Tobacco And The Soul

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apatim

Can't Leave
Feb 17, 2014
497
0
Jacksonville, FL
Here is an interesting article regarding tobacco that I thought others might enjoy reading and discussing.
From the article:
"...the pipe corresponds to the rational part of the soul, which explains why we tend to picture wise figures smoking pipes: the Oxford don surrounded by his great books, or Sherlock Holmes, who, in Doyle’s original stories, actually smoked other sorts of tobacco as well, yet is almost always portrayed with a pipe. Unlike cigars and cigarettes, a pipe endures."
and
"Most significantly, however, the relative rarity of pipe-smoking in America is a telling sign of its current intellectual crisis. If the pipe epitomizes the intellectual way of life, then is it any surprise that it cannot be found where schools substitute politically correct ideology for real philosophy, or where the intelligentsia, instead of engaging in serious thought, pander to the latest activist fads?"

 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
11,699
16,207
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
In response to the second question; No, see "Oxford Dons" in the leading quotation.
And certainly we should not lose sight of the fact that Holmes is a figment of Doyle's imagination, created to tell stories. The human traits of the day Doyle attributes to Holmes certainly makes him a product of his time, nothing more.
Foley's entire article reads as a stream of consciousness. I suspect the essay was written tongue in cheek, an exercise to pass the time as it were.

 
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
...and another article here,

http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-smoking-thoughts/the-quiet-man-and-the-symbolic-power-of-tobacco/

:puffy:
I like his writing.

 

ravenwolf

Can't Leave
Mar 18, 2014
302
0
Good artical, but I think it generalizes a lot, too. Surely there are intelligent people that still smoke cigarettes, and the villain that smokes a cigar who isn't honorable. A pipe smoker that doesn't represent wisdom on some arch-typical level, maybe, is possible :wink:
While it's true that cigarettes aren't good for ya, I know of several intelligent folks, that will utilize them to jump start the brain. Pipes are excellent for intellectual pursuit, but sometimes the brain can benefit from a cigarette too.
The Platonic division of the soul into three parts corresponding to three forms of tobacco usage might have some truth to it, but I doubt that it is the sum totality of that truth :puffy:
I'd agree that it reads more as a stream of consciousness, a following of one's musing thoughts.

 

samanden

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 11, 2013
247
48
Alexandria, VA
I would have to disagree with the author's comments that snuffing tobacco is "unnatural." I would consider sniffing pulverized tobacco as both natural and experimental. I would classify it as "scientific." There's a bit of chemistry to it, don't you think?

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I don't like to impute too much philosophical content to habits, including pipe smoking.

Pipe smoking can be a good way to slow down, become reflective, and work through

your memories, your present situation, and creative thinking about the future. The content

of all of that depends on you, for good and ill. Use your powers for the good! The bad

is tawdry and boring, in the end, after explosions, gore and misery.

 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
11,699
16,207
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
Writer's who address how brilliant and intelligent we pipe smokers are conveniently forget that Stalin was a pipe smoker. I doubt that one's choice of how the nicotine is delivered is truly an indicator of one's intelligence or humanity.

 

conlejm

Lifer
Mar 22, 2014
1,433
8
I thought this was going to be a thread on how James Brown and Marvin Gaye were pipe smokers! :lol:

 

weezell

Lifer
Oct 12, 2011
13,653
49,163
Writer's who address how brilliant and intelligent we pipe smokers are conveniently forget that Stalin was a pipe smoker
But alas, Stalin was not stupid either. He just happened to be a power craving psychopath...

 
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