John Anderson Poet Prose Poetry

Notes About The Poem

'How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,' - William Shakespeare, The Tempest.

Odorama was first introduced in the film Polyester (1981) by John Waters using scratch-and-sniff technology. Audiences were given cards when they entered the cinema, each with 10 different scents, marked and numbered. At various points in the movie, a number would flash onscreen, the cue for the audience to scratch the corresponding scent. Odorama was born and was used in several movies at the time. It seems logical to assume it would be introduced in the Brave New World. Huxley remarked about "man's almost infinite appetite for distractions" and he held the view that people are controlled by those that inflict pleasure not pain. 

Odorama At the Feelies, 2554

There was a buzz about the cinema in London 2554
with something brave, something new and outrageous in Cinema World.
The movies had morphed from sight and sound in surround-sound panorama
to the feelies, movies with the sense of touch and feel.
You grabbed the knobs in the hand rests to feel what was on srceen.
Warm, cold, sharp and smooth permeated through your being on cue.
Electronic senses of love and hate, happiness, fear and terror
transmitted via knobs and nerves to brain sensations.

But now two other senses were about to be delivered to the movie goer - Smell and Taste.
Tiny sprays in you headrests delivered squirts of odor into nose and mouth,
on cue with what was happening on the screen.
You could smell the roses, taste the gore, be overwhelmed with smells of war.
You really felt that you were right in there, hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling and tasting.
All five senses, tantalized on cue, really made a difference,
for a Brave New World in Cinema in 2554.

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Hansteven Selfa May 3, 2017 at 9:06 AM Congratulations John on winning the Brave New World contest! I know you did your best and I hope to see more of your poems! I enjoy reading your works. Keep on shining. :) -HANS

Kai Michael Neumann April 28, 2017 at 3:43 AM Congratulation on your win. I like it. There is a stench in modernity, which you captured very well. 'And now showing in a cinema close to you'. Lots of wishes, Kai

Debbie Guzzi April 27, 2017 at 7:31 PM Very nice take off on the prompt! Congrad's & thanks so much for your hard work & your polished entry. Light & Love Debbie