This is the first in a series of three images, each of the same origami dove, at increasing contrast. Have you ever seen a dog roll around in something dead? It turns out that that smell, as disgusting as it is, is also fascinating.
Secret Vespers
by Patrick Edwards-Daugherty
I had a professor that loved the idea that fruit is always sweetest when it’s about to rot. I always had a disturbing notion that he might be referring to his own love life. Or his childhood. Then again, the two may just go hand in hand with most people.
The next part of this perfumed bird trilogy gets into the sweet tone of the scent, and gets, I think, increasingly disturbing. It should be up in a few hours.
I often wondered, still do, how much of a person’s personal life goes into their academic positions and lectures. A lot more than one might guess, I guess.
As a veteran of many literature analysis lectures, I can tell you you are absolutely right. An academic’s interpretation of any work tells us more about the person doing the interpreting than the work being examined. We all see the world around us through the filter of our own ideas, tastes, experiences and history.
I googled ‘perfume bottom tone rot’ and yours was the first hit. Is it true?
I hope it is.
I met a perfume maker who told me that some of the classic scents, ones by Coco Chanel and her contemporaries, often used a very shocking bottom tone, something that smelled like death, or shit, for example. Apparently there are very few scents that are universally offensive. I am not sure modern perfumes are as darkly constructed.