RT:Disgust
Just sharing this article by Molly Young I wanted to talk about with you.
How Disgust Explains Everything, (Molly Young, The NY Times Sunday Magazine; Jan 2, 2022)
I wanted to share this article I read over the weekend because I like the way it’s told and it’s full of great psychological jargon like sympathetic magic and benign masochism. This passage stopped me in my tracks:
[Aurel] Kolnai was the first to arrive at a number of insights that are now commonly accepted in the field. He pointed to the paradox that disgusting things often hold a “curious enticement” — think of the Q-tip you inspect after withdrawing it from a waxy ear canal, or the existence of reality-TV shows about plastic surgery, or “Fear Factor.” He identified the senses of smell, taste, sight and touch as the primary sites of entry and pointed out that hearing isn’t a strong vector for disgust. “One would search in vain for any even approximately equivalent parallel in the aural sphere to something like a putrid smell, the feel of a flabby body or of a belly ripped open.” (emphasis added)
Is it possible we can’t hear disgust?