And ©Chris Morgan
About 10 years ago, I had a realization: everything that comes before “but…” is irrelevant.
For 2000 years of dialectic rhetoric, we’ve been taught to fragment our figments of thoughts into contradicting notions, as a proof of mental prowess and power of context (gosh, I, myself, define myself as a contextual thinker, so there’s that). In other words, showing off how many angles you understand about an issue is common, accepted, and expected if you want to be taken seriously, no matter if the conversation is about high concepts or picking colors for your pantry paint.
Why, then, the irremediable habit of always having to pick a path? Why is imbalance or partiality so hard to assume, adopt, and use as an intellectual tool?
And ©Paola Saetti
This year, with social distancing in place, I had another realization: it’s not that what comes before “but” is irrelevant. IT’S THE “BUT” THAT MAKES IT SO.
Replace “but” with “and”, and the whole construct becomes alive with possibilities. “I can be soft at times, AND I am a warrior”; “The song is sad, AND it is beautiful”; “She’s right, AND so are you”. The benefits of “yes, AND” are not new; to stand proof we have concepts like “opposites attract”; the esthetic of the ugly (think Baudelaire, if not more recent currents in positive modelling); the devil’s advocate; the silver lining, the golden cage; juxtapositions, contrasts, oxymorons, even jokes.
It’s all there: even when society is forcing us to use the “but”, WE LOVE THE “AND”.
And ©Street Hunters
Despite my faulty childhood knowledge that allowed us to call each other mameluci whenever we were scared, whiny, or soft at play, I now know Mamluks were a major part of the military force in the Levant starting in the 9th century. Slowly rising through arduous martial arts training and meticulous study of court protocols and Islamic sciences, the Mamluks became a governing dynasty in Egypt… BUT they were glorified slaves. Yes, slaves–higher in status than the household slaves; higher even than the common Egyptian citizens; educated, rich, and “true lords”; freed and then employed; but a slave cast nonetheless, marred by a painful past made irrelevant by the golden cage of their present.
You were made a slave, BUT look at what you’ve been given now.
And ©Sebastian Jacobitz.
Mamluk as redefined by Chris Maurice is a rare case of spot-on marketing: “delicate brutality”, they say, and I couldn’t agree more: this is hardened but not sharp, intense but sweet, heavy but simple–just like, say, a brutalist piece of silver jewelry. The opening of Xerjoff Mamluk is very sweet and somewhat liquid-crystalline, honeyesque, with transparent drops of syrup and citrusy resins. As they redistribute, the body becomes slightly cloudy and further from the nose; a wave of opaque florals take center, alongside a (salty) caramel and what seems to be a very dry, light wood. When the base settles, the whole composition is catching texture and volume and becomes grave: used leathers, dust, animal sweat, and a tinge of iron-y saltiness (think blood-in-the-mouth) bring this into wild territory, like a tainted legacy one cannot escape.
Brutal, indeed… but AND sensitive.
Photos, collage, creative direction, and digital editing by a_nose_knows for Xerjoff Mamluk.
Official notes: musk, jasmine, bergamot, vanilla, honey, benzoin, agarwood, osmanthus
Other perceived notes: dates, salt, flowery accord, suede, peach, dry woods, dust, metallic bits
Disclaimer: Tester of Xerjoff Mamluk provided by Europerfumes. Thank you much.
– dana sandu, Editor
Xerjoff Mamluk via Xerjoff
Xerjoff Mamluk was composed in 2012 by Chris Maurice and is part of the Oud Stars Collection.
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