A Natural History of the Senses

by Diane Ackerman

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307763310
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/07/2011
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

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