Smells like a mystery Scoob

Fish

Smell is an important yet often overlooked part of our experience with the outside world. Smells carry a world of meaning that is largely undescribed. Fish smells like fish; and anything that smells similar is said to smell like fish. In a strange way, we only describe smells based on other smells, hoping that whoever we are talking to knows the comparison smell. Even if people disagree on whether or not a scent is pleasant or repulsive, the scent itself is assumed to be uniformly understood.

Meow

What is one of the first memories of the zoo? For me, there smell was always a distinct memory. The smell of a zoo is distinct but I cannot truly describe it unless I compare it to a farm or other place with certain animals. Smell exists in our memories in a peculiar way, extremely vivid and easy to recollect, yet difficult to describe. While I can forget what the zoo, I went to looked like, or when I went there, I remember the smell. When I encounter that smell again, I will think of a zoo, even if I’m in a Dunkin Donuts. But that wouldn’t make sense, because Dunkin Donuts doesn’t smell like a zoo. And unless animals are being smuggled in a donuts franchise, then the two should never smell similar. It is just how things are, donuts do not smell like a zoo.

The strange quality of scents is how they can be ubiquitously understood and employed in various ways for the descriptions of others. While the scents themselves are indescribable, they can be used to describe almost anything. In Aroma of Righteousness, Deborah Green showcases how smells are an integral part of describing the world in rabbinic literature. She illustrates how “fragrance provides a lens through which to view hierarchy, social constructions, and theological motifs of the Bible” and how it is used to quantify the “the religion as conceived by the rabbis” (Green 115). Smells are used to associate certain feelings and perceptions in rabbinic literature. Scent acts as the foundation of understanding. 

Scented Candle

Scent is one of the strangest senses because while indescribable it can describe anything through the metaphors that the scent conjures. The feelings that are connected to scents remain within us long after the scent dissipates. Memories tied to scents persist while the images and sounds fade away. Smell bridges the gap between understanding by associating the unknown with a known scent, a familiar feeling. Scent allows us to comprehend the world in a more subtle way and constructs how we approach every new and unknown smell.