So, what do you call this anyway?

So I've had this erotic attraction to smoke billowing and curling around the female body for quite some time without really knowing what to call it. Is there a technical, psychological term for this, I've often wondered?

When I've asked shrinks and other knowledgeable people, they usually point me to the word capnolagnia, which refers to having a smoking fetish. And on the surface this might seem valid since many of the images on this site have to do with smoking a pipe, which I do on occasion (not a lot) in real life. But for me it's not the actual act of smoking that arouses me; it's the smoke itself. The pipe, while enjoyable, is essentially a means to an end, namely enshrouding a woman in a delicious cloud of smoke.

So capnolangnia simply won't do.

I've thought about using the term capnophilia -- replacing the "-langnia," (referring to taking smoke into your mouth) with -philia, which just means unusual, erotic desire -- but no one seems to use that.

The other day, as I mentioned in the last post, the woman behind a blog called Nebulophilia contacted me. The title of her site is a legitimate psychological term that comes from a word meaning "fog."She defines it as, "the sexual arousal to fog and smoke." I like that. It fits my site and predilections pretty well, and is an elegant word besides. Part of what arouses me is the thought of smoke or fog gently caressing a woman's body, teasing her flesh more subtly and softly than a fingertip or feather ever could. Combined with the image of thick fog inhaled through her nostrils and mouth and infiltrating her lungs this whole picture is unbelievably seductive to me.

Holistic

Still, part of my mind searches for some term that describes my odd attraction even more completely. It is everything I mentioned above but my desires involve actual smoke more than they do fog. Part of the reason for that is that aroma, scent, smell are almost as important to me as the visual image of a cloud curling around a woman. If I write a description to an image it will usually contain an olfactory word -- sweet, pungent, acrid.

In fact, although I usually only dash off a sentence and let the viewer fill in the rest from their imagination, ideally a description would touch on every sense. The girl being wrapped in smoke would smell it, feel it, hear it, even taste its flavor.

Also important to me is some snatch of a story -- not just how does it smell, but what is happening. Just a suggestion about the smoky action, or perhaps a bit of dialog to suggest the story that leaped impressionistically into my brain when I saw the image. A woman engulfed in thick, choking smoke with a story intensifies the eroticism 10 times over.

And finally, for me the emotion she feels as the cloud nears her face intensifies arousal 10 times beyond that. Smoke can be comforting, smoke can be threatening, it can be romantic, unpleasant, fascinating, intimidating. Is she resting blissfully in her lover's arms as he quietly puffs his pipe? Is she struggling not to succumb to a coughing fit while her boss stands over her desk chomping on a hideous cigar? Has a thick, white cloud of fog, seemingly sentient, surrounded her as she strolled in the woods, sapping her strength more and more as she is forced to breathe its moist air?

Sorry, got carried away there.

But the erotic aspects of smoke and fog are a very holistic thing for me. Perhaps there is no one word that encapsulates the meaning. Or, perhaps I'll need to make one up. ;)