![]() ![]() ![]() Dillard has described Ackerman’s work in A Natural History of the Senses and Synesthesia as “a history of her extraordinary enthusiasms,” one that continues in the vein of the poet’s “effort to draw scientific and poetic curiosity (and understanding) together into a unified field of electric language” (Dillard n.p.).ĭillard understands the work to “explore in depth and with intensity the full extent of the subject – its history, its detailed ins and outs, its poetry, and ultimately its meaning” (Dillard n.p.). There is a furnace in our cells, and when we breathe, we pass the world through our bodies, brew it lightly, and turn it loose again, gently altered for having known us” (Johnson 59).Ĭritic R.H.W. Hayward Johnson raved that “after this book nothing will ever look quite the some again” and employed some of Ackerman’s own poetic style to describe the sensory examination therein: “if you cover your nose and try to stop smelling, you will die.Įtymologically speaking, a breath is not neutral or bland – it’s cooked air, we live in a constant simmering. Ackerman employs not only poetic language but the poet’s sensibility – specifically in her attention to sensory detail – to illustrate the idea of synesthesia or the blending of one or more senses into a new sensory experience.Ĭritical response to Ackerman’s text has been mixed. This essay examines the way in which Ackerman’s poetic voice and vision influence the ideas discussed in one section of the text entitled Synesthesia. ![]()
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