Once in a while Gus seems to find a scent-patch that obviously blows her little doggy mind (need I explain?) and yesterday it got me thinking about story-telling. I’m pretty sure that what’s going on in a dog’s mind when she ‘picks up a scent’ is similar to what goes on in a human’s mind when we’re in the midst of ‘tracking’ a narrative. I would bet that there’s a part of our brains that specifically reacts to story-telling; a pattern of synaptical firing, something like that.
All these were of a series the day after I grabbed Gus (nee ‘Augusta,’ which was just… too much) at a shelter.
With dogs, story-telling is done by tracking a scent, to the tune of somewhere over 90% (of the understanding), I’d bet. Maybe close to 100%. Try to imagine how a dog follows a scent. Can’t do it, can you? I can’t. Do they get visual images based on the molecules that strike the nerve endings in their nasal passage? I would doubt it. I’d bet they have a completely different means of following the flow of a scent. A means we, as humans, with our pitifully weak schnozzes, cannot begin to imagine.
It blows my mind that dogs can follow a scent, track a human, say. through heavy brush (or on a city street, which some dogs can do). Think about it. I’ll have to do some Net searches after I’ve written this (I’ve piqued my curiosity) to find out what ‘science’ says about the subject, but I’d bet they got it wrong somehow. The materialist/reductionist view of reality that mainstream science bases it’s conclusions and theories and so forth on is a load of crapola; this I know for sure; not that I have any profound explanatory insights; I just tend to know bullshit when I see it.
Regarding a dog’s ability to follow a scent, scientists probably have a formula of some sort; how many molecules left by the trackee are needed, and so forth. But imagine the barrage, the hodgepodge, the… the goddamn salmagundi of irrelevant redolence (show off!), that are sucked into their nasals, then electrically sparked to their craniums! Speaking of too much information! How do they do it? What sort of algorithm are they equipped with? I would bet that something as yet ‘unknown to science’ is going on when a dog follows the story of a scent.
I do believe that dogs follow a scent with the same motive humans use to follow a story, i.e., to see how it ends; with a dog, as a carnivore, the ending will hopefully involve some raw meat, directly or as a reward. We get a little rush of endorphin.
I believe that in an initial encounter between two dogs, what’s happening is story-telling also:
Wag, wag, sniff, sniff: ‘Whoa, dude, you were down on the beach today!’
Sniff, sniff, wag: ‘Yup, God takes me to the beach every day’ Sniff, sniff: ‘You been lying around on cement or what?’
Waning wag: ‘God doesn’t give a shit where I nap.’
I suspect that dogs roll in stuff for two reasons: To hide their scent from possible prey, and to brag about where they’ve been. Mostly the latter.
Sniff, sniff, SNIFF: ‘Whoa! Where’d you find the seagull to roll in?!’
Wag, wag, stiffening shrug: ‘God whacked me on the nose for that…’ Chops licked, a stiff strut. ‘But it was worth it.’
Point being that dogs, in their own way, appreciate a good story like the rest of us. Similarly, dogs appreciate a good ending. For a dog following a scent, the ending is in the catching up to the source of the story. It’s a bit more complex for us: A good story – as opposed to a poorly wrought one — is tough to describe, but one thing is for sure: Endings are everything. (To quote screenwriter William Goldman.)
I mean I appreciate a tale well told as we go along, when the plot takes an ingenious turn and so forth, but I’m always (if subconsciously) thinking, ‘Don’t fuck up the ending!’
For me, a good ending is one that I didn’t see coming but.. and this is key… after thinking about it, there was no other way the story could have ended. A perfect ending is a truly beautiful thing, and hence very rare. Good endings are fine, I love ‘em, look forward to ‘em and so forth, but a perfect ending…
I’m trying to think of a narrative (books, movies, short stories, whatever) that had a perfect ending. Maybe a story I didn’t really care for but stuck it out, then, at the end, everything fell into place and… I realized it was perfect.
How about you guys email me your vote for a perfect ending? Just one. To keep it simple and make it interesting, let’s stick to movies, and anyone who picks the same one I do will get a lifetime free access to this blog (the lifetime aspect applies to… actually, either one of us, you or me, if you get my drift). Entries accepted until midnight, Friday, August 17. Put ‘Best Ending’ in the Subject Box.
Allan
By the way, if you’re already (generously) donating $3.25 a month ‘gas money’, you can give the lifetime access to a friend or loved one (or someone you can’t stand). It’s completely transferable! Cool, huh?
Remember: You didn’t see it coming, yet it could not have ended any other way. Perfection.