post 6

"IT wasn't long before he had become a specialist in the field of distillation. he discovered--and his nose was of more use in the discovery than Baldini's rules and regulations--that the heat of fire played a significant role in the quantity of the distillate. Every plant, flower, every sort of wood, and every oil-yielding seed demanded a special procedure" (Suskind 100)

His nose is a tool that allows him to have superpowers, and almost be omniscient. in every element of his life, it helps him. he can see all and adapt. this part stood out to me because i realized that the world of smell can hole no secrets to him yet he has no smell of himself. every second of the novel he dives deeper and deeper. he breaks all rules.

-is he smell itself?
-why did the author choose for him to have no smell.

post 5

"From his youth on, he had been accustomed to people's passing him and taking no notice of him whatsoever, not out of contempt-as he once believed-but because they were quite unaware of his existence. there was no space surrounding him, no waves broke from him into the atmosphere, as with other people; he had not shadow. so to speak, to cast across another's face." (Suskind 153)

i can remember a simile that was once used in the beginning and consistently throughout the novel, comparing him to a flea that waited for the right time to act, emitting so smell and taking up no space. in the next paragraph it shows that for once he gains recognition among common folk. this is a large change because the character i had grown to know went through a big change at this point. he describes people moving out of the way from him. he had left his flea form and grown to something larger.

-the flea sucks blood, and jumps from place to place. was all this meant to be read in to this similie?
-Grenoulle has been gifted with power since birth. now that he has social power, what will he do with it?

post 4

"Behind the counter of light boxwood, however stood Baldini himself, old and stiff as a pillar in a silver-powdered wig and a blue coat adorned with gold frogs. A cloud of the frangipani with which he sprayed himself every morning enveloped him almost visibly, removing him to a hazy distance." (Suskind 46)

this is not the first time Baldini is mentioned, but the first time he is characterized. the description is really comical. infact i wonder if the book is a comedy! a lot of it is funny, and also shocking. i even doubt that a good perfumer wears a lot of perfume. this tells me already the he is not a very good one (it is later revealed that he is not. just simply using old family recipes). this may be setting Grenoulle up for out doing him in the future.

-how can i clasify story?
-will the main character show him off right away?

post 3

"And after he had smelled the last scent of her, he crouched beside her for a while, collecting himself, for he was brimful with her. he did not want to spill a drop of her scent. First he must he must seal his innermost compartments. Then he stood up and blew out the candle. " (Suskind 43)

The main character is a killer now. this is his first kill, assuming that there will be others who will die. He is insane. He seems to just be doing what he must. he was drawn to the scent of this girl and could not let it go. i think he killed her because he felt like he must in order smell her properly and so she couldn't escape. He found the best scent known to him yet and now he must kill the source. the end of the paragraph i thought was symbolic because blowing out the candle can mean ending a life.

-why must he kill?
-im not sure if i like or hate the character. how does the author make me feel this way?
-his cause is so important to him that the justification of murder is not even an issue to him. so does this mean he is insane?