Men - what do you REALLY think about perfume?

Good Soldier Zveik? I never read it but meant to...

Some perfume smells good, but I prefer no perfume. And I don't wear cologne. The problem is that all perfumes taste like ****. When you're licking somebody's neck and you get that horrible fake perfume taste in your mouth, it's kind of a turn-off.

As for the nice-smelling hair though, I am all for that.

I went out with a girl once in college who used this certain shampoo that just drove me wild. She'd come up for the weekend every once in a while and everytime she'd leave, I'd still have that smell on my pillow. Oh man, I loved that smell! In fact, looking back on it now, it's prety much the only good thing I can remember about that girl! Well, that, and her incredible pouty lips wrapping around my...oops! Made a little mess in my shorts again!

Yeah I really thought it was Kundera but its not in The Joke where I expected it ... and now I'm thinking it might have been Swejk after all ... but that would mean I totally misplaced the story in time ... ah, how frustratingly deceptive memory is.

nimh, that book was translated as "The Republic of the Whores" in English. Don't know why, because in the original it was called the Tank Unit (Tankový prapor). By J. Škvorecký of course.
The Good Soldier Shveik is set in the first world war, by J. Hašek. Both splendid pieces of literature.
Very Czech.

But on the subject of perfumes. I like them, I use them, I have many and change according to my mood. I use them on my wrists, temples, and ankles. So that they move with me but are not stuck on me, sort of. I'm a Mariela Burani fan- especially their Per Amuleti perfume - naturally distilled perfume from jasmine, sandalwood and some other light tones. But I also have a heavier Eau Roseé that I use only when I go for a function in an evening gown.

Nimh, you're thinking of Kefalín, the hero in the Tank Unit.

And Major Terazky. (that may have been translated somehow, too.) Wait, I have the book in English somewhere here...

Shucks, I must have left it at the Monster's...

Yeah, exactly, and I remembered it as an anecdote from the 50s/60s, thats why at first I didnt think it could be Swejk. I'd already started doubting my memory, as you can see.

So Skvorecky it was? That makes sense ... But it cant be that book, tho - I never read a book with that title. Of Skvorecky I only have The Cowards and The Swell Season. Or is it a collection of short stories and could I have read the story this anecdote's in somewhere else?

I'm already impressed that you knew who wrote it - I really admire people who just ... I dont have that, this filed archive in my head. I always know something, but not by heart where I got it from; or I remember something, but then the date or location is fuzzy, or ... some such thing. Faulty.

I suppose I should stop procrastinating ...

Could it be that the Tank Unit was also translated as The Cowards in some previous edition? The Republic of Whores makes no sense to me anyway. Was the book you read about 'politically unfit' soldiers, who are therefore kept in a special camp during their obligatory military service? A book that involves hillarious tank attack exercises, outings with girls in local little town, a short stupid major with an inferiority complex, and such?

<googling for major terazky>

Here's another memory that came with this one - from the same story, same character? I'm thinking so, because it also features a handsome soldier or convict ... There are four or five of them, in fact, they're with a village girl / prostitute who has sex with them, each of them taking turns and then back from the start. She's sitting on - a tractor seat or something? And she's particularly eager every time it's his turn, though he feels somehow disconnected from it all. He's different from the others (more intelligent/educated?).

Thats about the extent of what I remember from that scene. Must have read it ten years ago or so. Would be interesting to read back the original story and see how much it was transformed by memory.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, by the way.

OK I've leaved thru 5 books now, I cant find either of those scenes. And I should eat and something, too ... and its nine effing thirty. Grumph. And I havent even started packing her stuff <sighs>


The Cowards is the English translation of Zbabelci ...


That does totally sound like the ticket!

Now where could I have read that, then, if the title doesnt ring any bell?

Jozef Škvorecký
His first novel The Cowards was published at the end of the 50s, when the communist regime considered social realism as the only acceptable art form. Official criticism against Škvorecký unleashed an inflammatory campaign, due to the fact that the novel portrays a small Czech town at the end of the second world war from the viewpoint of a twenty-year-old jazz musician, Danny Smiricky - for whom nothing is held sacred. Danny is a central character in additional volumes as well. He appears in the humorous satire of the Stalinist army Tankovy prapor (Armour Battalion) and in the first novel which Škvorecký published abroad, called The Miracle Game, which depicts Czech society in the 50s and 60s. After the invasion of Soviet tanks in August of 1968, Škvorecký emigrated to Canada and there he established the publishing house 68 Publishers, which, during the 20 years of communist totalitarianism (until 1989), published about 250 book titles and held a huge role in the spread of uncensored Czech and Slovak literature. While there, Škvorecký also published the novel The Engineer of Human Souls, the last in a series of prose about the adventures of Danny Smirický.

I have a terrible problem with perfumes - they make my allergies go crazy. I have asthma, but perfumes seem to hit my sinuses and eyes mostly.

I get in elevators and have to hold my breath sometimes. Do women put on perfume in the car on their way in to work? I can't believe an empty elevator can smell so strong!

There's one coworker who leaves a "vapor trail" (nice description, whoever said that earlier in this thread) down the hall every morning. My allergies let me know if she's passed by, even if I didn't see her.

So ladies who wear perfume - please wear less! Even if you can't smell it anymore, the rest of us can. (I loved the "foot away" amount. If only more people agreed!)