A Natural History of the Senses

by Ackerman, Diane

• ISBN13: 9780679735663
• ISBN10: 0679735666
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780307763310
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-09-10
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

Diane Ackerman's lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth. "Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in."--The New York Times. (Literature--Classics & Contemporary)

Author Biography

Diane Ackerman has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction in addition to garnering many other awards and recognitions for her work, which include the bestselling The Zookeeper’s Wife and A Natural History of the Senses. She lives in Ithaca, New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction
In Every Sense	p. xv
Smell	p. 3
The Mute Sense	p. 5
A Map of Smell	p. 6
Of Violets and Neurons	p. 9
The Shape of Smell	p. 11
Buckets of Light	p. 15
The Winter Palace of Monarchs	p. 18
The Oceans Inside Us	p. 20
Notions and Nations of Sweat	p. 21
The Personality of Smell	p. 23
Pheromones	p. 26
Noses	p. 30
Sneezing	p. 31
Smell As Camouflage	p. 32
Roses	p. 33
The Fallen Angel	p. 37
Anosmia	p. 40
Prodigies of Smell	p. 44
A Famous Nose	p. 45
An Offering to the Gods	p. 54
Cleopatra's Heirs	p. 59
Touch	p. 65
The Feeling Bubble	p. 67
Speaking of Touch	p. 70
First Touches	p. 71
What is a Touch?	p. 80
The Code Senders	p. 83
Hair	p. 84
The Inner Climate	p. 88
The Skin Has Eyes	p. 94
Adventures In the Touch Dome	p. 96
Animals	p. 98
Tattoos	p. 99
Pain	p. 101
Easing Pain	p. 104
The Point of Pain	p. 106
Kissing	p. 108
The Hand	p. 115
Professional Touchers	p. 119
Taboos	p. 121
Subliminal Touch	p. 122
Taste	p. 125
The Social Sense	p. 127
Food and Sex	p. 130
The Omnivore's Picnic	p. 132
Of Cannibalism and Sacred Cows	p. 135
The Bloom of a Taste Bud	p. 138
The Ultimate Dinner Party	p. 143
Macabre Meals	p. 146
The Heart of Craving	p. 148
The Psychopharmacology of Chocolate	p. 153
In Praise of Vanilla	p. 157
The Truth About Truffles	p. 161
Ginger, and Other Medicines	p. 163
How to Make Moose Soup In a Hole in the Ground, or Dine in Space	p. 165
Et Fugu, Brute? Food as Thrill-Seeking	p. 167
Beauty and the Beasts	p. 171
Hearing	p. 173
The Hearing Heart	p. 175
Phantoms and Drapes	p. 180
Jaguar of Sweet Laughter	p. 182
Loud Noises	p. 186
The Limits of Hearing, the Power of Sound	p. 188
Deafness	p. 191
Animals	p. 193
Quicksand and Whale Songs	p. 198
The Violin Remembers	p. 202
Music and Emotion	p. 205
Is Music a Language?	p. 209
Measure for Measure	p. 216
Cathedrals in Sound	p. 219
Earth Calling	p. 222
Vision	p. 227
The Beholder's Eye	p. 229
How to Watch the Sky	p. 235
Light	p. 249
Color	p. 252
Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall	p. 257
Animals	p. 260
The Painter's Eye	p. 267
The Face of Beauty	p. 270
Watching a Night Launch of the Space Shuttle	p. 279
The Force of an Image: Ring Cycle	p. 281
The Round Walls of Home	p. 283
Synesthesia	p. 287
Fantasia	p. 289
Courting the Muse	p. 292
Postscript	p. 301
Further Reading	p. 311
Index	p. 317
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