You always remember your first erotic book. That deep unexpected stirring that comes from mere words suddenly pulsating on the page. It’s safe to say D.H. Lawrence’s long-banned Lady Chatterley’s Lover inspired a whole generation of lady of the manor fantasies while taboo tales like The Story of O and Venus in Furs swerved into a decidedly S&M space, immediately taking their place as classics for the whipped-into-a-frenzy crowd. Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying (recently feted for its 50th anniversary) …
Tag: Literature
“Of Man’s First Disobedience” * Taste & Smell in John Milton’s Paradise Lost
The opening lines of Paradise Lost (1667) by John Milton are perhaps some of the most recognizable in all of western literature, and they begin with taste—the oh-so-delicious taste of good and evil that will get humans kicked out of Eden forever: Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruitOf that forbidden tree whose mortal tasteBrought death into the World, and all our woe,With loss of Eden, till one greater ManRestore us, and regain the blissful seat,Sing, Heavenly Muse,… A quick …
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Emily Dickinson * Two Poems of Rose & Gentian
“The gentian is a greedy flower,” Emily Dickinson wrote to a friend in the autumn of 1859, “and overtakes us all. Indeed, this world is short, and I wish, until I tremble, to touch the ones I love before the hills are red—are gray—are white—are ‘born again’!” Flowers lace the landscape of Dickinson’s poetry. Botany was one of the rare scientific outlets for women in the 19th century, and Dickinson was versed in the scientific as well as the romantic …
Smell and Taste Reading List * Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry
*This is a dynamic, ever-expanding list of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that engages with smell and taste. In the spirit of mixing disciplines, genres and diverse voices, the list is simply organized in alphabetical order by author. If you don’t see something you think we would like, please let us know in the comments below or by emailing us at info@aromaticapoetica.com* *A* Abood, Maureen. Rose Water and Orange Blossoms: Fresh and Classic Recipes from my Lebanese Kitchen. Ackermann, Diane. …
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Dorian Gray’s Psychology of Perfumes, from the 1891 novel by Oscar Wilde, Scent Aesthete Extraordinaire
“The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn,” is the opening sentence of The Picture of Dorian Gray, so you know Oscar Wilde knew how to use scent to set a scene! The gothic novel was decried as indecent, because of its current of …
Molly Bloom’s Stream of Consciousness Ends in Flowers & Perfumed Breasts, Excerpt from Joyce’s Ulysses
As I mentioned in Corpse Flower Revisited, I’ve recently reread James Joyce’s Ulysses, and it is the nature of such an encyclopedic book, that each time one reads it, one finds new threads to pull, new aspects to admire. This time I was struck by Molly Bloom’s final words–the last words of the book–that are full of food and flowers, taste and smells–so many of our favorite things at Aromatica Poetica. From the bit of seedcake that she passes to …
Corpse Flower Revisited, Briefly in Bloom at the Denver Botanic Gardens 2018 * Essay * M. Leona Godin
The last few weeks have been intense and hard. My father passed away on August 19, the day after my birthday, and his services were held on my partner Alabaster’s birthday September 1. But my dad came into this world crashing a funeral–his father’s–and so the whole cycle of life seems contained in my dad’s own. Enter the corpse flower, and its day of bloom at the Denver Botanic Gardens on August 31, the morning of the day we were …
The Magic & Poetry of Candle Making: An Interview with Trista Edwards of MARVEL + MOON
I met Trista Edwards through the magical and supportive community of Luna Luna Magazine, where she is an associate editor. I visited her shop, MARVEL + MOON, and was delighted to find that her candle making blends her love of literature with her practice as a witch. Then, when I read that her impulse to collect “tiny elemental memory markers,” such as “a feather from a Victorian-era cemetery, a little darkened soil from W.B. Yeats’s grave, a sprig of mint from a bush outside …
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Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” A Tale of A Boy, A Girl, Her Flower & It’s Poison
Aromatica Poetica is delighted to present “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1844, and later collected in Mosses From An Old Manse. We were alerted to this stunning gothic tale by Jim Endersby in his fun cultural history of the Orchid, in which he analyzes it as “one of the earliest killer plant stories.” As you know from reading “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid,” we love killer plant stories! But whereas H.G. Well’s story is lighthearted, Hawthorne’s …
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‘The Flowering of the Strange Orchid’ by H. G. Wells
*We were alerted to this story by Olfiction’s Reading and Smelling List, and found it in The Country of the Blind and Other Stories. Collecting orchids is not for the faint-hearted! We at Aromatica Poetica appreciate such strange obsessions, and hope you do too!* The Flowering of the Strange Orchid The buying of orchids always has in it a certain speculative flavour. You have before you the brown shriveled lump of tissue, and for the rest you must trust …
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