A Way of Life (Almost) Going Up in Smoke

When James Joyce, the great Irish novelist and self-proclaimed artist of life, settled in Zurich in 1915 to escape the War, he little imagined that almost 90 years later people would flock to a pub there bearing his name, to smoke. Joyce wrote most of Ulysses in Zurich and became quite fond of the city, precisely because it seemed the polar opposite, in attitude, of his native Dublin. It was spotlessly clean and homogeneously handsome without any notable landmark or character. Joyce described the city as so immaculate that "if you spilled minestra (soup) on [a street called] Banhofstrasse, you could eat it right up without a spoon." Joyce died in Zurich in 1941 and is buried there. Some 30 years later, the Union Bank of Switzerland decided to honor the city's adopted son by shipping over, in its various parts, the interior and trappings of Jury's Hotel in Dublin, a known Joyce haunt, and reassembling it on a street called Pelikanstrasse. On the outside, the pub looked no different, but inside it lacked the true Irish authenticity because it was always so brilliantly polished. Even Irish visitors to Zurich tended to avoid it. At least that was the case until this year. As of March 28, smoking has been banned in public places in Ireland, while the Swiss are puffing away as heartily as ever. Within the Jury Hotel, renamed the James Joyce Tavern, the air remains thick with smoke. The spirit of Swiss hygiene does not extend to the air, while the social attitude remains one of lighting up first and asking questions afterwards. Joyce himself would have enjoyed the apparent reversal of attitude signified by the Swiss disdain for antismoking campaigns, as well as the sight of Irishmen entering this eponymous pub to escape Dublin's prohibition on a habit he himself indulged in heartily throughout his life. It remains to be seen how successful the no-smoking ban in Ireland will prove to be. Elsewhere in Europe, the American antismoking trend is also rearing its head, but primarily through legislation only. In France, smoking bans so far have been widely ignored, and tobacco shops have lobbied hard against government-imposed price increases of 40% over the last year. Some tobacconist proprietors have stood on a pro-smoking ticket in local elections, often winning the seat as a result. Even children have taken up the metaphorical cudgel and stayed home from school in protest against "outrageous" smoking bans in several school playgrounds near Paris. In the United Kingdom and elsewhere, children accepted smoking as a clandestine activity during school hours long ago, when the habit still retained social acceptability among adults. But in France and some other continental European countries, the antismoking lobby has had to tread more carefully, because it's been perceived as an instrument of American cultural imperialism. This aspect of the butts-out push also resonates within Muslim countries, where in many places, smoking has proliferated steadily during the last 50 years. The interesting bit in this situation is that tobacco, as we know it, originated in America, as did the eventual campaign against it. But for Muslims, confusion reigns because the Prophet Muhammad, who categorically banned and eschewed alcohol with the zeal of a reformed addict, said nothing about tobacco because, when he was alive 1,500 or so years ago, he probably did not know it existed. (Of course, based on this logic, Muslims would be free to indulge in cocaine, ecstasy, or any other substance not known to Muhammad.) So the question currently being debated within the Muslim world is whether smoking is alien to fundamental Islamic principles. Opinion is divided and a number of religious leaders still smoke quite happily in public, although most desist during the holy season of Ramadan. Some Muslims smoke more, however, during their daytime Ramadan fast when beverages and sex are also prohibited, on the basis that lighting up is the only pleasure that Allah allows. So, consequently, whatever Ramadan does for mind and spirit, it's not necessarily a healthy time for the corporal. While the medical case for the World Health Organization's increasingly forthright campaign for a global smoking ban is undeniable, there is plenty of local resistance yet to be overcome, and sensitivities to be negotiated. Hypocrisy must be avoided, as must false witness in the shape of exaggerated claims over the dangers of passive smoking. In its eagerness to portray this habit as harmful and antisocial wherever it takes place, the medical community must guard against sending in the wolf of propaganda disguised in the sheep's clothing of scientific "evidence." It's doubtful whether Joyce would have listened to such evidence in his time, and I wonder if the modern, smoke-free Dublin would have inspired him to write Ulysses. Probably not, because, as he said, "Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize." Philip Hunter phunter@philiphunter.com, a nonsmoker save for the occasional cheroot, is a freelance writer in London.

A Way of Life (Almost) Going Up in Smoke

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Philip Hunter

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May 2004

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