Have you ever thought, I want to go to a tanning salon and smoke Gitanes before I die? Notably smoking was the subject of Italo Svevo’s Confessions of Zeno. The protagonist who is the first analysand in literature is trying to stop smoking. He’s also an anti-hero whose comedic aspirations are reminiscent of Don Quixote. Anyone who has ever attempted to rid themselves of addictive behavior will recognize the Sisyphean nature of the task. The question which then comes up is this: will Zeno fall off the wagon? Say he goes on to live a preternaturally long life, will he simply say, one day, towards the end, say to himself, why not? Perhaps he concludes he really enjoyed the life of the reprobate. His heros are Bukowski, Henry Miller, Rimbaud and literally anyone who steps over the line. Timothy Leary had a point. Yes it’s nice to be “there” for others who need you in lieu of running after “ecstasy.” But are you really happy? Do you want to have a heart attack in the middle of an AA meeting or smoking and sipping espresso in the back row of The Thalia watching the revival of Godard’s Les Carabiniers, c 1963?
read "Rhododendron" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star
also read "God Bless Pig Latin America" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star