An evil story saved Germany, a bestseller sought after all over the world.

1984 is a memorable year in German literature. This year, Patrick Sü skind wrote a story about a murderer.

This best-selling book, which was widely sought after all over the world, almost saved the long-sleeping German literature. Its success is first manifested in its amazing sales volume, and then literary circles of various countries compete for translation. It was not until it was adapted into a movie in 2006 that its shock came to an end.

Sueskind, the author of Perfume, was originally a famous playwright. His play "Der Kontrabass" won some praise, but he never really became the focus. He was a late bloomer, and was nearly forty when he wrote Perfume. Perhaps he didn't expect "Perfume" to become a best seller, so that his later publication "Die Taube" was also stained with light and became a classic of German contemporary literature.

But such popularity and public recognition have also brought some side effects to it. Although the whole world has seen the achievements of German contemporary literature, Germans who have always been cautious can write thrilling novels and revive German novels. But it also caused some doubts and criticisms about it.

After all, on the surface, perfume seems to have many bestseller characteristics. Its plot is ups and downs, and it always exudes the aura of imagination, but it does not give the protagonist more space in his heart, and it is even more difficult to find any psychological depth.

So, can such a work be called a classic? What does it say? How deep is it?

Perfume is a crime novel featuring a murderer. Its full name is perfume: the story of a murderer.

The novel fictionalizes Jean-batiste Greenow, a perfume expert who lived in Paris in the middle of18th century. Ironically, this later perfume expert was born in Paris, then the most smelly city in France and the most smelly place in Paris: a fish stall.

His mother tried to throw him away as "useless meat", but people sent him to the guillotine for murdering the baby.

Since then, orphaned Greenow Ye has been sent to wet nurses, church elders, widows and cobblers. He was born without a sense of smell, but he knew all the smells like the back of his hand, and he had a sense of smell beyond imagination. He can tell the direction by his sense of smell and smell a few blocks away. This talent made him unique, so he was hated by everyone until he met baldini, a Parisian perfume expert.

In baldini, Greenough not only helped mediocre perfume experts become famous in Paris, but also learned the method of distillation and owned his own perfume and manufacturing formula. Later, Greenough chose to leave, ready to go to the south to learn the cold pressing and oil extraction method, and collect what he thought was the most beautiful taste-maiden fragrance in an isolated way. During his seven years in the cave, he discovered the fact that he had no smell, and he was more determined to seize the smell and find himself.

In the southern city of Grasse, he killed more than 20 girls and extracted their body odor. When he was finally caught and taken to the execution ground, he took out a drop of his favorite perfume and sprinkled it on his body. At that time, people were moved by the smell, completely lost in chaos, and even released him without guilt. He conquered the glass with his own taste, but didn't find himself.

Finally, he came to Paris and released all the perfume. People rushed to him and ate him in order to enjoy his taste.

Judging from Sueskind's narrative and description, he loves and hates Greenow. He said to Greenough:

"It was disgusting from the beginning. He chose life out of pure resistance and pure malice. 」

He compared Greenough to a louse and said that he was "as tenacious as a drug-resistant bacterium". He described the fear that Greenough brought to people, and analyzed his heart like a criminal, as well as his natural indifference to others.

On the other hand, he writes him like a genius or a hero. Ye seems to be a model of genius. He has ideals and goals, regardless of wealth and fame, and is willing to suffer. Even if he is grounded, "it won't change his behavior."

In Sueskind's narrative, there is often praise for Greenow's talent. He said to Greenow:

"It has the nature of plant growth, just like a discarded bean chooses to germinate or continue to make beans. 」

This seems to remind people of a passage in the Bible:

"A grain of wheat does not fall into the ground, and it is still a grain when it dies; If it dies, it will bear many seeds. 」

Sueskind seems to be describing a god, a king of the kingdom of smells. Such a man has the ability to kill everyone, and he also showed this ability in the end. Greenough seems to have great perseverance, ignoring all physical torture. During his seven years in the cave, he also had a transcendental light, and seemed ready to put transcendental truth into practice at any time, just like Zarathustra written by Nietzsche.

However, he is different from "confessor, loser, saint or prophet". He "does not repent and does not expect to get higher enlightenment." Everything he does is "just to live for one person". Sueskind commented:

"No one alive has ever lived like this in the outside world. 」

Sueskind confessed to Greenow Ye's crime. He killed people and ignored them. While being endowed with the highest talent, he also lost all morality and warmth.

