The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > General Discussion > Smells

Smells

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. ...
  8. 20
  9. 21
  10. 22
  11. All
Dear Poirot,

I had the thrill of reading Perfume nearly a quarter of a century ago and the first paragraph you have related is one of the great openings to a work I have ever read. It blew my socks off.

To have such an impact on one's first novel is not unknown and puts him in the league of Richard Bach with his Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Although JLS was not Bach's first novel its extraordinary success is echoed by Perfume. Suskind's second novel 'Pidgeon' to me was a disappointment as were Bach's other works.

But the style of the writing is more in the vein of Herman Hesse's 'Siddartha' or even some of Nietzsche's writings, to quote, "All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.".

Yes all three are indeed German writers and all have a prose style that is dry yet chilling. A type that leaves you with the sense you would want them as your lawyer but never your friend. They are all writing on the one theme but the genius of Suskind is extraordinary, a 'Piss Christ' on steroids holding a mirror up to the unhinged nature of our religious beliefs.

Anyway we are getting ahead of ourselves. It was only after having children I grasped the true horror of the thought of an infant without smell (sin).

I have a niece with an extraordinary sense of smell who at a very early age was able to sort through a load of washing at our place purely through smell.

But while the olfactory  world Suskind describes for us is spellbinding, ultimately it is only a vehicle for his real target and doesn't he do a brilliant job.
Posted by csteele, Monday, 27 February 2012 11:15:17 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
csteele,

Well, yes!
I came upon this book last week on a "swap stand" at the local library. I'm a bit of a bower-bird when it comes to books, and I liked the title and my Penguin copy has a cover depicting a detail Watteau's "Nymph and the Satyr"....so that seemed as good a reason as any to take it home and stuff it in my bookcase for future reference.
But one should always take a quick dip into the book before it's installed on the shelves - and every now and then an author will reach out and grab you by the neck and haul you in to his invented world. Such was the case with Perfume.

I think it was Suskind's rendering of the squalor that initially took my breath away. Grenouille's mother at the fish stall when her labour pains began - "...she squatted under the gutting table and there gave birth as she had done four times before, and cut the new born thing's umbilical cord with a gutting knife..." The contrast between all that and enlightenment Paris, if you don't mind. It's hard to escape earthbound reality and Suskind renders the putrid realities of the time well - Grenouille is the perfect "other".

http://www.bookclubs.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780394550848
Posted by Poirot, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 1:46:21 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Dear Poirot,

Just on the level of a gothic tale ingeniously incorporating smells this book could stand tall, but it has other strengths.

Did you get the same sense of detachment in his writing style? For me it accentuated the horror and the fascination. Have you watched the TV shows of Gunther von Hagens, the very disquieting German anatomist whose specialty is the plasticising of human corpses? Obviously passionate about what he does but it is his objectification of the dead that disturbs us. I think, and to be honest hope, that it was intentional by Suskind. However is there a little Germanic distain peeking through with the use of the name Grenouille which is French for 'frog' whose mother is a French fishmonger?

It was only after the climax where Grenouille was carved up by the adoring crowd and his flesh was eaten and his blood drunk that I realized what a powerful metaphor this was for the Christian faith. The friend who initially loaned me the book was convinced Perfume was about Hitler and Nazism, and sure the humble beginnings of Hitler, Christ and most powerfully Grenouille resonate as did the utter completeness of the adulation of the masses captured by all three. 

But Suskind's use of virgins in the tale (one only needs to look at the Church's deification of the virgin Mary and her mother), as well as the nature of Grenouille's demise convinced me otherwise and when reread in that light Perfume takes on a whole extra dimension.

Great art is suppose to allow us our own interpretations and you may have an entirely different take, but think for a moment of a God coming to earth in a human form seeking what it was to be human, wanting to discover its essence. For instance imagine Mary and Joseph raising a child which did not sin in anything, got up to no mischief, never cried nor teased siblings or argued with his parents. It would be like raising an alien. Hard to warm to and possibly feared.

I do promise this book will never leave you.
Posted by csteele, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 8:10:04 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
csteele,

Yes I did glean the Christ motif - more so since reading your posts.

When Grenouille was convicted, the whole community readied themselves for the spectacle - complete with cross. I was struck by the carnival atmosphere and the pageantry planned for the occasion....10,000 people coming from near and far, food purveyors, scaffolding and seats erected for the toffs in their finery, etc.
Another thing was after Grenouille had discovered the scent that made him normal (to other people) he was dressed well - and the colour was "blue". this is Mother Mary's colour and depicts sky, heaven, purity (also in days gone by, blue was a more expensive colour than the earthy hues)He was wearing blue when he made what was supposed to be his final journey - when he stepped out of the carriage he was wearing his blue outfit.

I think you're right that Suskind's woven magic will rise to the surface the more one ponders it.
Posted by Poirot, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 9:18:05 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Dear Poirot,

Good pick up.

I don't have the book with me at the moment so I can't contribute much on the detail.

While Perfume to me does a marvelous job illustrating so vividly the corruption of human desires and nature that religion is capable of it is the exploration of what it would mean to be the God we have created that fascinates me. 

As Nietzsche wrote;

"A subject for a great poet would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation."

That is not to say I completely discount aspects of my friend's interpretation. There is a Joseph Mengele air to Grenoullie's use of the young women, his experiments with the oils and cloths on their still warm bodies (a very evocative capturing of souls?), his wanting to get to the essence, to get answers, with scant regard to the fact he is killing the thing he most desires to know about.

It has been a little while since I have read the book but I can not recall any sense of empathy shown by Grenouille toward others.

One of the more comprehensive surveys of world happiness I read recently gave Indonesia the highest ranking with over 50% describing themselves as very happy compared to Australians and Americans at 27%. Germany came in at 15%. I don't want to appear to be beating up on Germans but I can't help but think their policy makers would be more interested in what was making an Indonesian so much more happy rather than what was making themselves sad.

PS. I am writing these thoughts while on the road so I apologize for their disjointed nature.
Posted by csteele, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 10:34:43 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
The skill of writing is the skill of using words. And Suskind
certainly wields the words together so that they work a
special magic of their own. Widening the mind's eye and taking
the reader far beyond the ordinary to a new (and for me -
disturbing) experience.

For me, although as I've stated - I did find the book disturbing -
I have to admit it was so absorbing in its overall quality that
I was totally drawn to the imaginative world that it created with
no problem of suspension of disbelief.

It has stayed with me - even today.
Posted by Lexi, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 10:42:45 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. ...
  8. 20
  9. 21
  10. 22
  11. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy