{"id":87108,"date":"2015-06-29T15:52:15","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T19:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=87108"},"modified":"2015-06-29T15:54:53","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T19:54:53","slug":"chicken-or-egg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/29\/chicken-or-egg\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicken or Egg"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Odilon_Redon_-_L'oeuf_01\"<\/a>

Odilon Redon, L\u2019oeuf (The Egg)<\/i>, 1885<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

This is the very worst wickedness, that we refuse to acknowledge the passionate evil that is in us. This makes us secret and rotten. \u2014D. H. Lawrence<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Have you, a modern person, ever really <\/em>smelled a rotten egg? Think hard! In all honesty, I can\u2019t say with certainty that I have. Old, sure. Smears of unappealing, desiccated yolk on a carton, yes. But truly rotten<\/em>? I don\u2019t think so. <\/p>\n

And yet, just the other day, I found myself comparing something to the smell of a rotten egg: an Arkansas hot spring, I believe. I know I\u2019ve also used term to describe the repulsive odor of depilatories (whose lack of perfume innovation is one of the great mysteries of twenty-first century technology) and for the sulfurous geysers of Yellowstone, and the medicinal waters you can \u201ctake\u201d in Bath\u2019s pump room, and sometimes, yes, farts. We\u2019re told it\u2019s a danger sign; the smell of rotten eggs can indicate a hazardous gas leak or contaminated water. If you were to ask me, I\u2019d think I knew what a rotten egg smells like\u2014but in truth, what I know are the things I\u2019ve always heard likened to it.<\/p>\n

Obviously plenty of people have smelled rotten eggs. Anyone on a farm, for starters. Probably anyone who\u2019s worked as a market stockist. But for many of us raised on long-lived, pasteurized, refrigerated supermarket specimens\u2014who would never, as a result, compromise the freshness of precious farmer\u2019s market ova\u2014it\u2019s an anachronism.<\/p>\n

But more than that: it is an example of living oral tradition! A tangible connection to our shared rural past! A folkway, even! And that\u2019s just a start; we\u2019re surrounded by these sorts of self-referencing linguistic tics! I mean\u2014wow, right?<\/p>\n

If not wow<\/em>\u2014maybe, oh<\/em>. Or, maybe, you smell rotten eggs all the time.<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review, and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the very worst wickedness, that we refuse to acknowledge the passionate evil that is in us. This makes us secret and rotten. \u2014D. H. Lawrence Have you, a modern person, ever really smelled a rotten egg? Think hard! In all honesty, I can\u2019t say with certainty that I have. Old, sure. Smears of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[9231,18587,18584,18583,18585,18586],"class_list":["post-87108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-eggs","tag-farts","tag-rotten-eggs","tag-smells","tag-sulfur","tag-yellowstone"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHas Anyone Really Smelled a Rotten Egg?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on the surprising rarity with which we encounter a supposedly common smell.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/29\/chicken-or-egg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chicken or Egg by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 29, 2015 \u2013 This is the very worst wickedness, that we refuse to acknowledge the passionate evil that is in us. 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