might as well be putting on shoes for all the significance her cigarette has, today that same cigarette, as you state, can impact the HEA in the reader’s mind. I wonder if publishers have stances on smoking protagonists, the way some editors mark out any mention of September 11 in some manuscripts.
It may be possible that as smoking protagonists decreased in number, the number of villains who smoke increased. Or at least, smoking was used as a prop to indicate villainy or the like.
I wonder what the Bitchery thinks – are smoking heroines and heroes victims of addiction, or are they individuals making their own choices, just doing their thing and it doesn’t mean that much anyway? Is it a marker of a time period and a different set of social standards that is now gone the way of the shoulder pads and the wide offset leather belt? It wouldn’t be the first time I read too much into a characterization element.
Candy: I do think popular opinion has turned against smoking, to the extent that it’s now seen as almost on par as, say, smoking pot. (I actually know some hippie types who view pot with a lot more charity than tobacco.)
I wonder why all the hard-bitten SEALs and cops never smoke. Those people tend to smoke quite a bit, right?
Sarah: True. It is odd that some characters who in “real life” you see smoking don’t often do so.
I am also an ex-smoker and I do not judge people or characters in books by their use or non-use of tobacco. After all, I am the same person I was when I smoked, I just smell better and wheeze less.
Since smoking characters are rare these days I do generally stop and wonder if the author wants me to make something of it. I just can’t. I grew up around smokers and I have known a lot of smokers who were good people and a lot of non-smokers who were assholes, and vice-versa.
I will add my embarassing college smoking story. When I was a sophmore in college, the guy that I was completely and totally crushing on came up to me at a party and said, “I just think you should know that you are one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen and if you didn’t smoke you would be totally hot.” :long: The worst part is that he was a really nice guy and he sounded sad when he said it. He really did feel like he needed to explain to me why he was not acting on the mega-watt chemistry that we had going on. *sigh* What could have been…
Interesting topic. I don’t care one way or the other about characters smoking. I just remember Ian from Judith McNaught’s Almost Heaven, smoking and being seductive. There is something sexy about it—from afar. In a fantasy kinda way because in real life, I wouldn’t care for it.
I graduated in 1992.
Definately a Pittsburgh thing. My husband (a CMU employee too) and my mom both smoke and I don’t think they will ever quit.
I hate smoking. Very few TV/Movie characters smoke either. It is odd watch old movies where everyone is walking around with cigarettes dangling from their fingers. I find it almost distracting because we are so used to not seeing them smoke unless it is a vital part of the script.
Hey girls, it nice to know there are so many of youns Pittsburghers out there.
One of my favourite literary characters, Harriet Vane (Lord Peter Wimsy mysteries by Dorothy Sayers), smokes incidentally throughout her books and so do most of her contemporaries. This was the 1930s, so that’s reasonable and it doesn’t bother me much, but it’s interesting that in Muder Must Advertise the hero comes up with a foolproof advertising campaign for a cigarette brand and asks the manager of the team what happens when the market is saturated and everyone dies of lung cancer. The manager replies “We’re a long way from that yet…and we have to get more women into smoking” (I’m paraphrasing). That’s in 1936, and they’re aware there’s a health risk. I must admit that when I see people smoking I am sad and think, they must taste dreadful and will destroy their skin and voice, quite apart from any other health risks, so it’s a total turnoff for me. That was the only unromantic aspect of Romeo + Juliet for me, that Leonardo DiCaprio was always lighting up.
In Brisbane, Australia, where I am, health regulations now mean that the places you can smoke are pretty much limited to the middle of the road (you can’t be within 4 metres of a doorway etc, no public spaces, transport, corridors, etc) and very very few cafes and restaurants even have smoking sections anymore. It’s considered pretty rude to light up inside anyone’s house, and usually in a social situation people ask if anyone minds before they start. So if I was setting a book here, the characters couldn’t smoke anywhere really where they might go about their business, you might have a section about the rebel crowd who smoke outside but most of the action I would think would have to take place in a smoke-free zone. This would be very limiting if you wanted your character casually smoking. If you wanted them smoking you would have to make a real issue of it and it seems a lot of trouble to go to.
Sorry for the long post, everyone! I just looked back at it!
it only bothers me if they do it all the time. i have put down several historicals because the hero pinches snuff on every page. ew! in real life, i once broke up with a friend because he started smoking, and i lose respect for anyone my age who starts despite years of health classes and such. eedjits.
And a really cool book i just read, though not a romance, has a very interesting view on how to deal with smokers in the workplace: it’s called Company, by Max Barry. awesome book, really, for a number of reasons.
