<![CDATA[Cigarettes are Sublime]]>

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Cigarettes are bad for you; that is why they are so good. With its origins in the author’s urgent desire to stop smoking, Cigarettes Are Sublime offers a provocative look at the literary, philosophical, and cultural history of smoking. Richard Klein focuses on the dark beauty, negative pleasures, and exacting benefits attached to tobacco use and to cigarettes in particular. His appreciation of paradox and playful use of hyperbole lead the way on this aptly ambivalent romp through the cigarette in war, movies (the "Humphrey Bogart cigarette"), literature, poetry, and the reflections of Sartre to show that cigarettes are a mixed blessing, precisely sublime. "An elegant display of prose. . . . [Klein’s] polemic is bravely cranky. The book is important for . . . situating the act of smoking in Western culture and telling us addicts, without condescension, what kind of dance we’re doing 10 or 20 times a day."—Laura Mansnerus, New York Times Book Review "[A] wise and timely book: it is also sly, funny, and peculiarly seductive. . . . [A] remarkable achievement."—John Banville, New York Review of Books "[A] compact history of compulsion. . . . [Klein’s] book is a farewell to a loyal companion."—Colson Whitehead, Voice Literary Supplement "[A]n elegant and erudite examination of the question: If cigarettes are so bad, why do so many people insist on smoking them? A breath of fresh air in a debate that has become too stale."—David Streitfeld, Washington Post Book World "Lively, obsessive."—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker "Witty and subversive."—John Leonard, The Nation "Klein has written an exquisite book which takes us beyond a consideration of smoking as rite de passage."—Max Farrar, Times Higher Education Supplement "A languorous meditation on humanity’s most futile and wasteful habit."—Christopher Hitchens, The Independent on Sunday "Many people, deciding to quit smoking, go cold turkey; others use nicotine gum or a patch. Klein, however, has taken a unique approach: the writing of this learned, elegant, and fanciful analysis of—and ‘elegy’ for—the cigarette. . . . [It is] full of delightful whirls of logic and puffs of insight."—Kirkus Reviews

30900

1994

Cigarettes Are Sublime

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The premise is that Klein analyzed the famous quitting-smoking novel, Confessions of Zeno by Italo Svevo, and concluded that the anti-smoking message in that book and in the ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 09 00:58:19 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 09 01:06:41 -0700 2008
A cultural history of the Cigarette, written by someone trying to give them up.

Interesting note: I was surprised at how politically important Casablanca was to success in the Second World War.

I was also surprised to fi...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jun 17 20:52:35 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 17 20:52:35 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1996 Sat Jun 09 16:23:58 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 09 16:27:28 -0700 2007 more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue Sep 01 15:14:24 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 19:06:42 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Oct 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 09:12:37 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 17:31:37 -0700 2009
SAY IT WITH ME

ok so i FINALLY finished this, the firs couple of chapters are hysterical and then it degrades to an astonishing degree, i'm not a fan of some of his critical techniques (taking apart words to make other words? "oppressors - 'up-presser...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Feb 21 22:42:04 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 22 00:12:28 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Mon May 05 10:23:30 -0700 2008 Mon May 05 10:24:25 -0700 2008
]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jun 10 11:16:10 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 10 11:17:00 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Wed Nov 04 13:08:59 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 13:08:59 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 01 02:48:03 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 02:48:15 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 31 11:58:21 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 31 11:58:21 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 05 12:58:38 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 12:58:38 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Jul 10 04:42:41 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 04:42:41 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat May 09 16:16:10 -0700 2009 Sat May 09 16:32:38 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Apr 15 06:56:43 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 06:56:43 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Apr 07 17:39:28 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 17:39:28 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Mar 23 15:44:06 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 15:44:06 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Feb 25 19:46:37 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 19:46:37 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Feb 24 16:16:51 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 16:16:51 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=741413