Isa
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Post by Isa on Dec 13, 2006 14:52:02 GMT -5
Chapters 36-40:
In this section, Grenouille puts everything in place to reach his final goal: creating the perfume. First he finds a job at Mrs. Arnulfi's and does everything he can to win Druot's trust so that he can work by himself. After creating a series of smells for himself and making several experiments with objects as random as door knobs, Grenouille moves on to live objects - and this results in one of the most disturbing scenes in the novel (at least, in my opinion), when he kills the little puppy. At that moment, you know he's only a quick step away from moving on to humans, and that's when the murders begin.
I thought what was the most interesting was the people's reaction to the murders: they quickly start accusing one another, paranoia sets in, and when they find out that the victims were not raped, it scares them even more. Rape would make sense - for someone to kill beautiful girls without touching them does not seem normal, it doesn't seem "human". I also thought it was interesting that the murders should stop with the excommunication. Grenouille has never cared about religion, so why should he choose this moment to stop?
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Kristie
Novel turned into BBC miniseries
"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
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Post by Kristie on Dec 13, 2006 19:09:46 GMT -5
Chapters 36-40
At the start of this section, G finally learns how to gather the sorts of smells he wants through a different process he learned from Druot. I think that this is the first sign he will soon begin directly murdering young girls for his perfect scent because when he first killed the girl in Paris he had wished he had a way to extract her smell. And now that he has learned, he is sure to kill to gather the scent. It also helped G that Druot basically left him alone to run the perfumery practically by himself, because with the normal olfactory sense he couldn't compare at all to G's instinct/knowledge of timing. I did find it odd how G wanted the scent of things like brass, stone, the puppy, and "...anal sweat, menstrual blood..." Why would someone want these scents if they could probably just smell the ordinary items themselves anyways.
G creates numerous identities. At first he discovered himself in the cave, but now he's begun making scents for him for certain occasions. He made scents of inconspicuousness and one to make people realize he was in a hurry and one that smelled like sex (Druot's semen-ish scent) and one for arousing sympathy. Because he knew so well how these scents would affect people, and in turn what the people's reactions would be, this I think is when he began to start controlling them.
)When Suskind writes "Grenouille the Monster, who had never felt love and would never be able to inspire it..." it again reminded me of Frankenstein.) When G finally smells the scent of the girl, it makes me think that he could masturbate to the scent and its elements like another man could to pictures (aka: porn). Does anyone else think that G could be capable of this? And after G has killed the 24 girls, leaving the most perfect for last, they all had remained virgins. It just seems like he should have violated them in some way because it seems that it something that a crazy man would do. But I think that maybe G's behavior this way, unlike a crazy man, shows how unhuman-like he is.
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Post by Dominique on Dec 13, 2006 19:19:18 GMT -5
I agree that a lot of this book reminds me of Frankenstein, even the writing is like a modernised version of Frankenstein.
I'm not sure about the masterbate bit, just because G seems like a very a-sexual character. But you're right he does get an astounding amount of pleasure out of it.
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neh
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"I live in two worlds; one is a world of books"
Posts: 943
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Post by neh on Dec 13, 2006 19:57:47 GMT -5
I find analysing what G could and could not perhaps feel/think/want to be so darn confusing..... all i can say is that when i think of him i imagine a sort of aura colour pattern about his body, and the strongest and most vibrant section is in and around his nose, and the rest - every other part of his anatomy and every other physical function - is dim and dull and redundant.... he literally lives by his nose and whatever element of the mind is controlled by/controls this... myself i think that would be a depressing and terribly restrictive type of existence after a while
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Isa
Administrator
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Post by Isa on Dec 14, 2006 10:41:12 GMT -5
I also think of Grenouille as an asexual being - he gets off by smelling only, I don't think he would ever need to go beyond that, it wouldn't give him any more pleasure.
And I agree with you Kristie, the fact that he can create all the smells gives him incredible power over people, the more so because it is a completely invisible weapon. And it also brings out the importance of smell - we already know that it's important for Grenouille, but we then realize that it's important for everybody, even though it's at the level of the unconscious.
