Smoking has been declining in popularity for decades, as far as statistics go, but it’s recently experienced a revival in the cultural imagination. Among some quarters, cigarettes have been re-embraced as chic: a must-have accoutrement for the mean girl coquette; a symbol of devil-may-care nihilism amid an apocalyptic time; a more dignified alternative to the childish frivolity and garish colours of disposable vapes. Addison Rae smoked not one but two cigarettes in the video for “Aquamarine”, while some have admitted to taking up the habit in an effort to emulate the ‘brat’ ethos of Charli XCX (a “pack of cigs and a Bic lighter”). But David Lynch, the acclaimed director of Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, has come forth with a timely piece of advice: think about quitting before it’s too late.
Lynch – who smoked his first cigarette at the age of eight – is now suffering from emphysema (a chronic lung condition) so severe that he requires supplementary oxygen simply to walk across a room. Speaking to People magazine, he described smoking as “an important part of his life” and said that he doesn’t regret featuring cigarettes so frequently in his films. “I never thought about it as glamorising it,” he said. “It was a part of life. Some characters would be smokers, just like in real life." Nor does he regret having smoked. “It was important to me,” he said. “I wish what every addict wishes for: that what we love is good for us."
After several years of failed attempts, Lynch finally managed to quit two years ago, and he is now encouraging others to consider doing the same. “I really wanted to get this across: Think about it. You can quit these things that are going to end up killing you,” he said.
While Lynch described his current condition as tough – “I can hardly walk across a room. It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head” – he later took to Twitter to say that aside from his emphysema, he is otherwise in good health. “I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire,” he wrote.
As well as being one of our finest living filmmakers, David Lynch is a long-time practitioner of transcendental meditation. This is a wise and perceptive man we’re talking about – he made Mulholland Drive for god’s sake! If he’s reaching out to us to suggest we should pack in the cigs, it’s worth giving that some serious thought. As fun as it is to airily wave around a cigarette while you’re talking, there’s nothing chic or brat about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.