To me, my distaste for reading about smoking comes from my general distaste for smoking, and not necessarily because I think people who smoke are bad people. I just don’t care for the habit. I was married to a smoker at one time, and looking back on it, all I can think about was the bad breath and the smelly clothes and the cigarette burns on my furniture. Not sexy for me. So I would just rather not read about it.
It’s kind of the same way I’d feel if I was reading about a romantic hero, and then having him start farting all the time. Then having the heroine think about how “aromatic” his farts are, and how sexy he is when he farts. To me, that would seem extremely unrealistic because I can’t imagine thinking any fart is aromatic (in a good way) and/or sexy.
Sure, it’s something we all do, none of us are bad people for doing it, but it’s not something I’d like to read about in a romantic novel. Ok, it’s not something I want to read about in general, but mostly in a romantic novel.
Having kissed a smoker once, it isn’t romantic. My husband’s ex is a smoker and he lived with her for 12 years but now his eyes swell up when around smoke. Bob’s ex is also one of my best friends now (long story) and she has often said that if she knew she could smoke the rest of her life and die in her sleep she would never give it up. Her aunt was a chain smoker and died at 96 – she’s looking to emulate this.
Thing is smokers do smell and sometimes it’s a very sour almost vomit smell but I would never tell my friend that.
So for me, I tend to forget that the hero or heroine smokes unless it is mentioned time and time again – hey, it’s like morning breath, it’s real but it’s not mentioned in romance and sometimes it’s a real effort to get my brain to just go with it 😉
CindyS
I remember being really surprised when the hero in Born in Shame kept on lighting up! It really surprised me for a novel written quite recently to do so!
I think you guys said it best, there’s nothing sexy or romantic about the numerous diseases that smoking can help cause. As a non-smoker, I do notice and it does bother me if someone lights up (I too was shocked at first when reading an old NR book before realizing it was from the 80s). But, since they’re fictional I tend to get over it.
I did, however, give the hero in one of my own novels a smoking habit, but he overcomes it through the course of the book, mainly due to a pregnant friend. I can’t help but see smoking as a flaw—when you work in a daycare and see the amount of respiratory problems young children have due to parents that smoke, it’s hard to view it otherwise.
As for villians smoking, it is somewhat of a cliche, so I try to avoid it if possible in my own writing and might roll my eyes a little when reading it, but I think it sneaks in there because nothing says bad guy like a sneer and a cigarette. Even if it’s overused, it’s a good visual image of “bad.”
hey, it’s like morning breath, it’s real but it’s not mentioned in romance and sometimes it’s a real effort to get my brain to just go with it
*snicker* I have huge problem with this. Every time a hero wakes a woman with a big ol’ romantic tongue kiss, I find myself cringing. Uh-uh. Let’s do it from behind, darlin’, for both our sakes.
YES! THANK YOU! I always chalk the whole “morning sloppy kiss” crap to the fantasy element of romance – that the perfect romance hero never has morning breath.
Sidenote: I feel like I’m the only person who’s seen Thank You For Smoking. Tell me I’m wrong.
Emily, you’re wrong! Funniest movie I’ve seen in a long time.
As for vampires, what’s the point of being immortal if you can’t get away with doing dangerous things? Hell, blood-breath can’t be much worse than tobacco-breath.
Sigh…quit several years ago and still fantasize about it. The thing was, it felt so cool, but I once saw myself in a bar mirror with a cigarette in my mouth, and I looked like such an idiot. Lauren Bacall I’m not.
Back on topic, when characters in a book smoke or do drugs or drink or whatever, my reaction all depends on the context. If someone smokes pot and goes for a drive: Bad. If someone smokes pot and listens to Pink Floyd: Good. And I’m not a hippie type; I’m just acquainted with the facts, having been a research assistant for a prof who specializes in drug policy.
Whether or not a smoking character carries an automatic subtext might depend on where you market your book. Someone mentioned Bridget Jones as one of the few recent MCs who smokes – she is European. During trips to Italy, Spain, and Germany, we as naive, smoke-sheltered Canadians kept being astonished at the utter lack of anything resembling a non-smoking section in cafes, restaurants, or almost any enclosed space. Even some parts of museums allowed it. You’d think they would want to protect the art treasures from damage, even if patron health wasn’t a top priority.
Ya know, I was thinking about the whole bad breath thing. In never smoked (thank Gawd!) but I dated a guy who did and it was kinda icky.
I recently read Winter Fire by Elizabeth Lowell and I remember in the first scene that the hero smelled like he had just eaten an apple. It was very appealing to me.
