Literary Hub

John Berger Has Some Thoughts About Smoking

There’s never smoke without fire.

This was first said by somebody suggesting a rumor might be well-founded.

Words in the media today often function like a smoke-screen for hiding flames.

The government of North Korea has just announced that they have tested an H-bomb fired from a submarine. Endless discussion about whether this is true or a bluff.

No reflections around the fact that in the oceans of the world there are about 60 fully armed nuclear submarines awaiting instructions day and night.

Whilst smoking together we exchanged our views on the world.

*

We smoked between games of tennis.

*

We smoked in restaurants.

*

Smoking became a solitary perversion.

Persistent smokers, banished from public places both indoors and outdoors, drifted towards the same hideouts, and were happy to encounter one another as outlaws.

Just time for a smoke and a story…

__________________________________

From Smoke, text by John Berger, illustrations by Selçuk Demirel, courtesy NYRB.

More from Literary Hub

Literary Hub25 min read
A New Story By Rachel Kushner: “The Mayor of Leipzig”
Cologne is where cologne comes from. Did you know that? I didn’t. This story begins there, despite its title. I had flown to Cologne from New York, in order to meet with my German gallerist—Birgit whose last name I can’t pronounce (and is also the na
Literary Hub6 min read
Lit Hub Asks: 5 Authors, 7 Questions, No Wrong Answers
The Lit Hub Author Questionnaire is a monthly interview featuring seven questions for five authors. This month we talk to one author with a new book and four we missed the first time around in 2020: * Andrew DuBois (Start to Figure: Fugitive Essays,
Literary Hub13 min read
Real Talk: On Claudia Rankine’s Painful Conversations with Whiteness
Three quarters of the way through Just Us: An American Conversation, Claudia Rankine considers three different understandings of the word “conversation.” The first, from a Latinx artist (unnamed) discussing her reluctance to play oppression Olympics

Related Books & Audiobooks