SUBJECTIVITY IN OLFACTORY AND GUSTATORY

PERCEPTION

X.1 Subjectivity in Olfactory Perception:

Olfaction is one of the most basic perceptive mechanisms. People emit odours as living
organisms; they secrete smelly fluids, they perspire, eat food, deal with other odour-emitting bodies
and substances... in short, they interact with odours both as sources and as receptors or perceivers.
No doubt, ordinary discourse is full of traces originally stemming either overtly or implicitly from
individual acts of olfactory perception. The search for indicators of the presence and identity of a
speaking voice (which is the concern of this thesis) cannot ignore the contribution of clues
involving acts of olfaction.
At the level of spatio-temporal anchorage the smelling activity, that is, the perceiver's
engaging in the act of perceiving odours, can only be done, by definition, at this perceiver's present
of perceiving. In other words, the perceiver's presence as a perceptual centre spatio-temporally
present here and now is necessarily presupposed in any linguistic utterance based on an underlying
act of olfactory perception. To perceive is to be present here and now. However, the smell-
emitting source can be perceived to come to this perceptual centre from different locations varying
in their distance from or degree of nearness to it.
One variable that needs to be taken into account is whether the perceiving centre is fixed or
moving. The shifting position of the perceiver directly affects his perception of the spatial location
of the source of the olfactory stimulus, his perception of distance from it or nearness to it, the
degree of his ability to perceive, and his sensitivity to the strength of the smell.
Another variable is that the act of perception can be either in presentia, that is, it involves the
perception of physically present stimuli by the perceiver's olfactory sense-receptors or in absentia,
that is, the perceiver remembers here and now some previously experienced exposure to smells.
Both these aspects of perceiving olfactorily are closely interdependent. On the one hand, memory
feeds on actual acts of perception and keeps updating the stored stock with every new exposure to
smells. On the other hand, every act of olfactory perception, besides adding something to the
memory, inevitably draws on stored information relating to the particular smell in question. This
variable reveals information of an experiential nature.
On the attitudinal level, olfaction is primarily a subjective experience. An act of olfactory
perception is inherently a unique experience. Individuals differ in their categorisation and
evaluation of odours and their response to them. In fact, every perceiver tends to have somewhat
idiosyncratic preferences and likings, or abhorrences and dislikes. This personal experience
determines the selection of lexical items categorizing the smell (chapter seven) and the overall
reaction to the stimulus.
Of an equally great variance is people's sensitivity to smell. In one extreme case, some
individuals can be hypersensitive to the most subtle distinctions in smells. On the other extreme
there are people whose sensitivity to smell is virtually blunted. The sweeping majority of
perceivers are somewhere in between these two extremes.
In addition, there is an important social dimension to the smelling activity. According to the
social status of those wearing particular fragrances, odours can be socially sanctioned as exquisite,
expensive, unique or a whole cline of degrees of refinement. They can equally be stigmatized as
cheap, repulsive, stinking or all the degrees of foulness. Fashion is also an important factor making
certain scents more prestigious than others. In general, the way a person smells is an indicator of
his social standing.
A reported act of olfactory perception is pregnant with traces of the above-mentioned
information. In terms of location, there is necessarily a perceptual centre acting as an axis of
reference for all the possible sources of smell situated with respect to it. Attitudinally, there is a
sentient centre (Lotman, 1975), a subjective consciousness reacting to smells, evaluating them, and
being affected by them. All these traces are inseparably linked. Locative [usually deictic]
information cannot be studied without reference to attitudinal information, nor can any exploration
of subjectivity in reacting to an olfactory stimulus ignore the spatio-temporal anchorage of every act
of perception.

X.2 Spatio-temporal anchorage in olfactory perception:

