Dear csteele,

You could never be a bore. You're far to literate.
Plus you don't drone on endlessly about irrelevant
subjects unlike some of us mere mortals. ;-)

Well that's a bit of a disappointment csteele...your take on the story helped me to dig a bit deeper. I found a few perspectives I mightn't otherwise have perceived.

Lexi, you and anyone else interested in perfumes and how our sense of smell works, would enjoy 'The Emperor of Scent' by Chandler Burr. A well-written and engrossing autobiography of a scientist with an exceptional ability to detect variations in all odours. His explanation of the perfume market alone is worth the read, let alone the hurdles he encounters in attempting to get his discoveries accepted.

Dear Poirot and Lexi,

As a teenager I can remember deciding not to watch The Exorcist when it first came out. I was fond of scary movies but something told me I didn't want that film in my head. I copped a bit of stick from my mates but was more than comfortable with the decision. I knew imagery is very easily put in but virtually impossible to remove. My daughter has the same propensity, often putting her hands over her ears and 'la-la-ing' if a murder or torture scene comes on.

Suskind's book on the surface is not one I would normally enjoy and without an appreciation of its depth it would have annoyed me.

Yet I know it is an incredibly dark and disturbing work and it is a perfectly natural response for someone to find it repulsive, and instead want to go and smell some roses.

If I were incapable of appreciating that then I would be little different from Gunther von Hagens, the man I mentioned earlier. Full of passion but perhaps rather lacking in empathy and dismissive of discomfort in others.

But I do invite you Poirot to keep pondering the work, you have just been blown the dust off the coffin lid and there are far greater dark depths to navigate and discover if you were of the mind.

It is just in this thread Lexi has kindly and appropriately given us a tug on the rope around our waists reminding us know there is goodness and light back on the surface.

To this day I have not seen The Exorcist.

Speaking of smells I did enjoy this snippet from Arundhati Roy's 'The God of small things', 

"Rahel could smell the sheaf of bus tickets and the sourness of the steel bus rails on the conductor's hands."

... the sourness of the steel bus rails on the conductor's hands...

Wow.

Dear ybgrip,

Thank You for the book, "The Emperor of Scent," by
Chandler Burr. I'll try to get hold of a copy as it
sounds interesting.

Dear csteele,

As I stated earlier the skill of writing is the skill of
using words. Sometimes the words are acerbic, sharp as
a scalpel, as in Leon Garfield's description of Jackson
the street urchin in "Fair's Fair," (1981):

"Jackson was thin, small and ugly, and
stank like a drain."

Or sometimes they are lilting and mellifluous as in Kenneth
Grahame's description of Mole's walk beside the river in
"The Wind in the Willows (1908):

"The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of
the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side
of a man, who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when
tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river, still
chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories
in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at
last to the insatiable sea."

Or they could also be busy and filled with sound and movement
as in Colin Thiele's description of the birds of the South
Australian Coorong in "Storm Boy," (1963).

"And so the water and the shores rippled and flapped with wings.
In the early morning the tall birds stood up and clapped and cheered
the rising sun..."

Whatever words do in a good book - be it adult or children's - the
point that I am trying to make is that they come together to tell
a story. Whether it is Patrick Suskind's, "Perfume," or any other book.
It is the skill of the writer that welds the words together so
that they may work a special magic of their own.

We all take what we want from books and our responses are not always
searching or comprehensive. If a book is a good one it will be able
to create enjoyment at many levels, in many ways, and at many times.

BTW - I didn't watch the Exorcist either. Still can't.