You might want to think about when he odorous is a good thing versus when it is not. The word "odorous" started out as a word for good smells--a flower, for example--and over time it evolved into the less pleasant meaning it has today. You might want to look at how this evolution took place.
Also, there are certain things today that are considered of high quality only if they are "odorous". Fine, smelly cheeses, for example come to mind. What is the appeal of the smell of rot?
There's a _lot_ of information about the belief regarding odor as a preventive measure against the black plague in Europe, and the uniform of the plague doctor has a mask with a long nose where substances and aromas are stored to ward off the plague:
Versions of these masks later reappear in various commedia performance forms, not to mention the masquerade; there could be a good argument to be made about social class (as represented by the masquerade ball) with the prominent display of this object 'representing positive odor', as it were.
On quite a different track, the recent Australian film 'Kenny' (2006) took the much-maligned figure of a plumber who works exclusively in servicing and cleaning toilets and waste management, and transforms him into a true-blue working class 'little Aussie battler'. It's really quite an unusual, deceptively deep film that connects his realism about the (literal) crap he has to deal with, with his unswerving desire to try to treat others well. It also contains quite a number of remarkable quotes regarding odor; in particular, as Kenny emerges from a clogged septic tank, proclaiming 'Mate, what you got to understand is there is a smell in here that is going to outlast religion.'
Is it important to draw a distinction between the odorous and the scented, odorous as an inherent quality of a thing and scented as an added or produced quality? --hans
Think about the connection between the odorous and memory. Psychology states that there is a strong connection between smell and memory due to certain ties with the hippocampus (the memory center of the brain). Thus are objects with stronger or more peculiar odors more prone to nostalgia or fetishization?
Commodities, fetishes, souvenirs, relics, rubbish. What theories help us think about things? In this course we will read Victorian travelers on West African "fetish," Michael Taussig on his imagined cocaine museum, Susan Stewart on longing and souvenirs, Freud on shiny noses, Marx on tables, Annette Weiner on the similarities between gift and commodity exchange, Mary Douglas on dirt, D.W. Winnicott on string, and Arjun Appadurai on the idea of the social lives of things. The singularization of things, the ways in which history and memory are stored in real and imagined objects, the commodification of the human body, the animation of the inanimate, utopian recycling, gleaning, found objects as art and craft: we will consider a broad range of theoretical issues in our readings and in projects that put them to quirky use.
7 comments:
You might look into the stenches of Paris and London. Filth (ed Cohen and Johnson) is an interesting book which looks into the events.
Hollis
You might want to think about when he odorous is a good thing versus when it is not. The word "odorous" started out as a word for good smells--a flower, for example--and over time it evolved into the less pleasant meaning it has today. You might want to look at how this evolution took place.
Also, there are certain things today that are considered of high quality only if they are "odorous". Fine, smelly cheeses, for example come to mind. What is the appeal of the smell of rot?
--Marguerite
There's a _lot_ of information about the belief regarding odor as a preventive measure against the black plague in Europe, and the uniform of the plague doctor has a mask with a long nose where substances and aromas are stored to ward off the plague:
http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/medico_peste.html
Versions of these masks later reappear in various commedia performance forms, not to mention the masquerade; there could be a good argument to be made about social class (as represented by the masquerade ball) with the prominent display of this object 'representing positive odor', as it were.
On quite a different track, the recent Australian film 'Kenny' (2006) took the much-maligned figure of a plumber who works exclusively in servicing and cleaning toilets and waste management, and transforms him into a true-blue working class 'little Aussie battler'. It's really quite an unusual, deceptively deep film that connects his realism about the (literal) crap he has to deal with, with his unswerving desire to try to treat others well. It also contains quite a number of remarkable quotes regarding odor; in particular, as Kenny emerges from a clogged septic tank, proclaiming 'Mate, what you got to understand is there is a smell in here that is going to outlast religion.'
--Ryan
Is it important to draw a distinction between the odorous and the scented, odorous as an inherent quality of a thing and scented as an added or produced quality?
--hans
As somebody had suggested to me for my last paper, The Foul and the Fragrant is a great book if you are exploring the odorous.
^ That was Kristen S.
Think about the connection between the odorous and memory. Psychology states that there is a strong connection between smell and memory due to certain ties with the hippocampus (the memory center of the brain). Thus are objects with stronger or more peculiar odors more prone to nostalgia or fetishization?
~Jordan Carter~
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