X.2.1 Here vs there is a matter of point of view:
Here is by and large the most common location for the sources of stimuli perceived
olfactorily since the limited range of people's ability to perceive smell normally requires that the
stimulus be situated within the spatial sphere that one conceives of as one's here. But for this very
reason, it is the less overtly stated of all spatial coordinates since it tends to be taken for granted. In
general the normal range of olfactory perception is not proportionately big when compared with the
ranges of auditory and especially visual perception. Nevertheless, the concept of here is a flexible
one since it allows for a variety of gradations ranging from virtual touching, to being held at arms-
length, to a location inside a confined place, to a less confined place, to the open space of a street or
a town or even one country. The dividing line between what qualifies as here and what is
considered to be there is not easy to draw, it would seem. It will be argued that the range of there is
equally flexible allowing for different degrees of nearness to or distance from the deictic centre (see
chapter three for the varying extensions of here and there).
 The following discussion will show through illustrative examples how either here or there is
implied although the contrasted passages deal with virtually the same distance. The point is that the
determining factor in this selection is the attitude of the speaker.
X.2.2 Spatial nearness to ego:
To illustrate the role of the speaker's perspective in determining whether the source of the
olfactory stimulus is perceived to be here or there, two passages from The Santaroga Barrier
referring to virtually the same spatial distance of a yard's length from ego [who happens in both
passages to be the same perceiver] are contrasted below. Yet in the first passage the verb "to ride"
presupposes a here whereas the verb "to waft" in the second passage presupposes a there (chapter
seven).
First, the source of the olfactory stimulus is on a caf‚ table. Dasein is offered a cup of
coffee:
He opened the thermos, poured steaming amber liquid into the cup-top. A rich smell of Jaspers
rode on the steam from the cup. The smell set Dasein trembling, sent a pulsing, throbbing ache
through his head. The ache seemed timed to a wavering reflection on the surface of the coffee as
Marden presented it. (p82)
One of the main dictionary meanings of "to ride" is to float or be borne up. This signals a
movement travelling from a source to a direction. If the source is the cup at the table's level, and
the movement is upward, then the direction is logically towards the head of the person proposing to
drink the coffee. This person happens to be Dasein since its effect on him is clearly stated.
Besides, the recognition of the smell using a proper name "Jaspers" and the evaluation of this smell
as "rich" reveal the presence of a sentient centre at his present of subjectivity.
The sensation of pain with all its categorisations as "pulsing" and "throbbing", its intensity
as an "ache" and not something else, and its location in the "head" must have their origin in the
patient suffering from this pain. His could be termed the present of suffering. The drawing of a
parallel between the ache and the wavering reflection (result of an act of visual perception) stems
from a deliberate and motivated search for analogies. The perceiver seems to find the coincidence
between the ache and the wavering reflection particularly significant. This finding is apparently
based on a mere hunch "seemed" and not on an authoritative certainty. There is a latent "to me"
behind "seemed" (chapter seven).
For Marden to "present" the coffee, it stands to reason that by mere transitivity there has to
be some destinee or recipient of this presentation (a latent "to me"). In addition, the use of the
proper name "Marden" signals first the presence of a first person with respect to whom Marden is
defined as a third person or "not-I" and second this latent I-sayer's familiarity with him (chapter
two). A lot could also be said about the visual perception of "steaming amber liquid", but it is
beyond the purposes of the present argument. Thus the latent I-sayer reacting to the smell of coffee
is Dasein. His is the present of smelling and suffering (present of experiencing the effect of the
smelling operation). Thus, the "he" in "he opened the thermos" is seen from Dasein's point view
here and now. From the narrator's point of view, at his present of narrating, both Dasein and
Marden are third persons THEM/THERE/THEN. This accounts for the temporal decadence into
the past tense, the relegation of the underlying first person to that of a third person and the ellipsis
of first-person references.
In the second passage, however:
"there's Jim now", the woman said. She turned away, her shoulder bag swinging towards
Dasein. A rich aroma of Jaspers wafted across Dasein. It came from the bag. Dasein stopped his
right hand as it automatically reached toward the bag. (p122)
Two points could be made about the visual act of perception in order to throw light on the
ensuing act of olfactory perception. The use of away here is deictic as it signals a departure from
ego "away (from me)" (chapter three). The selection of the shoulder bag as a particularly relevant
object of perception indicates the perceiver's motivation in singling out such an item. This selection
is enhanced by the perception of the direction of this bag's swinging "towards Dasein (reread
towards me)". Thus the act of visual perception already paves the way for the reader to take Dasein
as the latent I-sayer responsible for the ensuing act of olfactory perception.
Three pieces of evidence could be stated to substantiate this argument. First, the verb "to
waft" indicates a gentle and smooth movement through the air. The direction of this movement is
signalled by "across" and the verb "to come" showing it to be a centripetal movement ending in the
