Perfume of Life

The Perfume of Life trilogy chronicles the recent experiences and work in Mexico by a collective of pioneers who explore expressions of Nature. The program is premised on the idea that the story of Life on Earth is best related in the language of molecules, organic messaging metabolites that travel in our environments presently and through all history, and constitute the fundamental currency of information among living beings. And so, by beholding the narrative channelled by perfume, we come to appreciate most incisively the story of, and the present siege being laid to Life. The project and all the detailed writing follows from this proposition. The Perfume of Life comprises an unparalleled series of conversations in the matter of storytelling vapors of Nature, on distillation and extraction technologies, the science of drawing out or intercepting the chemical communications of vital beings, and including also classes presented to baristas and oenologists on the respective physical bases and neurobiological perception of espresso and wine, and tutorials on the aesthetic analysis of scent, and investigations into the fragrance of dirt and death and wine and sex, into the nature of sweetness and fruitiness and spiciness and juiciness, and love and war and beauty and much more, like the significance of pheromones and deterpenation, alchemical traditions and vacuum filtration, perfume terminology and alcohol emulsions, pollination ecology and potions of seduction, that is, workshops on aphrodisiacal elixirs and their production, also trials involving Indian attars, and how to build fragrant accords, and lessons on comparative forms and media of art, and reviews of notable molecules such as 1,8-cineole and linalyl acetate, methyl chavicol and eugenol, camphor and many more, and accounts of xenobiotic compounds introduced to the biosphere, namely synthetic musks and aldehydes and ionones, and surveys of violations by the fraudful Perfume Industry and the associated biophobic campaigns of fashion houses, and training in the detection of dupery with respect to counterfeit volatile oils, and proceedings of rowdy plant perfume panels that feature metabolic expressions of saffron acacia mistletoe and magnolia, aloeswood honeysuckle osmanthus and gardenia, tarragon tuberose lotus and boronia, labdanum linden karo-karounde and angelica, and a good many others. By means of this program of exercises and studies, the epic saga of Life on Earth is uniquely depicted, and a set of principles and rationale for a movement in defense of Living Creation is advanced. By means of the series of salons related, the protagonist Salonnier and his helpmates advocate on behalf of Nature in a manner that is unprecedented in the history of literature.