Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

Our group (seated at the wooden table) is approached first by a tall man who requests a "lighter". A dark blue object is produced from the pocket of one of our group members, and the man uses it to produce a small flame which he used to light the end of his tobacco stick. The man thanks us, and instead of sitting at the table with us, walks over to a bench near the stairs of one of the surrounding buildings, and smokes his cigarette there. The place in which the man sits is a non-smoking area. Our group is alone for several minutes before another young man approaches us and greets us informally ("What's up, guys..."). He stands next to the table and stretches, bending over and touching his toes. We exchange comments about the weather and the classes we are taking. As the conversation continues, the young man goes to the table and stands on top of it, and carries on the discussion from this new position. As he is standing (he is now looking down at us, as we are seated on the bench, facing inward), he asks if anyone has a cigarette. He apologizes for being a "mooch" (which I believe is a negative term meaning "someone who often uses items that belong to others"). A member of our group offers loose tobacco in a plastic bag, accompanied by small, thin, creased pieces of paper called "rolling papers". The young man accepts these items and, while telling us about a social gathering he attended the night previous, begins to insert the loose tobacco into one piece of the paper, rolling the tobacco and the paper together to form a long, thin shape. He sits crossed-legged on top of the table. Once this is accomplished, he apologizes again and asks for a lighter. The same dark blue lighter is again produced, and he lights the end of the object he has made. He breathes in deeply from the unlit end of the object, and exhales gray clouds of smoke. At this point, the young man again repositions himself, finally sitting on the bench, but straddling it - one leg on either side. He faces towards us and our group is silent for a minute. A third man approaches our table, already smoking a cigarette, and sits in the same position - straddling the bench, facing us. We don't speak for a long moment, as our group is busy writing in our notebooks. As we are writing, a young woman approaches us, cigarette already lit. She comes underneath the tent and stands by the table but does not elect to sit down. A member of our group apologizes before asking her if she has a cigarette he could "bum" (a humbler form of the word "have"). She apologizes to him, and declares that she has no cigarettes to give. It is at this point that our group realizes that it is time to return to the classroom.

In addition to its designated use as a space for college students to smoke tobacco, the smoking tent seems to be a combination of social gathering point and black market. It brings humans together from different social strata to share a common activity. It is also a rare place where one can routinely hear strangers apologizing to one another as they make exchanges. It is a form of social control that has varying degrees of effectiveness, as in the case of the first man who approached the tent for a lighter, but chose to smoke his cigarette elsewhere.