deictic centre. If it is "across Dasein", then Dasein acts as a perceptual centre present here and now.
This verb implies the perception of a greater distance from the source of the stimulus than verbs like
"rise", "come", "ride" etc. Second, the identification of the olfactory stimulus as that of "Jaspers"
and the appreciation of it as "a rich aroma" reveals the presence of a perceiver familiar with the
smell and expressing a preference for it. Third, the ensuing course of action (Dasein's hand's
automatic reaching toward the bag) is causally linked to this appreciation. It means that Dasein is
the patient or bearer of this effect. The woman is perceived through Dasein's eyes. However, the
narrator's intervention is discernible at the levels of person [shift from Dasein's latent I to the
narrator's third-person Dasein] and time [temporal decadence from Dasein's present of perception to
the story's past when viewed from the narrator's present]. The last sentence is a direct narratorial
statement.
X.2.3 Spatial distance from ego:
The speaker's point of view accounts for the opposition of here versus there even when the
source of the olfactory stimulus is at some considerable remove from ego. Accordingly, two
passages will be contrasted where the first one implies a here whilst the second implies a there.
First, the perceiver's here can be so large as to encompass a whole town. It becomes
synonymous with "all over the place" or "everywhere". In The Day of the Triffids an epidemic is
supposed to have claimed the lives of most people all over the world (especially in London and its
surroundings):
The first thing I was aware of the next morning was the smell. There had been whiffs of it here
and there before but luckily the weather had been cool. Now I found that I had slept late into what
was already a warmer day. I'm not going into details about the smell; those who knew it will never
forget it, for the rest of it is indescribable. It rose from every city and town for weeks, and travelled
on every wind that blew. When I woke to it that morning it convinced me beyond doubt that the
end had come. Death is just the shocking end of animation: it is dissolution that is final. (p149)
Three temporal zones could be detected in this passage. Some verbs attitudes and comments are
attributed to the narrator at his present of narrating. Others (including the acts of olfactory
perception) are attributed to two different zones where the I-protagonist presents different I(s) at
different moments in the story. The levels of embedding showing the layout of this passage will
make these three zones clear:
On the other hand, in the next passage from Perfume, Grenouille's range of perception
extends to the incredible distance of half a mile. Let us follow his trail as he is scenting the trail of
his last victim, the Sleeping Beauty:
It was an easy walk. Grenouille made rapid progress. As Auribeau emerged on his right,
clinging to the mountains above him, he could smell that he had almost caught up with the
runaways. A little later and he had drawn even with them. He could now smell each one, could
smell the aroma of their horses. At most they were no more than a half-mile west of him,
somewhere in the forests of Tanneron. They were holding course southwards, towards the sea. Just
as he was. (p220)
The presence of a deictically anchored perceptual centre is signalled by many clues including
"emerged on his (could be reread as "my") right", "clinging to the mountains above him (could be
reread as "above me"), "they were no more than a half-mile west of him (could be reread as "me"),
and by extension of the there "somewhere in the forest of Tanneron" where the lack of precision
indicated by somewhere (chapters three and six) indicates the character's limitations, "they were
holding course southwards, just as he was (could be reread as "just as I am")", "he had almost
caught up with the runaways ("from me" could be inserted)", "he (could be reread as "I") had drawn
even with them". Temporally the establishment of the perceiver's now is indicated first by an
implicit now in "as Auribeau emerged" (chapter seven), and another subsequent now in "a little
later" which is made overt by "now". This possible physical presence on the spot is enhanced by
the emphasis on the perceiver's ability to perceive in "he could smell...", "he could now smell each
one", "could smell the aroma of their horses".
On the level of person there is an opposition between latent I-sayer and "them". This
opposition is deepened by the degree of subjectivity on the part of the perceiver leaving thus traces
in the form of subjectivity markers such as "at most they were no more than", "just as he was",
"almost" (chapter six), "a little later" (chapter four), and the reference to the other characters as
"runaways" (chapters two and three) all of which can be construed as revealing the egocentric point
of view of this perceiver. Perhaps other useful clues could be found in the assessment of the ease of
the walk "it was an easy walk" and the more ambiguous "Grenouille made rapid progress". There is
a plausible case for arguing that since Grenouille is so motivated to catch up with the people whose
track he is following, he has special reasons to constantly check the progress and speed of pursuit.
However, Grenouille cannot possibly be the person behind the use of the proper names of
the towns or villages of Auribeau and Tanneron. He had never before embarked on such a journey
and could not conceivably have known such names. In addition, there is the problem of stylistic
incongruity (chapter seven) since the language of the text is too high to be expected from an
ignorant character like him.
Thus, the perceptual centre is Grenouille. However, the cognitive centre is seen through the
narrator's mediation. Grenouille's deictic centre is partly mediated at the levels of space, time and
person (see above the ambiguity of spatial coordinates). Thus, the voice of the narrator is
reintroduced with a vengeance causing interference with Grenouille's voice.

