The Story of Cigarettes

Author: Liu Su
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-05
Features: The author is very fond of the metaphor "Life is like a cigarette" by Jean-Paul Sartre. God gives each of us a cigarette, perhaps we cannot choose its price, but we can completely decide the mood and posture when smoking. Is it to inhale hastily or savor slowly; to see it as an enjoyment or a burden—the key is in our own hands. There is also something I firmly believe: like a cigarette, the meaning of life lies in burning, even though the outcome after burning is ashes. But this little book is not meant to bring its readers such a heavy topic. In fact, it is like a cigarette you light at random. This cigarette is neither as rebellious as a Lucky Strike nor as weak as a More; it is mellow yet fiery, bitter yet sweet. Its greatest aspiration is simply to accompany you through a tired afternoon, pass the time waiting for someone or attending a meeting, and become a small bit of comfort in your busy yet often melancholic life. Therefore, while you should not discard it like a piece of trash as you would with a "paper trumpet," you also have no need to treasure it like a cigar. If you must sit up straight, please read it in the most casual posture. Reading it in the toilet, lying in bed without washing your feet, or even snacking on sunflower seeds while watching a soap opera—none of these are inappropriate. Because as long as you are happy, it will always be light. This novel is certainly not grand, but it indeed stands on the shoulders of giants. In May 1536, an explorer named Cattie returned to the Americas. He witnessed the use of tobacco by the indigenous people and made more vivid and detailed descriptions than Columbus: "They dried the tobacco in the sun and then hung a small leather bag, a hollow stone, or a wooden tube around their necks, similar to a pipe. When they were happy, they crushed the tobacco into pieces, placed it at one end of the tube, lit it, and inhaled deeply at the other end with their mouths, filling their bodies completely with smoke until it exhaled from their mouths and nostrils, just like smoke spewing from a chimney."