Introduction (and Conclusion) to the Senses

So, I probably should have started writing these posts sooner than halfway through finals week, huh. The one benefit of starting now is that I'm able to write these posts as a retrospective, given everything we have learned.
Thinking all the way back to when we read Natural History of the Senses, I remember first the criticisms that everyone had for the book. It's sensational, or it's culturally fetishizing, or it's mostly just an excuse for Ackerman to write about herself. Pretty much all of the criticisms that I heard people voice are fair, in my opinion. Still, I actually enjoyed the book. It wasn't an academic text at all really, but that's kind of the point. Natural History is a deeply personal account of how one person can be completely swept away into a world of sensorial pleasures and experiences. Of course the book is self-centered, how can someone possibly describe with nuance of what makes sense experiences so important and visceral? You can write a book detailing the inner workings of the eye, or how nerve impulses are transmitted through the body and into the brain, or how tiny particles enter through our nasal passages and come in contact with our olfactory bulbs, all from a purely objective viewpoint. But none of these do anything to explain how you felt when you had your first kiss, or what it's like to bite into a perfectly ripe peach that's so good you have to eat it standing up outside, or the first time a piece of art touched you so much it made you cry.

Attempting to create a purely research driven, unbiased view of the senses kind of misses the point. Our senses are what let us define ourselves, both from other individuals and the world as a whole. I think that, despite its flaws, Natural History effectively shows just how much Ackerman cares about understanding the senses that we use every day. Being able to share these things in a way that at all replicates the emotional impact they have is no easy task, I can only hope that I am able to shed some light on my own sense experiences through these posts.