X.3 Effects of ego's shifting position:

If in the previous passages acts of perception were done from a rather fixed position, the
interest of the following excerpts lies in having a shifting axis of reference, that is the perceiver is
not at a stand still.
The distance between the perceiver and the source of the smell can be small. In Patrick
Suskind's Perfume, a murderer (Grenouille) is bent over the body of his victim (the Sleeping
Beauty) busy finishing off his set purpose of extracting her scent:
He tucked the club away and from here on was all bustle and business. First, he unfolded the
impregnating cloth, spread it loosely on its back over the bale and chairs taking care that the greased
side not be touched. Then he pulled back the bedclothes. The glorious scent of the girl welling up
so warm and massive, did not stir him. He knew that scent, of course, and would savour it, savour
it to intoxication, later on, once he truly possessed it. But now the main thing was to capture as
much of it as possible, let as little of it as possible evaporate; for now the watchwords were
concentration and haste. (pp224-225)
The first part of this passage involves tactile perception and may be treated elsewhere. It paves
the way for the relevant part starting from "the glorious scent". Deictically speaking, the use of
"welling up" is evocative of an upward movement travelling over a relatively long stretch of time,
hence the progressive aspect (chapter four) and in abundant supply hence the semantics of the verb
"to well" toward the deictic centre (with a latent "up to me"). It is interesting that most of the
reported directions of the olfactory itinerary tend to go upward. It may be the case that since odours
travel via air waves, this is perhaps the natural course smells take. Besides, the sensation of warmth
and of being overwhelmed, as suggested by the use of the adjective "massive", stems from a being
who is in close proximity to the source of the scent. Thus there has to be somebody physically
present at his here/now of smelling.
However, the evaluation of the smell as "glorious" is problematic for on the one hand, the
main reason motivating Grenouille's murder of this and other beauties is his falling captive to what
he felt to be their extraordinary and unique scent. Therefore, culling the fruits of his murderous act,
it is not surprising that he should feel something that could be translated as "glorious". In that case,
the mentioning of the "girl" in the third person would be defined against his own latent I. On the
other hand, Grenouille's passion for these beauties is an olfactory version of a sexual lust. It has all
the elements of a rape (albeit a tragically special and uncommon kind of rape). The last thing that
would come to his vicious and vulgar nature would be the refined sense of what is "glorious". This
is corroborated by the overt statement that the scent "did not stir him". For this statement to be true,
it must make an implicit provision qualifying it as "did not stir him as I, who am a more refined
person, think it should have stirred him" since Grenouille was undeniably moved but in his own
way. In that case, the latent I-sayer is the narrator posing for any person with refined appreciation
of the real worth of the girl. This impersonal civilized voice serves as an axis of reference with
respect to whom "the girl" as well as "him" are third persons absent from his spatio-temporal
present of commenting whilst narrating.
Equally ambiguous is the use of now twice and "later on". Whose now is it, the narrator's or
Grenouille's? Similarly, the adverb "of course" reveals a present attitude, a present modal
investment (chapter seven). Whose present is it? One way of looking at it would be to claim that
Grenouille is the latent I-sayer knowing that he knows the scent, promising himself a later
satisfaction and urging himself to concentrate more on the job at hand as he is motivated to get
away as soon as the job is over. In that case, the above mentioned temporal markers could be said
to stem from his here and now. The narrator's intervention would be affecting the tenses, the
system of person and the deictic device "that".
Yet there are many clues compelling the reader to look for a different interpretation. Such
terminology as "savour", "intoxication", "truly", "possessed", "capture", "haste" and the subjunctive
in "not be touched" are far beyond Grenouille's ken. Indeed, the consistently elevated style of this
passage makes an uncongenial accompaniment to Grenouille's vulgar and murderous present
thoughts. The result is an uneasy cohabitation between two voices, one perceiving and the other
expressing (and by so doing commenting on and distancing itself from) the sensations involved in
this perception. Grenouille is portrayed as a brute with a predator's sharpness of smell and yet
totally incapable of appreciating the real treasure he is fouling.
At a further remove, one can drive past a source of smell; in which case, the distance will be
double since it operates on two spatio-temporal levels (namely here in the car versus there on the
roadside) and (here/now vs here'/now'). In both cases, and especially on the second level, the
temporal dimension is vital. Let us follow Dasein as he is driving across the slopes:
He was at the pass out of the valley now, trembling with an ambivalent feeling of escape... and
of loss. There had been a fire across the slopes through which Dasein was now descending. He
smelled damp ashes on the wind that whipped through the ventilators, recalled the reported trouble
with telephone lines. Clouds had begun to clear away here outside the valley. Dead trees stood out
on the burned slopes like Chinese characters brush-stroked on the moonlighted hills. (The Santaroga
Barrier:62)
The main distinction to make is between Dasein's undergoing a sensation or being exposed to
visual and olfactory stimuli on the one hand, and his present consciousness of them respectively, on
the other. Thus, Dasein was already trembling when he realized this fact about himself and his
realisation did not necessarily stop the trembling. This present of realisation constitutes the first
present in the passage. Seeing that he was reportedly absorbed in his feelings, his attention to visual
stimuli must have been at its lowest ebb (except, that is, for keeping an eye on the road). Therefore
the first shock that must have drawn his attention would be the olfactory stimulus "he smelled damp
ashes on the wind that whipped through the ventilators". The present of olfactory perception
constitutes the second "now" subsequent to the first one. It is not clear whether the act of visual
perception was necessary for Dasein to realize that "there had been a fire" or that it followed the
realisation and confirmed it. The second option will be adopted since normally, the olfactory
stimulus should be enough in the case of fires. This realisation is based on a present act of inferring
and must therefore come after the fire had already taken place and been put out. (The mention of the
clouds clearing away and of the damp ashes is not arbitrary). However, this realisation does not
stop the constant occurrence of the olfactory stimulus.
The perceptual and cognitive centres are Dasein's but deictically, the mediation is partial
since despite the above-mentioned coordinates directly emanating from Dasein's deictic centre, the
narrator's hand could still be felt at the levels of person and time.

X.4 Emotional parameters affecting the perception of distance:

