sweet stench

[jasonlulu_2000]

Here is what I hear from BBC: "There is a sweet stench of death pervading the whole of this neighborhood. "

I cannot understand why "sweet" is collocated with "stench" to describe the devastating scene in the disaster-hit area.

What does a native teacher think of it?

Thanks!

Jason

 

[MikeNewYork]

Here is what I hear from BBC: "There is a sweet stench of death pervading the whole of this neighborhood. "

I cannot understand why "sweet" is collocated with "stench" to describe the devastating scene in the disaster-hit area.

What does a native teacher think of it?

Thanks!

Jason

I think it is a very odd phrase. There is nothing "sweet" about it.

 

[riquecohen]

I think it is an unsatisfactory collocation.

 

[Raymott]

At certain stages of fermentation of parts/contents of dead bodies, they can smell sweetish along with the stench. It's not nice sweetness, but I'd take it to be a literal description of what the journalist smelt. Has anyone who's denying it been in a disaster zone with lots of dead bodies?

"A dead and decomposing body smells like nothing else in this world...it is a rank smell that is just tinged with sweetness...try to imagine a piece of rotting meat over which someone has sprinkled a few drops of some cheap perfume."
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080209153555AAq4GLD

 

[MikeNewYork]

At certain stages of fermentation of parts/contents of dead bodies, they can smell sweetish along with the stench. It's not nice sweetness, but I'd take it to be a literal description of what the journalist smelt. Has anyone who's denying it been in a disaster zone with lots of dead bodies?

"A dead and decomposing body smells like nothing else in this world...it is a rank smell that is just tinged with sweetness...try to imagine a piece of rotting meat over which someone has sprinkled a few drops of some cheap perfume."
What does a dead human body smell like? - Yahoo! Answers

I spent 17 days at the World Trade Center disaster site. When the dead bodies began to smell, the stench was bad enough to gag a maggot. I perceived no sweetness at all.

 

[Raymott]

I spent 17 days at the World Trade Center disaster site. When the dead bodies began to smell, the stench was bad enough to gag a maggot. I perceived no sweetness at all.

Yes, there are environmental factors to take into account; time since death, etc.

Here's a pathologists story:
"But I’d never smelled anything like that putrefied body; it was an overwhelming odor, dense, wet, vile, almost shockingly sweet,..."
Jonathan Hayes ? Notes On Forensic Medicine: Smell

In any event, I'm inclined to believe the guy who was there.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Yes, there are environmental factors to take into account; time since death, etc.

Here's a pathologists story:
"But I’d never smelled anything like that putrefied body; it was an overwhelming odor, dense, wet, vile, almost shockingly sweet,..."
Jonathan Hayes ? Notes On Forensic Medicine: Smell

In any event, I'm inclined to believe the guy who was there.

I suspect that what one smells is a bit individualized. Nobody really knows what another person smells.

 

[Raymott]

I suspect that what one smells is a bit individualized. Nobody really knows what another person smells.

So it's irresponsible for a journalist to say that it smelt sweet, because smells are too subjective? Can't we just accept that maybe there was actually a "a sweet stench of death pervading the whole of this neighborhood."?

 

[MikeNewYork]

So it's irresponsible for a journalist to say that it smelt sweet, because smells are too subjective? Can't we just accept that maybe there was actually a "a sweet stench of death pervading the whole of this neighborhood."?

We can accept anything, but we don't have to agree.

 

[emsr2d2]

On a Greek holiday some years ago, my walk to the beach each day involved walking past the decaying body of a cat which had been run over. Despite the fact that the smell was quite revolting, it was also a "sweet" smell. That sweetness was not present every day, only for the middle five days or so. At the beginning, it didn't smell of much and towards the end, it had the classic rotten meat smell.