The Seventieth Birthday of the Invisible Writer

It is said that literature is an adventure between the book and its reader, requiring no personal intervention from the author, as if he is a true follower of Roland Barthes' theory in "The Death of the Author." Accordingly, despite his global fame, he remains an invisible presence, and little is known about his life. In the 35 years since the publication of his book "Perfume," only three interviews with him have been published, one of which predates the book's release. He has spoken to a limited number of journalists and has not shown kindness to everyone. Regarding his biography, we know that he was born into a middle-class family, with a father who was a journalist and writer and a mother who was a physical education teacher. In a postscript he wrote for the biography of his writer friend Helmut Dietl, he mentions a couple of sentences about himself: "I was born in a village, raised on a farm, and grew up in the forest, under trees and by the river. Back then, there were no cartridge lighters or mink coats or golden Benzes." More insights were shared by Martin, his journalist brother who passed away ten years ago: "His companions were books and music. A pleasant arrangement in our family was to gather around the dinner table not to discuss topics of interest to children and youth, but to debate politics, music, literature, humanity, justice, and the glue that holds social relations together." This discussion at the dinner table is part of the scenes and sections of the story "The Story of Mr. Summer" (translated into Persian by Ahmad Kasai-Pour, Hermes Publishing), a first-person narrative that takes place by the shores of Lake Starnberg near the author's birthplace and takes on a somewhat biographical aspect. It tells the tale of a young man from a middle-class family who often climbed trees to be alone and find peace. The young man's father is against television, and the worst people in his eyes are those who constantly speak meaningless words. Shortly after graduating from high school, his father passed away. He turned to temporary jobs, went abroad for educational travel, and met Helmut Dietl, with whom he co-wrote two screenplays that became the basis for two series. He himself does not remember which part of the screenplay was written by whom. His play titled "Contrabass" (translated into Persian by Hossein Mansouri, published by Hikmat Kalameh), which premiered in 1984, received considerable acclaim. The main character of the play is a musician who, like other works by the author, loves his solitude and shuns others. He loves his musical instrument (the contrabass) and prefers it over humans, as he fears that the contrabass will not abandon him like humans do. The performance of this play caught the eye of a publisher who a year later published his famous novel "Perfume." "Perfume" remained at the top of the German bestseller list for nine weeks and was among the top ten bestselling books for nine years. The central character of the novel is a criminal raised outside of family structures and with various guardians, possessing a profound talent for detecting scents. He often goes to the fields and deserts in the wind and rain, as he cannot tolerate enclosed spaces, reflecting some similarities with the author. The plot of the film "Perfume" is based on a novel of the same name by Patrick Süskind. The character-driven story of "Perfume" takes place in the first half of the 18th century in Paris, centering around the anti-hero Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who is the fifth child of his mother and survives in a polluted, waste-filled, and filthy environment despite her desire for him not to live. The story of the mother's attempt to kill the newborn is revealed, and she confesses to killing her four other children, ultimately being executed. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille cannot stand on his feet until he is three years old, and his tongue only begins to speak at four. However, he possesses an astonishingly strong sense of smell, allowing him to distinguish dozens of mixed scents from one another. He can trace the source of a scent that is out of sight and can even decipher the complex and mysterious formulas of 18th-century French perfumers in the blink of an eye by smelling a drop of that perfume. When he, due to this ability to detect scents, finds himself in one of the perfume workshops in Paris, he quickly climbs to the peaks of the perfume industry. However, he himself lacks a scent, perhaps a sign of a lack of feeling and emotion. He is a vile being, and anyone who comes into contact with him suffers calamity and disaster... Yet, the author, through his narrative style, sometimes evokes a strange sense of sympathy in the reader towards him. Grenouille, fearing the lack of recognition of himself, discovers his "lack of scent" during his years of isolation. He becomes infatuated with the scent of a girl selling plums and ultimately kills her. Later, he embarks on complex adventures, perhaps influenced by a totalitarian understanding, to create a perfume that everyone will fall in love with, a special perfume of the scent of women's skin and soul that claims 26 victims and... The novel is a blend of crime, educational, historical, and aesthetic storytelling across the spectrum of language. The author examines the entire history and process of perfume during the Enlightenment and the modern era to write the novel, personally visiting all the places where the anti-hero has his adventures. He is aware that his novel will become his masterpiece. Later, he remarked that writing such a novel is terrifying, and he does not think he could ever accomplish such a task again. The publisher had doubts about the book selling, so they started with a print run of 10,000 copies, but two months later, 150,000 copies were released to the market, and they still publish new editions of the novel annually. "Perfume" (translated into Persian by Roya Monajem, Science Publishing) is full of imagery, words, and metaphors without creating boredom or ambiguity for the reader. The art of the narrator is to draw the reader into the story while allowing them to maintain a distance from the characters and events of the novel, moving back and forth between the inner and outer realms of the story. The reader accompanies Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, follows him step by step, marvels at his actions and decisions, but does not experience continuous identification and sympathy, keeping his vileness in view. In 2006, a film was made based on "Perfume" directed by Tom Tykwer. Over the years, various directors, from Martin Scorsese to Miloš Forman, sought to acquire the rights to the book to make a film, but the author was not satisfied. The story of the back-and-forth of this opposition and eventual consent is somewhat reflected in the film "Rossini," made by his friend Helmut Dietl. Still, there is little information available about Patrick Süskind, the creator of one of the most famous literary works in Germany after the war, which has been translated into 51 languages and sold 20 million copies, with only about 70 paragraphs of information available, limited photos of him, and no one knows for sure where he lives. However, one thing that can be said with certainty about him is that he turned seventy years old on March 26 of this year (April 6, 1398).