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Smoking in Playboy

NOVEMBER 6, 2012
A while ago I've worked on an opener with Rob Wilson at Playboy, for an essay by Slavoj Zizek, «SMOKING CONSIDERED AS ONE OF THE FINE ARTS».
The point of view was really interesting; here are two quotes:
«... Such impasses of today’s consumerism illustrate the failure to cope with the deadly excess of enjoyment, to reduce it to pleasure which is by definition moderate, regulated by a proper measure. We thus have two extremes: on the one hand the enlightened hedonist who carefully calculates his pleasures to prolong his fun and avoid getting hurt, on the other hand the jouisseur proper ready to consummate his very existence in the deadly excess of enjoyment – or, in the terms of our society, on the one hand the consumerist calculating his pleasures, well-protected from all kinds of harassments and other health threats, on the other hand the drug addict (or smoker or…) bent on self-destruction. Enjoyment is what serves nothing, and the great effort of the contemporary hedonist-utilitarian “permissive” society is to incorporate this un(ac)countable excess into the field of (ac)counting»...
«...One thing is sure. If, today,Thomas de Quincey were to rewrite the opening lines of his famous essay Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts, he would have undoubtedly replaced the last word (procrastination): »If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and smoking in public
This was my first idea.
Then I've tried to play in a straight forwarded way with the title.
My third idea. A quick sketch.
Then a tighter one, for approval and get started.
© 2024 Gerard DuBois