The Putrid and the Divine Book Club discussion

Hey everyone, let's get the conversation started about last month's book. If you haven't finished it's absolutely ok, take your time. We are going to focus our discussion on the first chapter (Smell) and use that as a jumping off point for our review, which will be ongoing throughout the month. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the book. Did you learn anything new or come across info you disagreed with?

What I found interesting was Ackerman's mention of how the Indo-European root word Pu (to decay and rot) was the basis for many European words for prostitutes or sex workers. We tend to think it was the Puritans that moralised everything and associated "impure" morals with bodily impurity, but those concepts have really ancient roots with both religious and misogynistic undertones. It makes me wonder if movements like body and sex positivity can have long-term success against such entrenched opposition.

At the very least it made me stop and think about the moral and perhaps prejudicial feelings I have connected to smells. I know for myself I have a hard time with "clean" and "dirty" smelling homes. Beyond clutter, if a house smells bad to me, I almost immediately have negative feelings about the people living there. How can you live with the pong of dirty beds, unwashed dishes, or garbage that needs to be taken out? That is an area that I want to cultivate better awareness and sympathy because I don't know someone's life or physical ability to tidy up when I knock on their door. Even if I did just because someone keeps an untidy house doesn't mean they are a bad person. If I just followed the instinct of my nose (combined with the ingrained beliefs of my culture), I might think as a knee jerk reaction, bad smells=bad people and miss out on an opportunity to better understand and connect with my neighbours, which is even more critical if we are talking about a cross-cultural exchange. How often is scent connected to the sense of "otherness" and used in racist and xenophobic propaganda? It's so insidiously effective because it takes knee-jerk assumptions, connected to culture and emotions, and compounds them to their ugliest permutation.

Anyways that just a bit of what I felt about the chapter, what were your thoughts? March's book is What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life by Avery Gilbert which is available in print, digital, and audiobook.