Something no one would guess...

[Blackaby]

I'm glad to know that my suffering has spurred edifying olfactory debate.

[Czar]

The sense of smell is weak in me.
Mostly because my nose is almost chronically clogged, but even when I manage to medicate it clear my olfactory organs aren't something I depend heavily on (forget about blowing, I could do that 'til I'm breathless and bleeding from the nose, it'd still be clogged again in fifteen minutes).

The smell of piss and/or feces are highly unpleasant, and tends to lead to continuos avoidance of areas imbued with them.

The smell of mildew is somehow a scent that imbues at the same time a sense of both good and bad in a manner that is difficult for me to describe.
This is because the old summer home which now serves as my grandfathers place of residence has always seemed to be reeking of the scent, as does my parental grandparents house, and any visit of more than a few hours seems to result in all objects brought inside the building becoming imbued with it. It doesn't bother me much there (though, it does trigger allergic reactions and worsens my asthma, forcing medication), but it is disturbing when brought back home, where the smell immediately is recognised as foreign.

The smell that is occassionally produced by the main (humaniora & languages + cafeteria & library) building of my old (highschool equivalent) school, particularly in the bottom floors and moving up, though occassionally on the top floor as well, normally centered around the lavatories is highly unpleasant as well, closely related as it is to the previously mentioned scent of human defecation, it is however, through necessity of having to move and study or even eat in its presence, bearable, though not on particularly hot days.

Smoke is at once both pleasantly familiar and comforting, and unpleasant. This meaning smoke from a fire. It clings to everything, it can easily become overpowering and it's unpleasantly unhealthy, but it evokes memories of campfires and fireplaces past. Of course, the extreme ends (uncontrolled fires and cigarettes respectively) are high up on my list of things to avoid.

[BrownEyedCat]

This all just makes me think of a book I read for class called Perfume. It was the story of a man who used scent as his cardinal sense in much the way everyone else uses sight. He ended up killing a bunch of beautiful young girls to distill their scent into a perfume.

It was surprisingly boring for a book with tons of murders and such a clever premise.



As for myself, I have no decent smell stories.

[Captainclover]

i have a really strong sense of smell. it's the thing that usually ties me to the past and makes me all nostalgic, and it's definitely one of my major attractions. when i think of my ex girlfriends, most of them happen to smell damn good and that was a big point for me (as weird as that sounds), dunno why... good scents just turn me on, i guess.

i'm okay with most unpleasant smells... like, they don't make me want to vomit usually...but the smell of feet is something i can't tolerate. or maybe i just hate it so much because i'm a massage therapist and have to touch them... meh. at least i get paid. but man, this lady the other day... goddamn.

[Blackaby]

Isn't smell one of the phermonal thingies that you sense before you choose someone as your mate?

Someone... with some education... please fill in my gaps.

[Jim North]

Olfactory triggers such as pheremones are one of the many requisites used for choosing a mate, yes. Supposedly, when you initially fall in love with someone, you can become hypersensitive to their pheremones, subconsciously picking up their smell even from across a crowded room.

Pheremones are also useful in various other social contexts, as well. The stink of fear, the smell of desperation, and exuding confidence aren't just figures of speech . . . under certain emotional states, your body's pheremone output is altered so that people around you can subtly pick up on those states.

For some (well, probably many) animals, pheremones are even more important in the mating process than for humans due to enhanced sense of smell and/or pheremone output. For other species, pheremones are an almost all important method of basic communication. Ants, for one, use pheremone analogs to tell other ants anything from "walk this way" to "hey there, sexy" to "OMG DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER".

[Rkolter]

However, despite many perfumes claims, human sexual attraction pheremones have not yet been isolated, although we do have a small cluster of nerves in our nose that may be used to detect them.

[Black Sparrow]

However, despite many perfumes claims, human sexual attraction pheremones have not yet been isolated, although we do have a small cluster of nerves in our nose that may be used to detect them.

Imagine if they were isolated....

Calvin Klein would be making love potions.

[Dr Legostar]

However, despite many perfumes claims, human sexual attraction pheremones have not yet been isolated, although we do have a small cluster of nerves in our nose that may be used to detect them.

Imagine if they were isolated....

Calvin Klein would be making love potions.

and love potions always turn out so well in the stories..

[Prettydragoon]

dunno why... good scents just turn me on, i guess.

*shrug* Makes scents to me.

[Cope]

*brandishes a rimshot at prettydragoon*

[Black Sparrow]

dunno why... good scents just turn me on, i guess.

*shrug* Makes scents to me.

That was just horrible.

[Czar]

That pun stinks.

[McDuffies]

This all just makes me think of a book I read for class called Perfume.

What do you learn in class of such name anyway?

[BrownEyedCat]

Obviously, we read books that feature perfume in them in one way or another.


. . . The real class is called 'Representations of Otherness'.

[Sortelli]

. . . The real class is called 'Representations of Otherness'.

Ahhh, academia.

[CorpAmis]

However, despite many perfumes claims, human sexual attraction pheremones have not yet been isolated, although we do have a small cluster of nerves in our nose that may be used to detect them.

Imagine if they were isolated....

Calvin Klein would be making love potions.

and love potions always turn out so well in the stories..

Not in Shrek2