As has been shown in chapter three, emotional parameters enter into play in the perception
of distance from or nearness to ego.
X.4.1 Appreciation vs dislike:
In a positive appreciation the perceiver tends to draw the smell near to his centre whereas in
a negative response, he tends to exclude the odour from his centre.
First, positive appreciation could be illustrated by the following passage from The Picture of
Dorian Gray, where, after cruelly leaving Sybil broken-hearted in the theatre, Dorian spends a
sleepless and wretched night wandering aimlessly in the streets of London and the olfactory
stimulus comes as an awakening relief:
Huge carts filled with nodding lilies rumbled slowly down the polished empty street. The air
was heavy with the perfume of the flowers, and their beauty seemed to bring him an anodyne for his
pain. He followed into the market, and watched the men unloading their wagons. (p117)
Although aware of the implications of the use of "nodding lilies" in the act of visual perception,
of the important deictic information in "down the polished empty street" and the ellipsis of "past
and slowly away from me" in the act of auditory perception, the discussion will only focus on the
olfactory act.
It is interesting that the air should be felt to be "heavy with the perfume of the flowers". The
definite article in "the air" suggests that there is an assumed cataphoric "around me, or that I can
breath here and now". The perception of heaviness in the air reveals a certain intensity as
experienced by somebody exposed to it at his present of smelling. The establishing of a causal link
between the odour in the air and the flowers in the passing carts indicates the presence of an
ordering principle, somebody making that connection. The reference to the flowers' "beauty" stems
from somebody who appreciated such an aspect in the flowers, someone who is somehow refined
and sensitive to this stimulus. However, the use of "seemed" reveals the speaker's lack of certitude,
his inability to determine the real effect such a stimulus had on him (chapter seven). All these clues
point to the aristocratic and highly romantic Dorian as the latent perceptual and cognitive centre.
However, keeping to virtually the same distance, smells are not always perceived to be
welcome. On the contrary, they can be rejected as foul and loathsome to the perceiver. Thus in The
Santaroga Barrier Dasein is on his own in a public camp ground:
At full dark, Dasein switched on the camper's wall light, retreated into his notes. He felt he had
to keep his mind occupied, but the fetid smell of the camp ground intruded. The camper was a tiny
world with sharp boundaries but couldn't hold off the universe out there. (p116)
If the universe (campground) is "out there", and the camper "couldn't hold (it) off", then this
camper acts as a "here". In other words, the perceiver has to be inside the camper. The only person
reported to be in that location is Dasein. The categorisation of the smell as "fetid" and the taking its
advent to be an "intrusion" suggest that the perceiver is unhappy about his exposure to this olfactory
stimulus. The arrival of this smell is held to be anything but welcome to a person who does not
want to have what he perceives to be undesirable distractions. This negative response is also
indicated by the conjunction "but" which reveals in this context the speaker's frustration at the
occurrence of the intrusion (chapter seven). Thus the present of perception is Dasein's but the past
tense is due to the change of axis of reference from Dasein's underlying present to the story's past
with respect to the narrator's present of narrating.
X.4.2 Salience vs lack of importance:
The degree of the perceiver's interest in the proffered stimulus is an important factor in its
perception. Thus, a high degree of salience could be recorded in the next passage from The
Santaroga Barrier where Dasein is in the process of stealing into the Coop and finds himself in a
narrowly bordered space:
The Jaspers odor filled the confined space. It was tangy essence of mushrooms here. He
received the distinct impression it cleared his head. (p73)
The deictic device here leaves no doubt that the latent I-sayer perceiving olfactorily is Dasein.
Other less straightforward clues are also available. The definite article in "the confined space"
suggests that there is some cataphoric information "where I am" which is assumed but not
mentioned because it is taken for granted. Similarly, the definite article in "the Jaspers odor"
bespeaks both immediate recognition by a perceiver present on the spot. The categorisation of the
smell as "tangy essence of mushrooms" reveals somebody's present evaluation of the strength of
smell, that is its effect on him. Placing this passage within the adjacent co-text, the reference to
Jaspers and mushrooms is not arbitrary. The perceiver finds it particularly significant that there
should be these particular odours in that place. The statement that it "cleared his head" must have
originated in Dasein's actual experience "it has cleared/is clearing my head". The narrator's
intervention lies at the levels of time (decadence from Dasein's present of exposure to the odour to
the story's past when viewed from the narrator's present of narrating, and of person because of the
third-person conversion).

X.5 Degrees of ability to perceive smell:

