How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? Such is the puzzle of describing a smell. Not everyone possesses the same palette of flora, fauna and funk, and even if we did, individual odour associations make universal experience tricky to map.
Do you share my pleasure at a quick niff of fresh garbage? You would if you’d lived in the US Embassy in Moscow as I did as a kid, happily playing with the feral kittens who proliferated in the compound’s rubbish dump. I find an aberrant approach to language helps build rickety bridges connecting personal kinks, which is part of the fun in writing about perfume.
