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smellsgood2014-04-04 05:10 pm
sathari) wrote in smellsgood2014-04-04 05:10 pm
The scent of imagination
Over in the welcome post, synecdochic and I had a bit of a discussion about scent and imagination/synaesthesia, as a result of which I promised to post the following questions for the comm to play with!
- Do any of you have synaesthetic effects around your perfumes and other scented things? (For those who aren't feeling like clicking links, synaesthesia is when you have two or more senses that overlap or interact--- some of the most common ones are associating colors with letters or numbers, although just about any combination is possible--- the link is to a book called The Man Who Tasted Shapes, in which an MD was inspired to research synaesthesia as a result of a friend who could tell that chicken was undercooked because "it didn't have enough points on it". In this case, we'd be talking about sounds, colors, textures, etc., that your perfumes and other scents call up for you--- or other scent-related overlaps: did you buy a perfume because it smells like your favorite song, for example, or your favorite color?)
- Relatedly, do any of you associate particular scents with fictional characters (ones you follow in others' work, ones you work on yourself, ones who are both, etc.?)
I'll post my answers down below as an example, if anyone's curious.
(Suggested tags: meta; maybe something related to "things we relate to scents" or "ways we experience scents")
synecdochic and I had a bit of a discussion about scent and imagination/synaesthesia, as a result of which I promised to post the following questions for the comm to play with!- Do any of you have synaesthetic effects around your perfumes and other scented things? (For those who aren't feeling like clicking links, synaesthesia is when you have two or more senses that overlap or interact--- some of the most common ones are associating colors with letters or numbers, although just about any combination is possible--- the link is to a book called The Man Who Tasted Shapes, in which an MD was inspired to research synaesthesia as a result of a friend who could tell that chicken was undercooked because "it didn't have enough points on it". In this case, we'd be talking about sounds, colors, textures, etc., that your perfumes and other scents call up for you--- or other scent-related overlaps: did you buy a perfume because it smells like your favorite song, for example, or your favorite color?)
- Relatedly, do any of you associate particular scents with fictional characters (ones you follow in others' work, ones you work on yourself, ones who are both, etc.?)
I'll post my answers down below as an example, if anyone's curious.
(Suggested tags: meta; maybe something related to "things we relate to scents" or "ways we experience scents")
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There's a snake-king in my WIP, so I was really happy to discover a solid perfume called "Serpent," which not only smells really good but also evokes some of the moods/themes of the story. It's not the perfume any of my main characters would wear (I think Hallie wears Marc Jacobs Daisy, Thea showers with bergamot soap, and Isabel... hm, Juliette Has A Gun Midnight Oud is the perfume she'd want to smell like, but I doubt she has a bottle) but it's great as an evocation.
no subject