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neh
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"I live in two worlds; one is a world of books"
Posts: 943
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Post by neh on Dec 14, 2006 16:22:13 GMT -5
And also, i think it allows him, whether it is a conscious decision or not, to live a fulfilled life entirely without another living being present, so long as he has these smells... they are substitutes for life, because they are all that he desires from the living world.
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Isa
Administrator
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Post by Isa on Dec 20, 2006 17:03:27 GMT -5
Chapters 41-45:
In those 5 chapters we meet the beautiful Laure and her father, two very interesting characters. As soon as we find out about Laure's incomparable beauty, we know that she's the one Grenouille had truly been looking for all along. But there's something weird about Laure's beauty, almost diabolical - the fact that her own father would like to possess her, and that she bewitches all the men who set eyes on her... it reminded me of when one of you guys mentioned that people with red hair are often linked to the devil in literature, and Laure of course has beautiful red hair.
As for her father, he strikes me as an almost gothic-like figure. In many gothic novels, the young heroine has to submit to the forceful will of her terrible father, who keeps her locked in her room and forces her into an absurd marriage. No wonder he has no problem guessing what Grenouille's plans might be, for his mind is just as twisted. But in Gothic novels, the young girl is usually delivered by a valorous knight - in this case, it is Grenouille who manages to slip into her room at night and instead of rescuing her, he kills her.
When Grenouille tracks her down to the inn, we again get the image of an animal sniffing his way to his pray, and when he meets with Laure's father in the stables, Suskind creates a scene that reminded me of two dogs meeting for the first time, sniffing each other out, until it is decided which one will dominate and which one will submit. I thought that passage was very well done.
There's only 6 chapters left, I think we should do 46-51 during the holidays and move on to Farenheit 451 afterwards, sounds good?
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Post by Dominique on Dec 21, 2006 7:04:11 GMT -5
Yeah that sounds good about F451. I agree that Laure's father was an interesting character. I thought it was well structured in that he was sort of like an anti-hero, we were vying for him to outsmart G but at the same time he harboured somewhat impure thoughts about his daughter.
I think the red hair is an interesting theme as well. There's also the connection that G has red hair, and so did the first girl he murdered. It's interesting to think whether it's an evil character killing off other characters with diabolical beauty or if it's some kind of self-loathing/loving complex or something hinted under the surface. Whatever the answer there's definately a connection suggested between G and his victims with the hair colour.
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tinkerbell
First poem written for Mother’s Day
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Post by tinkerbell on Dec 21, 2006 9:25:31 GMT -5
I don't know if it was mentioned, but "Grenouílle" means "frog". We discussed this book in school, and I think this book is very good (of course it is from an german author ;D)
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Isa
Administrator
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Post by Isa on Dec 23, 2006 22:22:38 GMT -5
I agree that Laure's father was an interesting character. I thought it was well structured in that he was sort of like an anti-hero, we were vying for him to outsmart G but at the same time he harboured somewhat impure thoughts about his daughter. I actually think it would have been great if the hunt for Laure could have lasted a while longer, like if her father could have managed to escape a few times because he understood what Grenouille was like and what he was after.
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Post by Dominique on Dec 23, 2006 22:35:31 GMT -5
yeah i think so too. there should have been more of that and less mountain stuff
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Isa
Administrator
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Post by Isa on Dec 24, 2006 8:55:29 GMT -5
LOL, good point!
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Bina
First novel published
Posts: 2,472
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Post by Bina on Dec 25, 2006 17:10:31 GMT -5
That was good in the movie, they shortened the mountain scenes.
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Post by Dominique on Dec 26, 2006 5:16:01 GMT -5
That's good, I'm interested in seeing the movie when it comes out here. It seems like a really odd choice of a book to adapt into a film, I just don't get how they're going to make it work.
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Bina
First novel published
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Post by Bina on Dec 26, 2006 7:57:05 GMT -5
When´s it coming out in Australia? I liked it very much but I understand that many people thought it didn´t even come close to the book. It has such a powerful visual effect and a great choice of colour and I didn´t expect the film to be like the book, that´s impossible.
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