Artaud added a new kind of character to his roster in this drama; namely, an impersonal - function type, The Great Sniffer (La Grand Flaireur).
This being walks on stage, larger than life, since he stands on stilts, and symbolizes man being led by his nose, as his name indicates. . . .
His follwers are made up of men with enormous arms and fists, unbalanced themselves, who follow him blindly.
When the Great Sniffer utters his innocuous sentences, he draws them out, ending each phrase in an echo-like fashion and with "unbearable yelpings . . . "
After each tirade, banners, masts, torches and the sounds of plane motors fill the air, a concrete expression of the effect of the Great Sniffer's speech on the masses.
from Bettina L. Knapp's Antonin Artaud: Man of Vision
(apparently on a version of "There Is No More Firmament [Il n'y a plus de firmament]") (1931-32)
"I'm sorry, but not especially, if it turns you off. . . "
