Unless it’s 2020, then saying “It doesn’t smell like anything here” is concerning…
Hmm, why does my coffee smell like boiled water?
An actual thought I had before the penny dropped
“this doesn’t taste of anything” a disparaging remark
“I can’t feel anything” rather alarming at times
I can’t feel anything. That’s what she said :(
“I’m not touching anything at the moment” you’re either a master of stating the obvious, or you’ve just made everyone in that room very fucking uncomfortable
Lemmy smells like beans
This hits really hard for someone that experienced multiple years of anosmia.
Somebody would say something smells bad, and it really bothered me that I couldn’t smell it.
Then when I started regaining a sense of smeel (post surgery) the smells I was able to pick up were always bad. The first time I could smell nice things like cooking, or perfume, I was elated.
Going from, I ate meat that was off because I couldn’t smell it was off or really taste it, to being able to smell cooking was amazing. I will never take the sense of smell for granted ever again.
“It’s dark in here” Said when the room is expected to be lighter than usual.
“Finally some quiet” said when there was a noise that is now gone.
“Doesn’t smell like anything in here” Said when a smell was expected but is not found.
People do say it, this meme is weird.
I think it’s about how we calibrate our expectations relative to the default. I do think there is something different about smell.
For example, if I wake up one morning, my implicit expectation is for it to be reasonably light because of the morning sun, and I’d expect to hear some low level noise because I live in the city. The other day, I woke up and I noticed it was darker than usual because of terrible weather. Recently, I also noticed it’s much quieter than usual near where I live, because it’s a student town and many have gone home for Summer. I didn’t immediately notice, but I had a sense of uneasiness until I consciously registered this, because I had a subconscious sense of what’s normal.
I can’t imagine what waking up and there being less smell than usual would be like. For example, if someone came in and tidied up while I was asleep, without waking me. I’d notice it if there was a particularly strong smell when I went to sleep, because as you highlight, people do comment when an expected smell is not to be found. However, because of how we acclimatise to scents, the normal level of smelliness of an environment is often undetectable, so I don’t think people would generally notice a subtraction of a background smell.
It makes sense in the context of human perception though, our olfactory system is underdeveloped compared to many other animals because we don’t use it much, relatively
Image Transcription: Tumblr
sadclowncentral
weird how no one ever comments on the absence of smells unprompted. the nose just isn’t a topic of conversation unless it’s urgent huh
sadclowncentral
“it’s dark in here” normal regular observation
“finally some quiet” relatable exclamation
“doesn’t smell like anything in here” absolutely deranged sentence
^I’m a human volunteer transcribing posts in a format compatible with screen readers, for blind and visually impaired users!^
