Fall for the Book 3-2-1 Response: Laura Ellen Scott

For my Fall for the Book 3-2-1 Response, I chose to attend Laura Ellen Scott’s reading from her debut novel, Death Wishing. This reading took place at the Sandy Spring Bank Tent in the Johnson Center Plaza on Monday, Sept. 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm. Professor Scott described her novel as a “comic fantasy”, and Death Wishing certainly lived up to that promise. It was, in a word, HILARIOUS!

As we have been learning throughout this semester, characterization, voice and setting are crucial to crafting a believable work of fiction. And Professor Scott certainly emphasized all three beautifully in her writing. Her characters, for example, all read as real people. Pebbles is a disappointed stripper who desires above all to sing the blues. She is, unfortunately, not gifted with a particularly good voice. The hero himself is a washed up loser working in his son’s clothing store, desperately trying to get Pebbles to see him as a viable romantic partner—she’s more interested in his son. All of these characters have desires, something to move toward. And in a world where a dying wish might come true, character as desire takes on a whole new meaning. Similarly, the voice and setting also ring true, in spite of the obvious fantasy elements to the tale. Scott admitting to purposefully walking the streets of New Orleans herself in order to ensure that it would be possible for a character to get from one part of the city to the other on foot in a reasonable amount of time. And as for voice, well, I imagine plenty of readers could appreciate the ironic (and yet appropriately believable) element to her hero’s distraught wail, “I’m an atheist for Christ’s sake!” (Scott).

Despite all of the strong elements in Professor Scott’s writing, there were a few things that could have stood further clarification. For instance, how did she dream up the characters? Did they appear fully formed in her imagination, just waiting to be introduced to the world? Or did she have to do some digging to find them? Also, how did she go about laying down the ground rules for her magical elements? At one point in the reading, she mentioned that wishing for immortality would not work in her world. How did she figure out what was feasible and what was not? Did she ever get stuck creating the internal logic on which the plot hinges?

And, though it might seem obvious, I supposed the best way to end this response paper is to reiterate the question all of Professor Scott’s characters find themselves asking one another as the power of death wishing becomes clear: what would you wish for with your last breathes? What would be your legacy to a world that you are no longer a part of? Happy wishing.