heaven instead of hell

“The smoke from the death-plants in the Louisiana chemical corridor used to be black and sooty, just the way it came out, then one day they put something in it to make it white, to look like steam, to make you think that you’re in heaven instead of hell, where you really are.”

—Andrei Codrescu, quoted in “Lessons from The Poetry Lesson — Mark Spitzer interviews Andrei Codrescu about his new book”, August 31, 2010.