The Sword and Laser discussion

At the back of the book Erin Morgenstern acknowledges the influence of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (a perfume company), which totally clicked and fit for me.

Throughout the book I was struck by all the descriptions of smells, most obviously in Widget's little story telling scent tent.

The scene where Bailey opens the jars in the "Bedtime Stories" tent and is immersed in smells that transport him into different moments seems to me to be a lovely homage to the company. Although I only have a passing familiarity with BPAL, they seem to be undertaking the same project of translating stories into scents and vice versa.

Anyone else struck by this connection and all the scent descriptions?

In both the bailey and the second person sections this has struck me. It really is the big thing that pushes the text from "magical" to "completely magically immersive." I fell in love walking through the gate, seeing the magnificent clock, and smelling popcorn and cinnamon.

I thoroughly enjoy the scent/smell additions to the story. It is a circus/carnival and that type of memory in real life is heavily influenced by smell memory.

Agreed about the smell memory - it's one of the biggest ways we create memories of events, and Morgenstern uses it throughout the book as a way to elicit the strong feelings people must have felt after experiencing the circus.

Ah, the smell of a circus/carnival.

Carnie BO, Elephant poo & vomit :-?


;-)

I'm a long standing purchaser at BPAL, and I'll vouch for their products. They really do work very, very hard to produce what they advertise when they pick a piece for inspiration. Their Lady of Shalott perfume, for instance, smells very much like sad, wet lilies, and "Burial" smells like sharp, frosty earth. I didn't make the connection, but it's glaringly obvious now that you mention it.

I think they even have a carnival-inspired line.

I've been re-listening to the book and almost as much as scent, I'm struck with the sensuous descriptions of food scattered throughout.

I'm hard pressed to remember a book with such vivid descriptions of smells. Normally the smell if at all mentioned aren't usually good in most of the stuff I read.

It definitely helped to get my rather unimaginative imagination firing a little better as I read.