Should anyone want to read my reflections on causing a stink and going viral, my article with The New Statesman is linked below: https://t.co/Hnqmzhz2DE
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[Ally] crawled to freedom through five-hundred yards of shit smelling foulness I can’t even imagine, or maybe I just don’t want too. Five-Hundred yards…that’s the length of five football fields, just shy of half a mile.
[Ally] who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side.
Huge congratulations - I know your thesis will be embargoed but I’m really keen to read your papers when they come out. Smell in literature - what a fabulous topic.
Great article.
My favourite thing about smell, apart from the sense itself, is how powerful it is at evoking memories - there is a calling-into-the-present that pushes other things aside. The smell of school custard brings my childhood self alive... It doesn't take me back, it recalls the present.
As an American man myself & an educator, I can say that 1.) the anti-intellectualism you articulate in your piece is pervasive and 2.) many boys I teach feel a radicalizing pull when online. I am sorry for the hate you received, happy for the love, and look forward to reading the trade edition.
Thank you again for your grace-under-fire, wit and intelligence.
I am selfishly pleased that you quoted my favorite attack - "the face of tyranny" (surreal beyond parody) - and cannot praise you enough for showing that taking the high road IS still a viable strategy!
Excellent article, straight to the point without going for the sensational (I am sure you’ve been holding up on the horrors that must have been sent your way). Your ability to step back and look at the bigger picture is uncanny. Well done and good luck!
At one time my dad worked for IFF International Flavors and Fragrances; I discovered a “fragrance wheel” poster in his office and felt an entire world had just been revealed to me.
That’s great! I will read it soon. Btw I will write you here and not in Twitter because I think there’s a better chance you read it. I saw you asking about books about smell. There’s one in Spanish I read called “Nunca sabrás a qué huele Bagdad”. I don’t know if it’s translated to English
The author and the protagonist have anosmia from birth. I have congenital anosmia as well, which is why I found the book to see how my own experience was narrated in fiction.
By the way, the author is Marta Tafalla. I studied Hispanic Literature and I don’t have my sense of smell, which is why your thesis and your work sounds so fascinating to me, it’s a world I have never experienced. I hope my suggestion is useful!
I read your abstract and thought it was highly interesting especially as your thesis seems to explore literature and how authors made use of smell. I have read some of your mentioned books but never paid a lot of attention to the author's use of smell. I will re-read.
Let us know if/when you turn your thesis into a trade book. And, for what it's worth, you did a great job representing bookish introverts. I'm not sure I'd have your courage and poise.
Comments
[Ally] who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side.
My favourite thing about smell, apart from the sense itself, is how powerful it is at evoking memories - there is a calling-into-the-present that pushes other things aside. The smell of school custard brings my childhood self alive... It doesn't take me back, it recalls the present.
Is your thesis available to read - or is it under embargo? Thanking you!
I am selfishly pleased that you quoted my favorite attack - "the face of tyranny" (surreal beyond parody) - and cannot praise you enough for showing that taking the high road IS still a viable strategy!
You inspire hope.
https://rattibha.com/thread/1864007824218427855
Keep up the great work. Congratulations, Dr. Louks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqYjmiq15gg
This is the game “Strands”. Today’s theme is “Just the Essentials” (oils).
In addition to just being trolls, was some of that ignorant male vitriol due to their nose-blindness? What they cannot sense they do not value.
“women have [43-50%] more cells in the olfactory bulb – the area of the brain that is dedicated to sense of smell – than men”
Perfect sentence to describe so much internet discourse