descriptions

Ms X, strolling around in Zurich downtown, desperately seeking the pleasure of good perfumes, enters a shop, drawn into it by a little cardboard sign saying “scent of desire, discover the fragrances of the Maghreb desert”. She has pictures in her mind, of a Saharan desert with lots of sands, even more camels, beautiful women hiding their natural treasures behind uncounted layers of fabric, wild men, with sun tanned skin, gleaming black eyes promising forbidden pleasures. So, she wonders what this scent might be all about and once in midst of the little shop she discovers the shop keeper behind shelves of books that seem to pour in from all sides, covering the walls, part of the desk, to her right and to her left. In this sea of books she finally discovers a little bottle of perfume and pointing towards it, she asks, what the fragrance is all about. The shopkeeper tries to describe it in all detail with wonderful words, showing her a flyer which describes the scent in detail, how it is composed, that it is something special, that it is the reflection of the Maghreb desert, with lots of typical fragrances of the Moroccan region in it, but it just wouldn’t help Ms X. Thus, he draws up a picture, coloured boxes, circles and lines, symbolizing the scent, bringing it to a visual abstraction. Now, Ms X is really hesitating, it looks so brownish, with those white and little red sparkles. She has never imagined herself wearing in a perfume with yellowish bubbles and white boxes. Our dear shopkeeper sighs, disappointed and realizing again that with all his eloquence he was not able to bring around the slightest idea of this fragrance’s identity. He thinks of himself as excellent salesman, he is proud on his talent, but this perfume line…..he can not sell it by words nor pictures.

Thus, he brings forward a perfume bottle, has Ms X try it, and gets himself ready to write the bill.