The degree of the speaker's ability to perceive smells is another important factor. Perceivers
range from total failure to perceive to an acute sensitivity to odours. The point is that this feature
leaves traces in the reported act of perception and can be revealing as to who the perceptual centre
is.
X.5.1 Failure to perceive smell:
Failure to perceive odours that are supposed to be present in a closed space such as that of a
room can immediately reveal the identity of the perceiver, as in the next passage from Gogol's The
Nose:
The room into which all these people were crammed was small and extremely stuffy. But
Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov could not smell anything as he had covered his face with a
handkerchief - and he could not have smelt anything anyway, as his nose had disappeared God
knows where. (p54)
At a first look, this passage seems to be a straightforward narratorial telling. It would seem that
the narrator, present at his moment of narrating acts as an axis of reference accounting for the
quantifier all and anything (chapter six), the demonstrative these (chapter five), the evaluative
adjectives "crammed", "small" and "stuffy", the conjunction "but", the modal verb "could", the
negation "could not", the significant use of a hyphen to pave the way for a comment, the modality
markers, negations and quantifiers of this comment, and the informal "God knows where"(chapter
seven), the third person reference to the character as "Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov" (chapter
two)... . Since Kovalyov is reportedly unable to smell anything, then it stands to reason that he
cannot be the perceiver of "extremely stuffy".
However, the same indices could be used to argue that the latent I-sayer is Kovalyov
himself. The decision as to what makes a room "stuffy" does not depend only on olfactory
perception. One viewer, looking at a screened film, could easily infer the stuffiness of the place
from its look and the presence of so many people in such a small space (that is relying on an act of
visual perception). In the case of Kovalyov, he could easily have relied on three acts of perception,
two in presentia and one in absentia. Being physically present in this crammed room, both visual
and tactile acts of perception would be enough to convince him of its stuffiness. On top of that, he
has a previous experience of the stuffy smell under such conditions since he once had a normal nose
before losing it. Therefore, the demonstrative these which indicates proximity to the deictic centre
could well emanate from Kovalyov since he is thrown into the fray of this crowded room.
Similarly, the speaker's inability to tell where the nose disappeared "God knows where", together
with the despair associated with this expression, suggest that the latent I-sayer here is also
Kovalyov.
It ensues from this discussion that there are two voices, one belonging to Kovalyov at this
present of frustrated inability to smell, and the other to the narrator at this present of narrating and
poking fun at the expense of this character. The effect is bitterly satirical.
X.5.2 Relative estrangement: character limitation:
The further the perceiver gets from the source of the smell the more difficult the act of
perception becomes, or else, if fulfilled with incredible accuracy, the more extraordinarily unique
the perceiver is. It must be said that it is very unusual to have a perceiver as sharp-nosed as
Grenouille in Perfume. In the following passage Grenouille is attracted to the scent of his second
victim, a young beautiful girl playing in a garden:
1 He closed his eyes and concentrated on the odours that #2 came floating to him from the
building across the way. #3 There were the odours of the kegs, vinegar and wine, then #4 the
hundredfold heavy odours of the warehouse, then the #5 odours of wealth that the wall exuded like
a fine golden #6 sweat, and finally the odours of a garden that had to lie on #7 the far side of the
building. It was not easy to catch the deli-#8 cate scents of the garden, for they came only in thin
ribbons #9 from over the house's gables and down into the street. #10 Grenouille discerned
magnolia, hyacinth, daphne and #11 rhododenron... but there seemed to be something else be-#12
sides, something in the garden that gave off a fatally #13 wonderful scent, a scent so exquisite that
in all his life his#14 nose had never before encountered one like it - or, indeed, #15 only once
before... He had to get closer to that scent.#16 He had not gone far before he smelled the garden,
faintly at#17 first, blended with the air from the fields, but then ever more#18 strongly. Finally he
knew that he was very close. The #19 garden bordered on the town wall. It was directly beside #20
him. If he moved back a bit, he could see the top branches#21 of the orange trees just over the
wall.#22 Again he closed his eyes. The scents of the garden#23 descended upon him, their contours
as precise and clear as#24 the coloured bands of a rainbow. And that one, that#25 precious one,
that one that mattered above all else, was#26 among them. Grenouille turned hot with rapture and
cold with#27 fear. (pp175-176)
Deictically, many clues indicate somebody's presence. The verb "to come" in "came floating to
him" (L2) and "they came" (L8) could indicate that the direction of the movement is perceived as
drawing near to the deictic centre. This latent here is indicated by "the street" in "from over the
house's gables and down into the street" (L9) and by the reference to the girl as "giving off a
...scent" (L12). The perceiver is in the street and takes the garden to be his latent there. With
respect to the perceiver as a deictic centre, the following locations are there, "from the building
across the way (reread from where I am)" (L2), "on the far side of the building" (L7), "something in
the garden" (L12), "it was directly beside him" (L19-20), "just over the wall" (L21). There is also
an outward move toward the target in the garden there in "he had to get closer to that scent" (L15),
and "he knew that he was very close" (L18) (chapter three). The latent I-sayer physically present in
the street is the character Grenouille. This is corroborated by two temporal presence indicators in
"his nose had never before encountered one like it" (reread before this moment now) (L14), and in
"only once before (now)" (L15) (chapter four). The person referred to in the garden and the person
remembered are defined with respect to some latent I. Therefore, on the three levels of person,
space, and time, there is a perceiver acting as an experiencing self deictically present here and now.
The degree of accessibility of odours, that is, the perceiver's ability or otherwise to perceive
and distinguish between odours, is an important indicator too. There has to be a perceiver at his
present of perception behind "it was not easy to catch the delicate scents.." ,(L7-8), "there seemed
(to me) to be..." L11), "something else besides (that I do not as yet know precisely)" (L12), "faintly
at first, blended with the air from the fields, but then ever more strongly" (L16-18). To these are
added the epistemic modality in "had to lie on the far side" (L6) "he had to" (L15) "or indeed"
(L14), the conditional in "if he moved back a bit, he could see the top branches of the orange trees
