Currently I’m listening to “You’re Pitiful” by Weird Al. I love this song.
However, that’s not important. This is the first in a series of rants that I shall have about fanfiction – a place to share my pet peeves. You can agree, disagree, or be neutral. Either way, let us continue:
Anti-Smoking Inserts In FanFiction
I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, you’re reading a fic for a series where the main character smokes (as this is not uncommon in Japan nor is it stigmatized as it is in the States) and you read a line that goes something like the following:
“…he lit up his cigarette and pondered that maybe he should drop his smoking habit…”
“…he knew he should probably quit because they were horrible for him, but he reached for it anyway…”
“…cancer stick…”
These bother me. They’re out of character most of the time and they break the story line or flow of a sentence. I actually feel this way about most Public Service Announcement type inserts of this kind, but the smoking one really gets to me. I hate reading it and I instantly lower my opinion of the story a few notches.
You’re probably going, “what’s the big deal? Smoking IS bad for you! These characters shouldn’t encourage it and I need to inform the generations that it’s wrong!” Or something along those lines if you do not agree.
While that could be a valid argument, the fact of the matter is – the closer to canon a fanfic is, or the closer the characters are to their canon selves, the more likely someone will enjoy and/or relate to your work. You’re putting an original story line to an already established cast of characters, it’d be much like writing an episode for a serialized show. You’ll notice most tv shows have multiple writers for episodes and the important factor is they all manage to have the characters stay with in a set bound of personality traits. Fanfiction, really good fanfiction, imitates this effect.
A Case Study: Saiyuki
We’ll be looking at Saiyuki today, because it’s one of those shows where two of the characters are die-hard chain smokers. Even to the point where they have preferred brands – and let’s face it Gojyo almost always has a cigarette in his mouth whether it’s lit or not.
At no point in the series does either express a desire to quit smoking. They are chastised for leaving cigarette butts and full ash trays laying about (And rightly so – that’s my only issue with real smokers; throw the butts away, please!), and neither are they told to quit.
They are smokers. It is part of their character and in Sanzo’s case – a part of his background and development as a human (See the Burial Arc).
So therefore, when one reads a line such as “Sanzo figured he should stop smoking because they might be affecting his performance in a fight….” or even “Goku wished Sanzo would stop smoking…” I have to pause at the huge gap in character and odd behavior.
The Conclusion
If you’d like to inform the world of the dangers of smoking, do so in an author’s note or provide a link to whatever you wish. But please, when writing anit-smoking bits, make sure that the character actually disagrees with smoking or has an expressed desire to quit. Otherwise their character is broken and the overall flow of your writing usually suffers.
