o smoking

2001-12-02 [ 02:27 am ]
"I sucked that smoke in and made it a part of me. It was a revelation, an epiphany; a sudden realization that it was possible for matter - something there in front of you, in your lungs, in your pocket - to take your brain apart and reassemble in ways you hadn't thought previously.

In that first virginal rush of toxins to the brain I believe I started to become my later self; I finally had my internal eyes opened to my true being. Truth and revelation."

Iain Banks is a melodramatic man, but I would smoke for ever and ever if it wasn't so damn bad for me. There is a truth in his claims, however, that these toxins can rearrange your mind, your stress, your fears in a way that makes you grin, and wish to lay back in a lounge chair and watch your world tumble down.

But toxicity equals falsehood, of course, and part of becoming my future self is attaining purity. Someday the smoke's going to end.

by: iain banks "complicity"
photo by: kam2k