Still, Humphrey Bogart with that cigarette, whew, really does it for me. Don’t know why.
Letitia, I have had Winter Fire on keeper shelf forever and it was that opening line that hooked me immediately. It is one of the lines I will never forget. It is funny how sometimes the little things just seem to stand out.
Add me to the list of people who were thinking about this just the other day. I read Crimson Rogue by Liv Maverick the other day (last book of the Crimson City series and damn I hate to see that one end, waah!) and the heroine smokes. Not a lot, not often, in fact it’s just barely mentioned, but she’s a reformed drug addict who’s just escaped after several years of torture by a demon, so I can cut her some slack.
That being said, I don’t find smoking sexy. At ALL. Sherrilyn Kenyon’s character Zarek smoked—again with the immortal vampire so it can’t hurt him thing—and it was a turn-off to me. Same with other vampires. The immortal-smoker thing is becoming a cliche now too.
And LMAO on the morning breath! Glad to know I’m not the only one who has trouble buying that. Ick. My ex’s morning breath could stop a raging elephant in its tracks. No possible way any libido could survive it.
>Still, Humphrey Bogart with that cigarette, whew, really does it for me. Don’t know why.
I’m revolted by him and Clark Gable, both. I look at them, and I can TELL they’re chain smokers, and I can’t help but think how they must smell… Erg.
One of my grandfather’s died of lung cancer in the early 1970s or late 1960s. My grandmother (other side) smoked when I was little, but I asked her to stop when I was three because I wanted her to live to see my children. She just looked at me and didn’t say much of anything, but she finished that pack and never bought another one. And she saw my first son and enjoyed being a great-grandmother for two years befor she passed away.
Smoking doesn’t bother me in books though I hate the smell in real life. Scented cigarettes are just barely tolerable, but I grew up with a pipe (ok) and cigar (bleccch) smoking grandpa.
If anything, one behvior that raises my reader flag is contemporary heroines seeking unprotected sex. She’s usually trying to silence the bioclock and chooses a “safe” target that’s too caught up protect them, but still.
I do think it makes characters more real. We all have our psychological issues and neurosis and we all deal with them differently. Some people smoke while others do drugs, drink, eat too much, starve themselves, etc.
I’m all for a character smoking. I want to know who a character is, icky habits and all. Let’s look at Johnny Depp. In my opinion you would have to be dead if you’re a woman who doesn’t want to sleep with that man. He smokes like a fiend. I’ve written three characters who smoke. Oh, and my god, cigars smell so much worse.
About a year ago, I tried out the huqqah my sister brought back from Vegas—one of those grand affairs made of decorative glass with 5 hoses, etc. The shop where she bought it also sold her a tobacco mix that included dried orange peel. I’m not a smoker and think cigarette smoke is nas-tay. However, I love the smell of pipe tobacco. The huqqah tobacco was very much like it, especially with the orange peel in it. Since then I’ve worked on a fantasy romance novel in which my hero partakes nightly from a huqqah as part of his evening ritual to relax.
That being said, I don’t like heroes who smoke cigarettes. To me there’s a difference—one I can’t adequately explain—but there.
Interesting topic!
As smoking becomes the practice of fewer and fewer people, we’ll see fewer representations in contemporary fiction.
Whether or not a character lighting up jars a reader may be a matter of generation and locality. When I was a child, every adult I knew was a smoker; it was just part of the culture. I grew up watching smokers on television and in the movies. I’m over fifty and was raised in the upper South – someone younger or who lived somewhere else wouldn’t have had that exposure.
I guess I was imprinted; the sight of a man deftly handling a cigarette can be a big turn-on for me. It calls attention to his hands and the way he uses them. A cigarette drooping from the mouth while he talks, though – that’s a turn-off. It’s all about the style…
I don’t look at a cigarette-smoking hero and think ‘Ewww, he’s lacking in character’. I think “Ewwww, kissing him must be like licking an ashtray.”
Linda Howard used that analogy in one of her Silhouette books back in the late 80’s or early 90’s (Duncan’s Bride?) and it really stuck in my head. Plus I find the smell of cigarette smoking stinky, not sexy. So reading about how the heroine finds the scent of tobacco so ‘alluring’ or ‘arousing’ pulls me out of the story with a quick “ick!”
YMMV.
I love a genre that can entertain me with such great lines as the following:
“The immortal-smoker thing is becoming a cliche now too.”
Thanks Amy E!
Not so much into the paranormals… but reading that sentence made me think of Buffy Season 2, when Angel goes bad and feeds off a smoker. Come on. You all remember that, don’t you?
Maybe I’m alone in nerdy FanLand.