From Greenough's point of view, his life has gone through three basic stages.

In the first stage, Greenough discovered his genius. He smelled the best from a girl with red hair in Paris. He fell in love with this smell and realized that "this smell is pure beauty".

But at this time, he is still looking for beauty spontaneously and classifying all the flavors he meets. He knows something about his abilities, but he knows nothing about himself.

The second stage took place in the cave. For the first time, he realized that he didn't have any smell. He realized that he could smell everything, but he couldn't smell himself. So he set a goal in life, which is actually to find himself, let others accept and love himself, and prove himself with the greatest creation. Sueskind wrote:

"It seems that he finally knows who he is; This is tantamount to a genius; Know that your life is meaningful, purposeful, purposeful and has a higher mission. 」

He wants to have the best taste and beauty;

"If he can't successfully possess this fragrance, then he, Greenough, will be in vain in my life. He must have it, not only to have it, but to calm his heart. 」

And when I fell in love with him, when he finally dripped a satisfying perfume on himself and touched everyone. When everyone smelled the perfume, he came to the first stage:

"His dream, that is, his desire to be loved by others, was unbearable at the moment of his success, because he didn't love them himself, but hated them. It suddenly dawned on him that he could never be satisfied in love, but only in hate, hate and being hated. 」

Such an idea led to the collapse of his values. He found that no matter how hard he tried, no matter how great he achieved, he was still an abomination, and he still had no ego. His ego can't be found anywhere in the world. He will never learn to love, let alone be cared for by love.

So, he committed suicide with perfume, completing a most special kind of suicide.

Greenough's life is a tragic one, or he was born a tragedy. This tragedy stems from his symbiotic character with talent, but what really prompted him to commit crimes was the society in which he lived.

In the process of describing Ye Shiwen, Su showed people a rich picture of life. In this world, people themselves are evil. From abandoning his wet nurse and church elders to the widow who raised him, they all held a grudge against him, frequently putting him in more dangerous situations, and even "thought that they not only did a reasonable job, but also did a good job." 」

Where there are people, there is stench, and the most smelly city is Paris, the most populous city. And in this stench, people are still pursuing incense in vain. Their pursuit of fragrance is hypocritical, even those perfume experts are hypocritical in Greenough's view. They don't understand true beauty, let alone true love for others.

Greenough, on the other hand, pursues the true and primitive inner feelings and appreciates the taste without judgment. In his view, "the smell of sweaty horses is as precious as the green smell of budding roses." 」

Those people around him just want to take advantage of his talent. Perfume experts extract his labor and wisdom, while fake and shoddy scientists cheat money by his appearance and experience. No one gave him care and warmth, which is the fundamental reason why he became a murderer unscrupulously: this human society itself is the biggest murderer.

Sueskind described such a story as well as an era of genius and chaos. He wrote at the beginning:

"At that time, there were many talented people and many talented and cruel people. 」

He believes that Greenough did not go down in history like Napoleon and Fran ois Marquis de Sade, not because he was not bad enough, but because:

"His genius and ambition are limited to the field that has left no trace in history: the short-lived kingdom of smell. 」

In fact, the time set by the novel for Greenough Ye may be one of the few moderns in human history.

From the Enlightenment to the end of 18, it was the time when Rousseau and Montesquieu set out to establish order, when Newton discovered the laws of the universe, and when Mozart and nicolo Paganini shocked the whole of Europe with the image of genius. People still don't understand the scope of science. Science contains some religious demands, and it is also the spark of magic and art, and people generally expect miracles.

To some extent, the laws described by Newton are as sensational as those caused by Turkish chess puppets.

That era was full of novelty and scientific inventions, but people still relied on the power of religion and were still addicted to fortune telling and magic. Just like the doctor described in Balzac's philosophical novel Mass of the Atheist, although he believes in science and thinks that the soul does not exist in medical anatomy, he still insists on going to mass and seeking religious care.

▲ Turkish chess puppet was designed by Austrian Wolfgang von Kemperin. It is a "robot" puppet who can play chess, claiming to win all the people in the world. It's/kloc-AlphaGo in the 0/8th century. It once defeated Napoleon and Franklin, but it was later declassified as a scam. Its equipment includes chess masters, but it failed to win all the games.

