A Natural History of the Senses--Diane Ackerman

[Guest guest]

A friend of min lent me this book. The very first chapter is on

smell. The following passage concerns matters as they are, de facto,

status quo, a posteriori; it doesn't have to be this way. How many

times can you say 'olfactory education?' (And can you say if five

times fast?):

" Our sense of smell can be extraordinarily precise, yet it's almost

impossible to describe how something smells to someone who hasn't

smelled it. The smell of the glossy pages of a new book, for example,

or the solvent-damp sheets from a mimeograph machine, or a dead body,

or the subtle differences in odors given off by flowers like bee

balm, dogwood, or lilac. Smell is the mute sense, the one without

words. Lacking a vocabulary we are left tongue-tied, groping for

words in a sea of inarticulate pleasure and exaltation. We see only

when there is light enough, taste only when we put things in our

mouths, touch only when we have contact with someone or something,

hear only sounds that are loud enough. But we smell always and with

every breath. Cover your eyes and you stop seeing, cover your ears

and you stop hearing, but if you cover you nose and try to stop

smelling, you will die. "

[Guest guest]

>

> A friend of min lent me this book. The very first chapter is on

> smell. The following passage concerns matters as they are, de facto,

> status quo, a posteriori; it doesn't have to be this way. How many

> times can you say 'olfactory education?' (And can you say if five

> times fast?):

Adam,

I have that book and love it as well. Another book that I have that

reminds me of Ackerman's Natural History is The Botany of Desire by

Pollan. I think they're both well written love letters to nature.

- Caine