Re: Words for smells

On Fri, 08 Apr 2005 17:46, Geoff Horswood wrote:
> Another consequence of a subterranean existence...
>
> Odours are rather more significant to the Noygooros
> (lit. "Underworld.people") orcs as a means of recognition and even getting
> around in the dark.
> I'm thinking about trying to group odours into a spectrum or array of some
> form similar to what people do with colours.  I mean, there are a large
> number of different shades that can all be lumped together as "blue"-
> cobalt, royal, sky blue, turquoise, denim, and so on.
I would associate smells with recognizable emotional states.  Eg, fear, joy,
expectancy, anger, irritation, contentment, hunger, thirst, pain, pleasure,
etc.  Eg, "Li' La'onao should've smelt frightened by the news, her brother
thought, but instead she smelt excited - and worried.  He worried himself he
smelt too nervous for the meeting - particularly as he wanted to impress the
new midwife's assistant ... "
>
> Can you do this with odours?  What odours would you use as the "cardinal
> odours"- the categories like blue, red, green and so on that can be broken
> into different shades?
Cardinal emotions.  See above.  But also safe and unsafe environments - eg,
"the river smelt bad to Li' La'onao and that annoyed her.  When the river
smelt bad, the fish couldn't be eaten.  But it didn't smell ghastly, the way
it did that time of the landslip in the mountains, when the dead of several
villages upstream had been trapped in the water and had rotted where they
were trapped."
>
> Help!  I feel like I've let my imagination take a leap that my logic can't
> keep up with!
Think of a dog.  Imagine how he or she smells the world.  Try to see/smell
things from his point of smell.
>
> Geoff
Wesley Parish
--
Clinersterton beademung, with all of love - RIP James Blish
-----
Mau e ki, he aha te mea nui?
You ask, what is the most important thing?
Maku e ki, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
I reply, it is people, it is people, it is people.