Just like Louis Lamber, a philosophical genius written by Balzac in another novel, Louis Lamber, he can meditate philosophically, which means he can't eat or drink. When he had an epiphany, he could even lift something that no one could lift. The strength of the mind is the same as the strength of the body. While mankind's spiritual achievements are externalized, the achievements of material technology are constantly being spiritualized.

The Marquis of Toulouse in Perfume is a good example. He discovered a theory about soil that the farther away from the land, the healthier everything is, and tried to prove it. When he led his followers to the mountains to seek proof, he accidentally fell into a mountain stream. But people at that time rumored that he eventually "melted in the gas" and flew to the sky.

This description can also be found in italo calvino18th century novel Baron in the Tree, in which the hero Cosimo finally flies away from the tree in a hot air balloon until he disappears.

▲ Italian novelist Calvino's masterpiece "Illustration of the Baron in the Tree" describes a teenager in the18th century who climbed the tree angrily one day and spent his life in it. In the book, he communicated with Voltaire, suffered numerous thrills and even influenced the political climate in Europe at that time. Just like perfume, in the18th century, it was all about human temperament.

Such an era is doomed to chaos, and it is also fascinating because of chaos. Greenough can only live in France in the18th century, and it is inappropriate to appear in other times. Sueskind brought the tension of the play to the extreme with strong romanticism. He made Greenough tasteless but created the most beautiful taste, made Paris, the largest city, look the most smelly, made people treat Greenough in the most cruel way, but made them love him. Even at the end of the novel, people ate him because they loved him.

It can be said that beauty killed Greenough. He pursues beauty, but he can't find beauty in himself. He thinks he has beauty, but he can't find himself with beauty. In the end, he not only gave up people, but also gave up himself, so perfume is worthless to him:

"He never knew who he was, so he didn't care about the world, himself or his perfume. 」

In the description of this era, Sueskind did not stop at description.

He wrote18th century people, in order to compare with modern people. On the surface, there are too many differences between18th century and modern society, but in essence, the public's evil has always been like this. Their moral sense is easily shaken and cannot stand the test.

Sueskind wrote about the meanness and hypocrisy of the church elders and his greedy sucking of wet nurses. He wrote about the senator's love for his daughter. Write about people's warm welcome to the death penalty, and how they lost all moral restraints in the chaos and began promiscuity after smelling perfume. These are all merciless lashes against the animal nature of human beings.

The most important of all whipping is the description of people's forgetfulness.

In Sueskind's works, people's mediocrity is reflected in timidity, which makes people forget all the sins and all the things that should be repented and reflected. Soon after Greenough drove Glass crazy, people were calm again. Because they know their sins, everyone has completed their sins, and no one is nobler than anyone else. On the contrary, they live "more harmoniously".

Finally, after people shared Grenoble, their guilt was fleeting:

"In their faces, there is a fairy tale, gentle happiness. They may be ashamed to look up at each other. Later, when they dared to do so, they were first furtive and then completely public, and they couldn't help laughing through tears. They are very proud. They did something for the first time out of love. 」

Such satire can be seen everywhere in Perfume, and every satire seems to have some mysterious connection with people's present life. Thus, Ye became a mockery of human nature. He was born evil, and his perfume is "the flower of evil". In "Perfume", the wonderful perfume really comes from the rotten taste:

"The smell of decay can no longer be smelled, not at all. On the contrary, this perfume seems to exude an extremely relaxed atmosphere of life. 」

Perfume comes from bad smell, and human morality comes from the evil of human nature.

Su Eskind said that "whoever catches the smell will catch the heart" is a reflection on the Second World War. In World War I and World War II, didn't Europe expect the arrival of geniuses and heroes? Didn't people choose sin in emptiness?

People yearn for genius, but they can't identify and cultivate it, which is contradictory and painful. And those real geniuses are often eccentric and paranoid, and they often bring disaster instead of happiness, which is another paradox.

People can do anything under the control of evil genius, which is the mediocrity of people and the extraordinary genius. Maybe this is what perfume wants to convey.

In the world of perfume, everyone is a murderer and an accomplice. People always forget their sins and live, which is the essence of human life. Just like Sueskind's unforgettable comment:

"Many people feel creepy and confused about this experience, and feel that it is contrary to their original moral concept, so that it was completely erased from the memory at the moment when it happened, so I really can't remember it anymore. 」 ■