just over the wall" (L20-21), and the linker "but" (L11) (chapter seven) and the quantifier only (L8)
[presupposing I expect more], . Other subjectivity indices include the perception of succession in
"then" (L3,4), "finally" (L6,18), "hundredfold" (L4), the measuring of the intensity and effect on
oneself of the smell, the comparisons, the reasoning in "for" (L8) and all the categorisations and
labelling acts.
However, the evaluation of the smell and Grenouille's attraction to and enslavement by such
a stimulus are not simply cast in Grenouille's present of perception. The stylistic incongruity
between his perception and the language used in this passage is significant. Just one instance will
illustrate the point. The highly poetical metaphor "their contours as precise and clear as the
coloured bands of a rainbow" (L23-24) can never credibly emanate from a nature meant to be as
foul as Grenouille's. The effect is a text which contradicts itself, the foulest sensations cast in the
most poetical expressions. Irony is the inevitable result.
X.5.3 Extraordinary degree of accuracy:
Yet a more striking example of accuracy within virtually the same range of perception is
provided in another passage from Perfume where Grenouille is able to reconstruct a mental picture
of his victim from behind a wall relying solely on olfactory perception:
1 Collecting himself and gaining control of his senses,#2 he began to inhale the fatal scent in
short, less dangerous#3 breaths. And he established that, while the scent from be-#4 hind the wall
bore an extreme resemblance to the scent of#5 the red-headed girl, it was not completely the same.
To be#6 sure, it also came from a red-headed girl, there was no#7 doubt of that. In his olfactory
imagination, Grenouille saw#8 this girl as if in a picture; she was not sitting still, she was#9
jumping about, warming up and then cooling off, appar-#10 ently playing some game in which she
had to move quickly#11 and then just as quickly stand still - with a second person,#12 by the way.
Someone with a quite insignificant odour. She#13 had dazzlingly white skin. She had green eyes.
She had#14 freckles on her face, neck and breasts ... that is - and#15 Grenouille's breath stopped for
a moment, then he sniffed#16 more vigorously and tried to suppress the memory of the#17 scent of
the girl from the rue des Marais - that is, this girl#18 did not even have breast in the true sense of
the word! She#19 barely had the rudimentary beginnings of breasts. Infinitely#20 tender and with
hardly any fragrance, sprinkled with#21 freckles, just beginning to expand, perhaps only in the
last#22 few days, perhaps in the last few hours, perhaps only just at#23 this moment - such were the
little cupped breasts of this#24 girl. In a word; the girl was still a child. But what a child! (pp176-
177)
There is a wealth of clues in this passage at all the levels of deixis (person, space, and time),
modality markers, verba sentiendi, and other indicators of subjectivity. First, deictically, both the
source of the olfactory stimulus and the deictic centre have to be determined. The source is "the
fatal scent" (L2), "the scent from behind the wall" (L3-4), and "it" (L5). For a perceiver situated on
the other side of the wall, "it came (reread toward me) from a red-headed girl" (L6). On the level of
person, the presence of this girl and of "a second person" (L11) is defined with respect to the person
of the perceiver deictically acting as an axis of reference. Spatially, despite the existence of a
barrier so that the other side of the wall should be a "there" and reference to the girl should be using
that, the perceiver significantly uses this three times in "this girl" (L8,17,24). The significance of
this emphasis on the nearing device this highlights the extreme importance to the speaker of the
object of his perception (Fraser and Joly 1979-1980). On the temporal level, the perceiver's now is
directly established (L22-23) "only just at this moment". Thus, there is a perceptual centre present
in person and spatio-temporally on the side of the wall which is not the girl's.
Second, there is a heavy use of subjectivity markers which, by their very definition, reveal
the presence of some experiencing subjectivity engaged in enunciating some attitude with respect to
the utterance. Therefore, the following are presence-indicators: the temporal dimension of "just
beginning to expand" (L21), "the girl was still a child!" (L24) (chapter four), the quantifiers in "this
girl did not even have breasts in the true sense of the word" (L17-18), "she barely had the
rudimentary beginnings of breasts" (L19), "with hardly any fragrance" (L20) (chapter six), the
modality in "to be sure" (L6), "there was (reread is) no doubt of that", "apparently playing some
game (some suggesting that I the speaker do not know or understand this game) (L10), "someone
(reread whom I do not know nor even wish to know)" with quite insignificant odour (reread as far
as I am concerned)" (L12), "perhaps" occurring three times (L21-23), the verba sentiendi in "by the
way" (L12), "in a word" (L24), the evaluative adjectives and adverbs in "she had dazzlingly white
skin (reread I am and by extension everybody else should be dazzled by it)" (L13), "infinitely
tender" (L19-20), in addition to the two exclamation marks (L18,24), revealing a high degree of
emotional investment on the part of the speaker (chapter seven).
Third, the establishment of comparisons stems from the presence of somebody engaged in
this very process. Only in Grenouille's memory does this "scent of the red-headed girl" exist (notice
the definite article which suggests the speaker's definite remembrance of her and especially her
scent). The same could be said about the series of negations "it was not completely the same" (L5),
"she was not sitting still" (L8) (chapter seven). All these traces indicate that the underlying present
of subjectivity belongs to Grenouille. However, there are some other clues which indicate the
presence of a different centre and thus a different voice. For instance, from whose point of view is
the scent perceived to be "fatal" (L2) and to be taken in "less dangerous breaths" (L2-3)? Who is the
patient receiving this act of violence?
One way of looking at it would have us believe that Grenouille is the patient being so
dramatically affected by his lust for the scent of the girl. In that case, the fatality would be a
dramatisation of the hold that the scent had on him. On the other hand, the real victim who gets
brutalized and murdered is the girl. It is to her that Grenouille's attraction is fatal. In that case, the
attribution of fatality to the act of olfactory perception is a comment, a value judgment a moral
pronouncement made by the narrator posing for an external observer who evaluates the scene.
Wherever Grenouille is shown to be the perceptual centre, a second voice is introduced to give the
lie to his voice by means of stylistic incongruity. Indeed, Grenouille's vulgar sensations are
significantly couched in an exalted and elevated language transcending, by and large, such feelings.
Consequently, there are two voices heard at one and the same time, namely Grenouille's present of
perception and the narrator's present of subtle and implicit denunciation.

