In high school I was a wrestler, which had its pros and cons. The sense of camaraderie between my friends who wrestled and I was a rare and enjoyable feeling, and we always managed to have a good time. On the other hand, there was the grueling work, the awful process of cutting weight, and the many lost hours to drills and tournaments. Wrestling season was basically a four month long cloud over our calendars where we knew we would be working ourselves to the point of exhaustion six days out of the week. When everyone else went home from school, we began our energy-draining practices which could extend up to three hours. The practice mats were located in a large room behind the gymnasium, and every day around lunch time, you could start to smell it. That smell of the mats: cold, rubbery, and unforgiving. To be honest, I don't even know if it was a real smell, because nobody else seemed to notice it. It was as if the dread caused the smell, and the smell enhanced the dread, and it turned into a never-ending cycle of anticipation. Whatever it was, we all felt it. We all knew that it was only a few hours until it was time to hit the mats.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Mat
Many people often find themselves associating certain smells with certain feelings. There are smells that unearth memories and cause feelings of sensuality, hunger, love, etc. In a way that is unique from the other senses, smell is undoubtedly connected to our emotions, which is why we say that it is possible to "smell fear." Personally, there is a certain smell for me that I have always associated with dread and anticipation.
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I really liked your incorporation of your own experience of smell for fear. I had always associated a wrestling mat as smelly sweaty and I guess masculine. (does that make sense?) But I thought it was amazing how you could have a different interpretation of the mat. How your experiences and dread of the match changed how you imagined the smell of the mat: to be a dread of "cold, rubbery and unforgiving."
ReplyDeleteI especially loved your sentence, "It was as if the dread caused the smell, and the smell enhanced the dread, and it turned into a never-ending cycle of anticipation." It seems very true. It exemplifies very well your previous point in the first paragraph of the smell of fear. In that way your structure is cyclic and enforces your point.
Good job!
Also I noticed how you tied smell to touch. For example, "Whatever it was, we all felt it." and in the beginning, "associating certain smells with certain feelings."
Do you think we normally associate these senses together? Like is there a smell for sadness? Maybe it would be saltiness, like the salt in our tears? That would be bringing three senses together - smell, taste and touch.
Are there other senses that you think would be associated together?
"Like is there a smell for sadness? Maybe it would be saltiness, like the salt in our tears?" Provocative question. Hot pockets in the afternoon, maybe?
DeleteOn salt, I enjoyed the detail in Ackerman that the word "Salary" comes from the word for salt. Does my salty salary make me sad? Ha!
I absolutely love your description of the smell of wrestling mats. I was a wrestling stat in high school, and I always dreaded sitting through two hours of practice, so I can completely relate to that.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you really didn't enjoy wrestling itself, but more enjoyed the aspects of the team. How do you think someone who also wrestled, but had an all around good experience with it would describe the smell?
I think it's interesting that you chose to write about the smell of wrestling mats considering wrestling is really a "hands on" sport that involves so much contact, or "touching".
Completely on, Katie! Good questions, and I think they could spur more writing.
DeleteThis description of smell was really cool because you openly admit that the mat might not have even smelled it was just your fear associated with it. I found that to be very interesting and your honesty really helped with this blog response. I can still remember the smell of being on stage and how nervous it got me even though it's not even a very distinct smell at all. This post got me wondering, what other smells were present in the wrestling ring that may also get your butterflies going to this day? Maybe the smell of sweat on your opponent? If you are ever considering using this smell and experience in a paper about wrestling, I would like to know what kinds of things you hear and see during these wresting matches as well. I don't know much about wrestling so this was very fun to read.
ReplyDeleteAnother good question from Erica that brings to mind whether we imagine smells the way we imagine sounds.
ReplyDeleteAlso enjoyed her evocation of theater-smell: sawdust and adrenaline!
Good start here Zane. I do wonder about the structure of the piece. You begin with a kind of summing-up paragraph and don't get to the main smell for quite awhile. Could this be constructed differently to highlight different ideas/images?
DW
Thanks for the comments everyone. I definitely agree that there are many angles I could approach this subject with in my writing, and I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to use it more this semester.
ReplyDeleteI really do like the idea of being able to smell certain feelings, there seem definitely to be a lot of smells that just make us feel certain ways. Sometimes we have to really delve into our memories to figure out why certain smells make us feel certain ways. Hopefully I'll be able to draw on that idea more in the future.
Re-reading my work now, I do agree with Dave in the way that the first paragraph seems somewhat unnecessary. In screenwriting classes, professors always harp on the importance of "showing," not "telling." I think I could do more showing in this piece.