That’s funny actually–the idea of vaping hasn’t even been on my radar as a form of smoking, even though I have a few coworkers who have made the switch to that from cigarettes. It just doesn’t seem that sexy at all–maybe because the idea is that it’s supposed to be healthier. It just seems too fucking clever, you know? Plus the guys I know who use them are so fucking smug about it.
I do like the idea of vaping piss and cum though. I have no idea how those things even work, to be honest, but the idea of turning anything into a vapor, and that vapor becoming addictive, is certainly an appealing MacGuffin. That said, that’s not really about the smoking side of things, and actually relies more on science fiction tropes than anything else, which raises an interesting question–what is it about smoking that makes it sexually appealing?
Part of the smoking appeal, at least for me, is the anachronistic aspects of it. Cigars and pipes have a sense of being “out of time and place” in the present. They’ve become so shunned publicly that the mere act of using either becomes an inherent form of rebellion/conservatism (yes, those two shouldn’t go together, but they do here) which appeals to me. The same with the unhealthiness of it–the conscious sacrificing of your own well being for short term pleasure. Lastly, the lack of self-control, of course. The appeal of tobacco in my stories in particular is about losing one’s power of one’s own choices, and eventually over your own life, once the cigar/pipe takes full control of you. None of these qualities work for vaping–it’s futuristic, it’s allegedly healthier, and the choice to vape is cast as regaining control away from tobacco itself (even though you’re still just as addicted in the end).
Sorry, this has turned into a metawriting tangent at this point. The upshot: vaping can work as a fetish/trigger/MacGuffin in a few ways, I think:
1. Treat vaping as a science fiction device. Think of it like a variation on the fetish gun–a vape device you can fill with different liquids which either act on the smoker in different ways, or which can he exhaled in people’s faces to change/control them in various ways.
2. I think, if put in the right context, vaping could be made sexy for it’s own qualities. I’m thinking here of pairing vaping as a trigger for change in something like a chav story. This isn’t something I would ever write, but I could see other people going off in this direction and having it succeed.
3. Here’s the idea I like best, personally. An older owner of a smoke shop, frustrated and annoyed with the whole vaping trend, finally breaks down and starts selling vape products. However, he gets revenge, by making sure the vape products actually turn the men who smoke them into older, bearish tobacco users, the vape actually shifting into their new addiction as they change. Additionally, some of the fluids might encourage addictions to…other things as well–musk, piss, cum, farts, etc.
Anyway, that’s my thoughts on the topic. I’ll add it to the list–my…really long ass list of things to write at some point.
Bracken's Corner 