X.6 Sensitivity to smell as an indicator of personality:

The perceiver's sensitivity to smell does reveal interesting information about his class status,
his occupation, in a word on some aspects of his personality.
X.6.1 Indicating class status:
It is commonly known that particular fragrances are priced so highly as to put them out of
reach of ordinary folk. Only people who can afford them tend to use them. Probably, ordinary
people would not even have heard of them, let alone being able to identify them. Consider the
following passage from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray:
"I dare say, my dear", said Lord Harry, shutting the door behind him, as, looking like a bird of
paradise that had been out all night in the rain, she flitted out of the room leaving a faint odour of
frangipanni. (p71)
One piece of information on Lord Harry is necessary if one is to ascertain whose voice informs
this passage. Lord Harry is portrayed throughout this novel as a cynical bohemian with highly
refined aesthetic sensitivities. The auditory act of perception is likely to be Dorian's since he is the
addressee of this direct speech and the reference to the speaker is informal (Harry instead of Henry).
But the visual and especially the olfactory acts of perception are more problematic since there are
three contenders, namely, the narrator, Lord Harry, and Dorian. As the woman who has left the
room is Lord Harry's wife and since the rest of the novel reveals the unfriendly nature of the
relationship between husband and wife, and in view of the marked cynicism of the remark made
here which is not surprising from such a cynic as Lord Harry himself, the latent I-sayer behind the
act of visual perception is Lord Harry.
 The olfactory act of perception is more interesting because it is less easy to decide who is
the latent I-sayer. The following clues are perhaps helpful in this respect. "To leave" is to allow
something to remain after going away. The default location for "to remain" [in the absence of an
indication to the contrary] is here and whoever goes tends to go from here. Thus the semantics of
the verb "to leave" indicates that there is a deictically anchored perceptual centre present inside the
room. The progressive aspect suggests that the perceiver's exposure to the smell has taken some
time and is thus experiential (chapter four). The adjective "faint" reveals the degree of the
perceiver's ability to smell it (I can hardly perceive it). The identification of this odour as that of
"frangipanni" suggests immediate recognition of the product, the perceiver's knowledge of
presumably expensive perfumes (there is a continental touch in the name) with all the implications
for social class and degree of refinement on the part of the perceiver (chapter seven). Both Lord
Harry and Dorian qualify as aristocratic and highly refined perceivers. However, Dorian as a lad
has less experience and certainly no knowledge of this woman's cosmetic habits. Her husband
seems a more likely person to be the latent I-sayer.
X.6.2 Indicating refined aesthetic appreciation:
Closely linked to class status is the degree of aesthetic refinement. Thus, the opening
paragraph of The Picture of Dorian Gray provides an interesting example of fragrances coming
from the garden to a perceiver situated indoors:
The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred
amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the
more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. (p23)
There is a garden and a studio and a fragrance travelling from this garden toward the studio. If
this fragrance "came through the open door", then there is a centripetal inward movement ending in
the deictic centre located inside the studio. Thus, the studio becomes a here with respect to which
the garden is a there. The configuration of studio and garden, together with the refined appreciation
of the particular kinds of roses suggest that the perceiver inside the studio is of some high social
standing (for him to afford to live in such a place at the turn of this century in the last years of
Victorian England) and of some refined sensitivities (since not all the rich are necessarily sensitive
to the perceived beauty of the roses). The second paragraph in the novel tells of Lord Henry
Watton's presence in the studio. Therefore, he is the most likely I-sayer behind this act of olfactory
perception. The only narratorial intervention is at the temporal level.

X.7 Gustatory perception:

Gustatory perception is closely linked to olfactory perception. The same arguments
proffered for the latter hold true for the former. In order to avoid repetition, one passage will be
sufficient to illustrate the point:
She sipped the hot coffee, whose fragrance flew around them like bees murmuring around
flowers, in the snowy air, she drank tiny sips of the Heidelbeerwasser, she ate the cold, sweet,
creamy wafers. How good everything was! How perfect everything tasted and smelled and
sounded, here in this utter stillness of snow and falling twilight. (WIL:528)
The categorisation of the coffee as "hot" and of the wafers as "cold" (see chapter eleven) and as
"sweet" and "creamy" could emanate either from Gudrun tasting them or from the narrator reporting
her appreciation. However, the source of definiteness in the definite articles is more likely to be the
speaker's first-hand appreciation through taste than a disinterested third-person report. Besides, the
exclamation mark (chapter seven) and the deictic spatial coordinate here (chapter seven) indicate
Gudrun's present of consciousness. Thus at the three levels of deixis, perception and cognition, the
latent I is Gudrun. However, the narrator's voice could be heard at the levels of person [third-
person she], time [past tense] and the reportive verbs "she sipped", "she drank", "she ate".
Summary:
The olfactory and gustatory senses, like the cutaneous senses (chapter eleven), tend to be
taken for granted as narratorial statements. This chapter has attempted to show that this should not
be the case. Valuable pieces of information could be gathered from such acts on the perceiver.
Such information is retrieved from indices pertaining to sensitivity to smells or tastes, reaction to
them [positive or negative], the degree of their importance, categorizing them, the emotional
associations they bring to the speaker's mind, and all the necessary spatial determinations of
proximity versus distance between the perceiver and the source of the stimulus.